Featuring Art that subverts, Call for Artists, Prabhakar Kolte Untitled and more..

NEWS

Call for Artists -  International Contest -III

It’s LIQUID Group, in collaboration with International ArtExpo, presents “It’s LIQUID International Contest 3rd edition”. The contest is born with the goal of promoting contemporary art, architecture and design through all the divulging tools that the communication platform It’s LIQUID has used for years. 

The contest is open to artists, architects and designers from all over the world without any limit of age and nationality. Solo artists, architects and designers can participate to the contest as well as groups.

The contest will have ten main categories:
Painting, sculpture and installation, photography, video-art, computer graphics, architecture
performing art, product design, fashion design, illustration.

The awards are:

- 1 exhibition in Venice held in exclusive locations located a few meters from the Ponte di Rialto on the Canal Grande (public vote’s award)
– 1 month of art residence plus photography workshop at Altlab Photography residency in Goa (India)
– 1 month of art residence in Yerevan (Armenia) included in “ART COMMUNE” Artist-in-Residence program by Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory (ACSL)
– 10 artists will be included in 1 page for each of The ArtBook Vol. I, which will represent the most updated published guide to the international contemporary art scene
– 1 year of participation in International ArtExpo’s events in the most important capitals of the world 
- 10 artists will win 1 interview for each published on the It’s LIQUID Platform 

Interested artists and participants may email to info@itsliquid.com, for further information about applications and submissions 

The submission deadline is September 15th, 2013 and the public vote deadline is September 30th, 2013

Deconstructing Abstractionism 

(A work by Prabhakar Kolte)

Gallery 7, Mumbai presents a solo show of eminent artist, art teacher and abstractionist, Prabhakar Kolte. The show titled, ‘Deconstruction’ displays the works of the artist where forms that dominate are drawn from the reservoir of images that fill his inner world which find their source in the world of natural and geometric shapes.

Kolte's abstract layering with paint echo cityscapes where the signs and textures reveal his modernist consciousness. Bands of color laid against each other create bold depths and rises on the canvas.

Prabhakar Kolte was born in 1946 and received his diploma from the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1968. Between 1972 and 1994 he taught at the School of Art. He has had several solo shows and participated in important group exhibitions all over the world and in India.

The show is on view till the 30th of September 2013.

Chennai Maadri

( A work on display at the show)

Gallery G of Bangalore presents a unique group show featuring an eclectic mix of art works and art expressions. The show titled, ‘Chennai Maadri’ displays artists works from the cultural metropolis Chennai.

Each piece of art that is on show has its own unique flavor and twist from the south. The artists displaying the art work are V. Vinoth, Govindarajan, G. Raman, M Raja, Village Mukaiah, Govindarajan, Arunagiri and Muniswamy.

The show is on view till the 31st of August 2013.

The Reflectives

Sublime Galleria, Bangalore, presents a show titled, ‘The Reflectives’ which is an artist’s observation on the fixation with oneself and the reflective world one lives in. The show displays the recent installation art by artist, Elena-Renee Pereira.

This collection observes everything reflect in every surrounding surface, inspiring the artist Elena into a meditative response to the physicality of an object. Similar to objects through which one expresses themselves, such as a flower that signifies all-important moments in life: birth, love and death; she desires to capture and preserve life by extracting life through daily used objects and materials.

The show is on view till the 31st of August 2013.

(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

FEATURE

Art that subverts

While Madhubani art has remained the prerogative of certain kinds of narratives centred on the Hindu epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, a young Dalit woman is attempting to break this monopoly by introducing Buddha’s life stories into the visual imagery of the art form.

Tracking significant events of Buddha’s life, from before his birth to Mahaparinirvana (his death), Malvika Raj from Samastipur in Bihar has been etching folklore from Buddha’s epoch in the Madhubani painting genre.

( Buddha in Madhubani by Malvika Raj)

Typically, one finds stories of Radha-Krishna, Sita or other figures from Hindu mythology in Madhubani paintings, apart from depiction of nature. Representation of Dalit symbols including Buddha is rare, if not absent.

While the motifs, technique and style in Malvika’s paintings is traditional Madhubani, the content marks a remarkable shift from the Hindu narratives of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Although art has that inherent quality to embrace innovation and advancement, not everybody is happy with what she is doing. While her paintings were welcomed for display at Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai, locally in Bihar there have been several questions she has had to face. Recalling an incident, she says, “I remember a day in Patna Art College where I was exhibiting my paintings; a guy in saffron robe walked in and without even viewing all my paintings, he started irritating me with his nasty comments as how can I divert Madhubani from its original forms of Hindu gods and goddesses to Buddha and offered several other prejudiced analyses.” These incidents happen, but she brushes them off by saying, “I paint Buddha’s stories in Madhubani because I think first of all Buddha stays in my heart. The starting reason might be my father who himself is a Buddhist. We kids often heard stories about Buddha and his preaching from him. Later on I studied some literature on Buddha too.”

( Buddha in Madhubani by Malvika Raj)

Malvika’s father, Bahujan Samaj Party General Secretary from the area encourages her and whenever there is an exhibition, he sits there all day long while outside, his security men keep guard. She values his support and wonders whether she would have been able to paint and exhibit these paintings without his backing; had she been a regular Dalit woman.

“The other reason for adopting Buddha’s life, his teachings and his perspective in my paintings is that one can hardly find his stories or his complete story in Madhubani paintings.”

While completing the series on Buddha remains her priority, she is also simultaneously training young Dalit girls of Bihar in this art form. Despite the restrictive market for art of this kind, Malvika thinks it is important to pursue.

( Buddha in Madhubani by Malvika Raj)

“I am a feminist and I strongly support women’s empowerment but Dalit women are considerably lagging behind in this movement and unable to move shoulder to shoulder along with other women in every walk of life as they are facing three-fold inequality and suppression -- first, they are Dalits; next, they are women and lastly, majority are uneducated and poor.”

A graduate from National Institute of Technology (NIFT) Mohali, Malvika’s interest in painting was nurtured by her sister in her childhood. Attributing her talent building to her sister, Malvika says, “though my elder sister was a good artist but somehow she managed to end up with being an engineer but helped me to search my dream.” She even has her own website: buddhapaintings.org

(Report by Divya Trivedi for The Hindu)