FICA seminar on Mexican Art, Lace of Stars, Entranced and more..

NEWS

FICA seminar on Mexican Art

(Work on display)

Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA), New Delhi presents a three session seminar titled, ‘Where an eagle is eating a snake perched on a cactus’, conducted by Armando Miguélez, a visual artist with a strong grounding in academia. In the seminar Miguélez will divide five centuries of Mexican history into three distinct moments. The first being the arrival of European settlers, the establishment of the Viceroy of New Spain, cultural syncretism, and subsequent independence from European rule. This is followed by Mexico's experience of nation building and asserting itself as a cultural entity through a long and painful revolution. 

This seminar is focused on the art object and the process of art as a historic marker. It will help us understand the political and social history of a nation based on its cultural production to anchor key moments in its evolution. This event will mark the start of a month long exhibition of contemporary Mexican art at Vadehra Art Gallery.

The seminar is to be held from 9th December to 11th December 2013, between 6:00 to 8:00 pm, at the Conference Room, Instituto Cervantes, New Delhi.The fees for the seminar are Rs. 500 per session (or) Rs. 1125 for all three sessions. Register by 7th December 2013.

I walk the path with water and air

Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre is hosting a group art exhibition which will have mesmerizing art works of Zsuzsa Gajdan of Hungary and Seema Kohli of India on display. Gajdan’s paintings are inspired by what she has seen, experienced and understood about India. Her abstract paintings have multiple layers and also use of collage technique to enhance the appeal of her paintings. 

Seema Kohli is a talented contemporary artist whose art works is simply impressive. The use of various mediums adds different dimensions to her paintings and makes them distinct and wonderful. The inauguration of this art exhibition will also has a special performance by Zoltan Orosz, a famous accordionist from Hungary.

The show is on view till 14th January 2014.

Lace of Stars

Shrine Empire art gallery, New Delhi presents ‘Lace of Stars’ a solo exhibition by Fariba Salma Alam, incorporating photography, projection mapping, textile and tile installation. A central theme to the works is a fractured female body capable of corporeal ascension, and an interplay between cast shadow, silhouette, foreground and space. Religious and secular allegories—with themes of migration, travel and fantasy— also inhabit Alam’s narrative influences. The name Lace of Stars refers to a constellation and a fantastical backdrop, reminiscent of the Islamic parable The Night Journey or Mir'aj, in which the prophet Mohammed takes a mystical voyage from Mecca to Jerusalem riding a creature half-angel, half-horse. 

Fariba S. Alam is a visual artist who lives and works in New York. She received her B.A. from Columbia University (1998) and is the recipient of a photography Fulbright fellowship (1998/1999.) 

The show is on view from 13th December to 11th January 2014.

Entranced

( work by Sukanta Das)

Alankritha Art Gallery, Hyderabad is hosting an art exhibition of the paintings by Sukanta Das, titled “Entranced”. This exhibition will be showcasing the latest art work of this artist who has the wonderful quality of redo realism on a creative medium like canvas. 

Sukanta Das is well versed with the contemporary trends of the Bengali art scene and these works prove the same. A graduate from Rabindra Bharati University, his solo as well as group shows have been hosted in many cities across the country.

The show is on view from 7th December to 28th December 2013. in which the prophet Mohammed takes a mystical voyage from Mecca to Jerusalem riding a creature half-angel, half-horse. 

Fariba S. Alam is a visual artist who lives and works in New York. She received her B.A. from Columbia University (1998) and is the recipient of a photography Fulbright fellowship (1998/1999.) 

The show is on view from 13th December to 11th January 2014.

( News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

FEATURE

The human in the divine

Jeevan Lal’s exhibition of paintings and sculptures presents deities with iconography from this human world

( Artist Jeevan Lal)

Stepping into Nanappa Art Gallery for Jeevan Lal’s exhibition of paintings and sculptures, ‘Avatar’, is a jaw-dropping experience. It was a burst of sensory perceptions – visual actually, bright colours and so many stories. The exhibition is the artist’s interpretation of gods and their consorts from the Hindu pantheon, Buddha and Christ in their many avatars.

Siva-Parvathy on Nandi, Mahavishnu with Lakshmi (Ananthashayanam), Venugopal, Arjuna-Subhadra, Ganesha, Buddha, Jesus Christ with Joseph and Mary, Shiva and Shakti…then there are some dreams and fantasies. For those of us fed on a diet of slim, long-limbed images of gods and goddesses, these are closer to experience – rounded and intense.

Vivid blues and greens, intense reds and ochres become co-narrators along with the images. Compressing these massive episodes or images in canvases this small was no mean task, he says. “I had to carefully choose elements without missing the crucial aspects.”

The paintings have large heads with prominent, expressive eyes and their bodies taper downwards. But never once do any of these works appear disproportionate. “That is because I have studied anatomy very carefully. Going by the size of the head, I will need a much larger canvas. It cannot be done on a 20” by 20” canvas.”

( Work by Jeevan Lal)

This technique of tapering figures, he says, followed him from sculpting to painting. “I was sculpting and I did not have a table to work on so I hung a rope from a ceiling and used plaster of Paris to give shape to the work. As the work progressed the form tapered as I reached the ‘legs’ to such an extent that the legs became redundant.”

He says that in his mind his paintings are ‘huge’, but practical considerations do not permit such flights of fancy. A product of Cochin School of Arts, Jeevan learnt much through the years he spent in Delhi at Pavilion and Interiors.

While working as part of the team that made the India International Trade Fair pavilions, he got to paint large paintings, and was exposed to art and art forms from different parts of the country.

That exposure, probably subconsciously, shows in these works – Kathakali, the bull from Mohenjodaro, Madhubani paintings, even a flash of Jamini Roy.

Jeevan Lal’s works grace places such as BTH, Le Meridien, Ashir Bhavan, Malayalam Literacy Museum (Thunchan Parambu) and Valanjambalam Temple.

He sees his current preoccupation with the ‘avatars’ as a sign of age and ageing, “I visited many temples too and these trips inspired me”.

The works are of deities but the iconography is very much of this world. The eyes and especially their expression – half-shut and deeply meditative – add divinity to the works. The subject is religious, or rather has to do with various belief systems, without being religious in the narrow sense of the term.

There are two sculptures in mixed media that Jeevan Lal fashioned out of aluminium, stainless steel, fibre glass, cloth and paper.

An interesting nugget of information is that the frames too are made by the artist. “All it took was paper, glue, cloth and paint…I was done in less that Rs.1,800.” This seems to be an extension of his philosophy — small can be big.

The exhibition, on from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., concludes on December 10.

(Report by Shilpa Nair Anand, Images by Thulasi Kakkat for The Hindu)