Auction House Lessons for Contemporary Artists

EDITORIAL

Auction Houses teach us a Few Lessons 

(A work by Manjit Bawa- Image for Representational Purpose only)

After the 19^th March 2013 Amaya Collection Auction by Sotheby’s in New York, once again the auction house major is going to test the values of Indian Modern and Contemporary art with its 16^th June 2013 auction in London. Going by the reports and looking at the cross section of the works of art which would go under hammer, one could make it sure that the Indian contemporary art has to wait for a few more years to earn respectability and profit in auction. Though the names likes Atul Bhalla, Abir Karmakar and Pablo Bartholomew have been popped up in the list, the Rs.9.44 Crore auction is pitching its focus on the moderns that once again include the works of M.F.Husain, Souza, Raza and Gaitonde. Hopes are invested in the works of Jogen Chowdhury and Manjit Bawa also.

What do such auctions and their result indicate? Vintage makes profit not the recent fads. Works of art that have been made, sold and bought during the euphoric days of market boom do not feature anywhere in these auctions. If the reports are to be believed, the successful Indian art auction house, Saffron Art makes two types of auctions; one the regular ones that emulate quality and quantity of the international auction houses and two, the absolute auctions. While the former has a base price for bidding, the latter has no such base prices. Anybody who offers an initial price of the works of art which come under hammer sets the tone of the absolute auctions. A work of art with an original market price of Rs.Two Lakhs could easily go for Rs.40,000/- (Forty Thousand) or less than that if the bidder makes a very mean move. While the moderns command a decent base price, the contemporaries are hawked out through the absolute auctions, once again making the potential buyers of the primary market lose their interest and trust in contemporary art.

It is not a rosy picture for contemporary art so far. The auctions by now have set a clear pattern: the artists who had been active till 1980s are adjudged as modern masters. The current pattern shows that the post-Independence Modernism of India starting with the Bombay Progressives is yet to be monetized. Many people have bought the works of the Progressives and also the artists who were functioning from different parts of India at that time. All these works have to be now brought into the market through auctions. The auction houses will cleverly go by decades. The introduction of Jogen Chowdhury and Manjit Bawa shows that now the auction houses are focusing on 1970s and 1980s. Good thing is that those artists who have been pushed into oblivion might get recognition as Gaitonde or Tyeb Mehta got their due through these auctions and the bad things is the artists of 1990s to now will have to wait another twenty five years to get their prices. The days of making instant money have become a thing of past.

In a way, these auction houses do a good service to the art scene in the future economies like India. The auction results that majorly focus on the Moderns and the following periods step by step will stabilize the primary market for the contemporary art. Though there will not be any blind buying, those futurist buyers and collectors would come back to the primary market to collect contemporary art for fairer and logical prices. None would pay a ridiculous Rs.24 Lakhs for a five by five canvas while its actual price could be and should be somewhere around Rs.5 lakhs, if one thinks in terms of investment and profit using the logic of banking. The new reality would put the contemporary artists in a tight spot. They need to work hard and should be satisfied with realistic prices. It is applicable to the gallerists and middlemen too.

I am happy that these auction houses fill in us with a sense of reality. Each auction result should hammer sense right into the heads of all those players in the art market, including the artists and gallerists. Last winter and the ongoing summer have been quite terrible for art players as the funds have been considerably dried up with the absolute absence of buyers from the market. The auction results, I hope, will bring right thinking buyers to the primary market who would offer (and would be offered) logical prices to the works that they would like to collect. I am sure that those collectors with a plan for the coming twenty five years only would make some profit out of their collection of contemporary art. This is a challenge for all. My words on art have never gone wrong.

JohnyML

NEWS

The Cusp of Culture Change

Kynkyny Art Gallery, Bangalore presents a solo show of recent works by artist Elayaraja. The show titled, ‘On the Cusp’ is a series of oil on canvas paintings, rendered in a realistic style and captures the essence of rural life which is fast fading.

Elayaraja, a Tamil Nadu based artist with a Masters degree in painting from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, works in various mediums, oil on canvas being his stronghold.

Taking inspirations from great masters like Raja Ravi Varma, Elayaraja tries to capture the essence of Indian-ness and rural life in his works. Essentially painted in the realistic style of figuration, he builds the visual with sensitive light and shade play in the image and the protagonists, mainly women, seem to blend in the composition yet appear distinct and appealing.

Elayaraja’s show, ‘On The Cusp’ is about his concerns for the slow degradation and diminishing of culture and tradition which was rich and vibrant especially in rural India, by the onslaught of rapid urbanization.

The show is on view from the 30th of May 2013, to the 17th of May 2013.

United with a Difference

Galerie Max Mueller, of the Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, presents a unique show titled, ‘United Machines and A Collar System’ by two artists with a disparate background of professional, social and every other aspects between their lives. The show is a unified yet individually incompatible array of artistic expression.

The participating artists are Jens Ulrich a German artist in residence in India, and artist Davinder  Singh Sokhi, originally from Punjab, but settled in Mumbai for decades. Jens on his research in the gullies of Mumbai came across specific hand- painted signboard cutouts in the business district of Mumbai, which mostly were of machines and machine parts. The sign boards done by Davinder, were rendered in a matter of fact unostentatious way and with precision.

Jens himself has adapted to the way of dressing ever since his stay in India and he creates his own clothes out of fabric and paper cutouts. In this show, painted metal cutouts of machines, made by Davinder are juxtaposed with the paper and fabric cutouts of Jen’s clothes designs to portray two very varied aspects of culture and their possible similarity. Though the similarity may only arise in the liking of materials, thin oil paint on metal and casein paint on fabric, by the artists.

The show attempts to essentially comprehend the nature and beginnings of their exchange to fully understand the scope of this exhibition, socially and aesthetically.

The show is on view from the 30th of May 2013 to the 18th of June 2013.

Revisiting Kalighat Art

Arts Of The Earth gallery, New Delhi, hosts a show of traditional paintings, of the Kalighat style. The show titled,’ Kalighat - II’ presents works from the patua artists of Bengal and the Kalighat paintings on display are a reminder of this beautiful and simplistic art form.

The golden age of the Kalighat paintings stretches from the mid 19th century to the 1920s, when it flourished.The painters of this art were found in specially set up bazaar like places around the areas of the Kalighat temple  from where they get their name and anyone could find the works for purchase easily.

The charm of the Kalighat paintings lies in the fact that they captured the essence of daily life and they influence modern artists like the late Jamini Roy in his works.

This show is an attempt to revive those moments of fame of the diminishing art form and perhaps encourage people to buy and learn it from the masters of this art. This show exhibits some rare and never seen pieces of that period on display.

The show is on view till the 24th of June 2013.

Moving Ahead with Abstraction

Jamaat Art Gallery, Mumbai, presents a solo show of recent works by artist Krishna Pulkundwar.  Th show titled, ‘ Moving Ahead’ is Krishna’s progression in his abstract language and art practice from his earlier series.

The development of an artist’s oeuvre is amply visible in Krishna’s new work. He has chosen to display his recent works which derive inspirations from his childhood and his movement in life from a rural to an urban scenario. Krishna has been a landscape painter, and his earlier work saw glimpses of nature related abstractions. This series however, displays distinct understanding of the surrounding changes, and visuals of a daily commuter in a city. Buildings, windows, doors, interspersed with memories of childhood gulmohar trees, rays of sun light in the homes, all of these things act as muses to this artist.

His recent works, dominated by the use of bold colours, and definitive, confident textural nuances, and inimitable relief work on the canvases, announce the arrival of the new age, dynamic abstractionist.

The show is one view till the 30th of May 2013.

(News Reports by Sushma Sabnis)

Devidas Dharmadhikari, In Favour of Labour and More

PROFILE

Faces of Freedom-  Devidas Dharmadhikari

Devidas Dharmadhikari’s recent show of figurative and portraiture works can invoke such intense feelings in the viewer urging them into an introspective mode, observes Sushma Sabnis.

(Devidas Dharmadhikari)

‘Imagination, like Pegasus, takes flight to claim the sky,

Imagination like a pebble dives into the abyss to claim the ocean...’

For Pune based artist Devidas Dharmadhikari, the concept of an inner and an outer realm of existence features prominently in his works. Devidas in his show titled, ‘Freedom within the Bonding’, brings to fore a concept which has diversified from his earlier shows. He has  displayed his earlier works a few years ago in a show called ‘ Don’t Stamp Me’, focused on the bias that any and every human being faces in their lives. The ‘stamp’ could be gender based, psychological, social, political, religious, or conceptual branding of humankind as a whole. Devidas believes everyone is branded from birth and perhaps even before birth. His show focussed on how an individual’s persona is shaped subtly using these sublime parameters, in turn forming an entire society and a nation of like minded groups of individuals, irrespective of their individuality.

In his latest works, he explores the human psyche as opposed to the surrounding influences. Taking off from the Stamp series, this series deals with the individual’s interactions within a society and structurally specific scenario. Devidas believes that no individual is devoid of an unseen bonding which allows them a kind of a freedom, ironically, this freedom also allows this bonding. He believes that freedom and bonding are like two faces of a coin which are inseparable and each has its own need of the other to exist, almost a symbiotic existence. Mutually limited in expression, the bonding and the freedom can express only to a certain extent and this duality and balance of existence can be well understood by anyone who has probably committed to something.

(Painting by Devidas Dharmadhikari)

Devidas, a G D in Art (painting) from the Dalvi's Art Institute, Kolhapur, has worked in various mediums and the Freedom within the Bonding series is entirely rendered in acrylic on canvas. The works are portraitures of people, perhaps known to the artist, in very similar poses, namely, with their heads slightly bowed down and their eyes in a semi open state as if they were in meditation or lost in deep thought about something or someone. Perhaps they are introspecting about their own lives. The visual and the palette focuses entirely on the emotion that the face evokes in the viewer.

One could come across such a visage in a journey, or as a co-passenger in a bus, or just some person who sits alone lost in thought at a coffee shop. The faces have a familiar expression, one which can be seen on people who are probably lost in a delicious memory of a loved one, or perhaps in preparation of something profoundly serious in their respective lives. Some faces even hint at a romantic memory being reminisced or in anticipation of a romantic memory, some are in absolute communion with the Supreme in a dialogue not privy to the outside world.

 (Painting by Devidas Dharmadhikari)

Devidas captures all of these emotions accurately without giving out too much information about any of the protagonists or their thoughts. They are silent, but they speak volumes with out even making eye contact with the viewer. The alluring paintings almost make the viewer ask the question, ‘what are you thinking about?’

The visuals have tiny markings, typography, words, florals and symbols which are interspersed quietly into the painting without being domineering or taking the attention away from the protagonists, at the same time they are of relevance because they are perhaps keys to the answer of the above question. One of the paintings, has the face of a young girl, her lips about to break into a smile, a similar image has been graphically styled into four monochrome sections in another painting, and this one has a winged horse subtly implying the girl’s state of mind.

The silent thoughts of the protagonists and the viewer’s curiosity about those thoughts creates a bonding between them, yet the viewer has the freedom to interpret as they deem right and perhaps that is in itself a connect between the artist and the viewer. Devidas’ works are on view at the Hirji Gallery at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai till the 27th of May 2013.

Devidas Dharmadhikari lives and works in Pune.

NEWS

Melange - traditional and contemporary art

Pearl Art Gallery, New Delhi, presents a show titled, ‘Melange’ showcasing the exquisite works of a group of upcoming and established artists in the country. The show displays works as paintings and sculptures, rendered in various styles and mediums.

The works are mostly figurative in style and with intricate details depicting a variety of themes. The vibrancy of the canvases evokes a certain kind of infectious energy in the viewer. The works are replete with the courage to depict human figures and interpret their interactions in various scenarios urban and rural. The show displays a mix of traditional and contemporary art merging in an eclectic expression.

The participating artists are Ramesh Gorjala, Kishore Roy, Sachindernath Jha, Laxman Aelay, Nisha Singh and Shashi Paul.

The show is on view till the 8th of June 2013.

Resonating emotion through Art

 Artist’s Centre, Mumbai presents a solo exhibition of art works by artist Medha Rangnekar, in a show titled, ‘ Resonance 2013’. The show displays Medha’s attempt to let feral ideas take shape and voice in the language of colours and forms. These ideas blend into narratives in the paintings reflecting the myriad moods of the artist.

Medha is a J J  School of Art graduate in Applied art and her theme of the art works displays an unbridled use of colour, texture, technique and style. She boldly and confidently applies on the canvas not just colour but colour dipped in emotion. The outcome is a bold expression which is eye catching, vibrant and very powerful.

The show starts on the 3rd of June 2013 and will go on till the 9th of June 2013.

In favour of the Labour

The Ganges Art Gallery, Kolkata, presents a group show by six artists titled, ‘Shrom O Shramik’. The show focuses on the idea of labour and laborers in independent India.  The works have been rendered in a variety of mediums such as acrylic on paper, acrylic on canvas, oils on canvas, installations created with iron rods and fibre glass, mixed media works with acrylic, brick dust and clay, photographs, found objects installations and steel.

The variety of the show is also in the kind of works on display from paintings to paper work, from steel installations to mixed media and photography and collage works.

The artists participating in the show are Debraj Goswami, Pratul Dash, Chandra Bhattacharya, Sanjeev Sonpimpare, Prasanta Sahu, Chhatrapati Dutta.

The artists have tried to depict the hard working class of the underbelly of society, the labourers who toil day and night to make ends meet or build mansions while living in dire circumstances. The show tries to portray the class divide in society and inhuman treatment subjected to them and raises questions about such sections of society which are blatantly ignored.

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

(News Reports by Sushma Sabnis)

GLORIFIED RAPES, WALA ,FEMINIST MAPPINGS AND MORE

INTERVIEW 

GLORIFIED RAPES AND SUPERWOMAN PERFORMANCES

In this candid interview, Nagpur based sculptor and performance artist Shweta Purushottam Bhattad speaks to JohnyML about her concerns as a woman living in contemporary India. She reveals the horrifying stories of child abuse within the domestic sphere by relatives. Shweta’s works extensively documents similar stories. Excerpts from the interview:

(Shweta Purushottam Bhattad)

JohnyML: You studied sculpture but you switched to performances. Could you please tell why you chose performance over sculpting?

Shweta Purushottam Bhattad: I did my studies in Sculpture but I always worked with the various mediums which I felt best for expressing me and my concerns. I started performing during my Masters but, those were performed in studio and then recorded in form of videos and then I used these video installations with my art works.

Sometimes I feel that for the work I want to do, or I want to show, the language of sculpture become very limited. I feel that I want to say something more but then I find my creations merely the show pieces for the walls. As most of  the concerns I am working with is related to some or other social harms and for that the audience I need is local people, I feel galleries have access to very limited people in that way.

Mostly I work on the concerns, which worries me, and I feel intense need to speak on it, to work on it… I feel my responsibility towards it… with my performances I can reach to mass public, who can be a Rickshaw Driver or a vegetable vender, or for whom access to art otherwise is not common. Also then the concern I want to talk on, reaches to the mass in that way… As an artist and human I feel more content in this practice, as I know what change it can bring and why in this time it is more important to do what I am doing. I feel that performances are the best way of expressing myself and to involving audience, so that they get involved with the performance which ends to a lot of questions in their mind, about performance, about what I wanted to talk on and then they start thinking, reacting on it and asking questions on it… I always design the visual of my performances keeping in mind that whom I need to reach and what seed I need to plant.

Most of my performance are time based and site specific.

JML: What was your sculptures like before you entered this performance practice?

SPB: In my masters I worked with the interviews of the girls who were abused… That was the time I did some installations, videos and some kinetic sculptures which revolve around the same concern.

JML: You wear a chastity belt in one of the performances and lie down on the ground in different locations. What provoked you to do this performance?

SPB: My works are very much connected to me and how I had grown up… It evolved out of my experiences…

My own childhood experiences, where I was living in the joint family, facing abuses from the summer guests crowding our huge joint family and my mind for many years… At the end of the academic sessions, every child in my school use to wait for summer holiday, leaving me restless…   My own experiences of how this guilt and fear started boarding my body, then mind, then feelings and thoughts, killing something inside me, leaving my stomach and words empty for many years, till I came to know about the similar abuses happening around me…

This anger got vent, when after so many years I could give speech to these sufferings through my art…

From past some years I am closely working with the women sexually harassed and also on its physio-psychological effects on them, the trauma they suffered after such abuses… closely conversing with different people in the field working on its long term effects and consequences… working with the interviews of girls who suffered abuses announcing for the open call for the women who have suffered such abuses I was shocked to find many untold stories every next door…  May be because of my own experiences of growing years, I can feel more attached to its sufferers and can work on it, because I can feel it… And because of this the inspiration comes from within my own concerns…

My previous works, during masters, started with the interviews of the girls who faced the abuses, including my own interview which I incorporated in the chastity belts, It was a cathartic experience for all of us who interviewed, because there we shared some untold secrets of our lives which were buried in us killing our souls for years. For the first time we freed ourselves in front of the world… I know how it feels being out of cage after the years of imprisonment. However, in these interviews I hide the identity of the girls…

There are many  numbers of reasons for Rapes, molestations and abuses… During these interviews while working and having lots of close conversations with many people, psycologists, doctors, social workers, lawyers and different people who are working with the rape victims and child abused girls, I found that though there are many reasons related to rape, but what our POP culture serves the youths and generations, through movies and TV serials also plays a very important role in educating them in either way… Sometimes In theaters I get shocked seeing people shouting, enjoying, commenting on such glorified Rape Scenes which makes me wonder that how these sufferings can amuse and provoke people to such extent that their sensibilities die, people say that movies are inspired by real life… But, on contrary large number of people get inspired by the living, fashion in films… So what effect does the eve teasing and the glorified rape scenes in the movies brings to people…?   All the movies serving glorified rape scenes, if we see their promotional ads in TV or posters or any social media, these scenes are shown highlighting and we see only action and not its consequences… Because of all these experiences, talks and observations I decided to do this performance.

 JML: How intense are you with the politics of gender?

SPB: Gender politics; It starts right from our homes and it starts in such tender age that many accept that being women is the curse of previous birth… I have heard people saying “agar is janam mai aache karam karonge to agle janam mai ladka ban kar paida honge”… The fact that before birth, gender identification results to female feticide itself is the big example of gender politics… I feel this reform should start from our homes, from the very infancy men get entitlement for many things, it starts from the very basic activity of dining, they are always served first by women ... The girls always face discrimination beginning from their homes, as a result soft mind casts to accept this prejudice as their fate, for them, then it’s no more the inequity… and vice versa for men too… Our society serves unfair to women; as a result males become incapable of respecting women as persons of female gender deserving respect just as themselves. Hence, the awareness of many such discrimination should be the part of school education and also the home teachings, so as through the roots we can kill this evil of minds, hearts and beliefs.

JML: How did Delhi audience respond to your Chastity Belt Performance?

SPB: I was called for this performance in Delhi during Art Fair in Feb 2013, in a event called Publica… I was supposed to perform this in “Delhi Hatt” which is a public shopping area and in a Mall called “Great India Place” It was a one week performance… I was first supposed to perform in the opening of publica in a hotel and then it was going to open for public… When I performed in the opening, I got good response from some visitors and media… some saying it was a shocking, intense, bold and shaking performance and others just viewing from the corners of their eyes, keeping the distance from performance… Next day I did not get the permission to perform from Delhi Haat and Great India Place mall authorities who were present in the opening day performance showing their worries on, what effect such performances in their premises will put on their image in media and public…

I was told that I can perform if I sit on chair and videos are not clear, or if they put barricades around me so that people will not have closer look to the performance or I change the video inside, which I later denied…

 JML: Tell us more about the performance that you did in a barren land?

SPB: It was in a one week residency at Barbil- Orissa organized by “Utsha Foundation” in collaboration with Arya Groups, which runs Iron & steel company and have some iron mines under them… Barbil is the place where there are huge Iron ore mines…

Staying in Maharashtra I know about the coal mines… But I had never seen Iron mines so was very excited to have opportunity to see it and how it works… we were taken to the factory where the company makes iron balls from the dust of the iron, before entering we were provided with the helmets’ and the masks explaining that the dirt and the smoke here consists of the fine dust of iron which is harmful for lungs and breath… Entering inside the factory I lost all my excitement, seeing a large number of labors, men & women working without any such mask and helmet… We were there just for a week but they give their lives to these factories… However now seeing those amusing machines and the question how the iron and steel made out of this dust never excited me… But what crowded my mind all through the residency was the red iron dust clad faces of the men and women working there… 

After the factory when we were taken to the mines, it was a huge land, a Jungle which was on lease by government handed over to a company… We were allowed to enter but with the special permissions and no cameras… When after asking a lots of questions the guards let us in, We were driven inside the area, A long patch we covered was very green with trees that might be aged for hundred of years or might be much more… It seemed like we were on jungle safari, unless after covering a large area we came across almost the same length of the area, which was converted into a dry, dead, barren land… It was hard to believe that after covering the kilometers and kilometers of green, rich jungle you will all of the sudden land to a burned, destroyed, raped land… And it was the same feeling grave and lifeless, which left my mouth dry… Wherever I moved my eyes till I could see the horizon I could never trace the evidence of green, not a single sprout not a single plant…!! The loss beyond repair and what can I do…?? Only I can answer myself that the iron coming out of these mines is used for our development… Development!! But whose development and on what cost? All in my eyes after that was the red faces of laborers and the red, dead dry face of the land… And only the word came to my mind that time was Faith… When you feel helpless, and your feeling cannot face the reality the only thing which remains with you is “Faith”… “Faith”, that everything will be in its shape one day…

So I decided to meet the land, the barren land with life once again and the 100 plants I chose to perform with...

JML: You assume a persona in your performances. Could you please tell us more about this assumed personality?

SPB: In most of the performance I wear white, because I feel that it gives the strong visual to the performance holding the attention of the viewer without revealing my Identity, sometimes which I feel is strongly needed…

Also white I feel is so neutral colour that it does not represent any caste or religion, the white wig hides the description of age and also it attracts the curiosity of the viewer which is the purpose of my performances…

In most of the performance I colour this white attire too, but it totally depends on what visual I want and so it is not necessary that I will forever continue with this persona…  

JML: What are your current projects and future ones?

SPB: Presently I am working on some performances, which I have planned to perform in the villages near Nagpur in collaboration with some people who are social workers, farmers and film makers… Also I have my studio at Nagpur, where I am working on some art works and video installations…

One of the current performances I am working on, is to be performed in the villages nearby… In the farms there is the extensive use of synthetic wire net… Farmers use it for monkeys, but lots of birds fall its prey… However these nets are not useful for frightening monkeys too, but there is not proper awareness about it… Recently I come across such incidents and feel the strong need to work on it…

NEWS

An Artist’s Psyche

Tangerine Art Space, Bangalore presents a show of paintings by artist Ramesh Chandra, in a show of his recent water colour works. Ramesh is fascinated by human psychology and skillfully incorporates it in his strongly narrative and visually engaging works.

Human figures and human psyche are intertwined in an array of seemingly simple water colour paintings. Conflicts are enhanced using myriad hues and a sensitive relationship between form and content is brought to the fore.

Metaphors of flowers and vines as qualities of the heart to be nurtured and preserved are seen and human beings with twisting tongues depict the nature of mankind to control things.

The show is on view till the 5th of June 2013.

Art Museums in India - A lecture

The Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai presents a lecture by New Delhi based curator and researcher Vidya Shivadas on 25th of May 2013. The topic of the lecture is ‘Site Under Construction - Notes on the Contemporary Art Museum’.

The lecture is a part of the exhibition ‘Zones of Contact: Propositions on the Museum’ co-curated by Vidya along with Akansha Rastogi and Deeksha Nath at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, (KNMA) Noida.

The lecture draws excerpts from the working notes of this exhibition and examines the role of contemporary art museums in the sub-continent. Taking cues from James Clifford’s ‘Contact Zones’ where the museum is seen as a zone for interplay between cultures and communities of diversity, and promoting engagement and interaction, the exhibition tries to incorporate these points when addressing the future of private museums which may change the landscape of India.

Vidya intends to address the issues of globalization with respect to the Indian scene of private museums and formations of specific identities therein.

Vidya Shivadas is a curator and researcher based in New Delhi. After completing her Masters in Art Criticism from Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University, Vadodara in 2000. She has been working and curating shows at the Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi, since she joined in 2002.

The lecture will take place at 6:30 pm on the 25th of May 2013.

Women-speak-  Feminist Mappings - II

Art Heritage Gallery, New Delhi presents a two persons show titled, ‘Feminist Mappings II’. The participating artists Neena Nehru and Anita Tiwary display an array of sensitive and questioning works which examine the issues of women in today’s society through their collection of paintings and installation works.

While one section explores the changing face of women’s persona through out their lives, as seen in Neena’s works, another section explores the quiet communication  and interplay between what is real and unreal in her paintings. Obscuring reality and bringing forth abstraction as a visual to portray realities is what Anita’s work seems to depict.

The two diverse artistic expressions evoke a certain amount of curiosity in the viewer and question their sensibilities with regard to women’s issues and gender related issues.

The show is on view till the 25th of May 2013.

WALA’s Multiplex - a performance

 The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art, (FICA) New Delhi presents the fourth part of a public event by WALA, as part of the ‘ Kachra Seth’s Observatory’ project which received the Public Art Grant in 2011.

‘WALA’s Multiplex’ is taking place on the 26th of May 2013, 6:00 pm onwards.

The event is fourth in the ‘Kachra Seth’s Observatory’ project. Earlier projects were ‘ Narcissist in the Mirror Shop: a Walk from National Museum to National Gallery of Modern Art’ which took place in March 2012, ‘WALA’s Metro Adventure: A Guided tour From Central Secretariat to IFFCO Chowk’ in  May 2012,  and the ‘Sprawl is Louder, Louder and Louder’ in February 2013.

WALA is a Delhi based collective formed by Akansha Rastogi, Paribartana Mohanty and Sujit Mallik. WALA acts as a producer of situations, encounters, devices , formats that allow interactions and dialogues with artists present or in their absence. WALA is associated with performance art and community art projects.

The venue for the event is : S-Block, Gate No.1, DLF, Dilshad Extension-II, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, or call call us at 9999349379, 9911455909, 8285966059.

(News Reports by Sushma Sabnis) 

VANITA YAJI, S.H.RAZA, PARESH MAITY, BIJOY JAIN AND MORE

PROFILE

Woven Canvases: VANITA YAJI

Vanita Yaji’s paintings are unique in the sense that they refuse to remain flat on paper or canvas. Although Vanita is a student of the Painting department in Kala Bhavana, her tendency is to find form and colour in a three-dimensional space, says young art writer Siddharth Sivakumar

(Vanita Yaji)

Vanita Yaji’s paintings are unique in the sense that they refuse to remain flat on paper or canvas. Although Vanita is a student of the Painting department in Kala Bhavana, her tendency is to find form and colour in a three-dimensional space. She particularly enjoys working with cloths as she cuts, ties, knits and disperses them to form her work. Vanita uses colourful, textured textiles to fabricate her narrative. Her works such as Palettes, Butti, and Golden Canvas are some intriguing works of art that fit-in within a symbolic framework.      

 Her “paintings” are symbolic as they represent ideas and concepts that convey meaning other than the apparent one. Ideas presented through a symbolic or allegorical narrative are at times “abstract” in nature. Ancient myths, literature in particular, has a long history of embodying abstract ideas. For instance, in the fifteenth century morality play, Everyman the characters are the personification of Death, Knowledge, Fellowship, Strength and similar ideas. In visual arts, we have come across artists such as K. S Radhakrishnan in whose works abstract ideas have taken figurative presence, but we seldom encounter such ideas manifested as objects, contrasting the usual figurative rendering. Vanita Yaji departs from the established norms and presents abstract allegories through objects.

Vanita’s Palettes are painted with the ideas of unity, diversity and a certain kind of identity, which are inimitable to our nationhood. India’s layers of cultures, it’s medley of colours, rituals and religion, landscapes and languages are so varied that it is hard to represent them. But in Vaniita’s palettes of different shapes and sizes, circumscribed are the multi-coloured bits and pieces of cloths drawn from different ethnicity, geography and cultural traditions. The great diversity of weaves, fibres, colours and material of clothing is crafted into a topography that creates the illusion of a vibrant India. And when India is served in the palettes, we look at it from a bird’s eye perspective. Peeping down from the window of an aircraft, we appreciate the cohesion of fields, mountains and rivers. Similarly in her palettes the image of India evolves as a unit, the borders of a palette and the regional borders dissolve, and fragments are knit together with colours.  

 In the  countryside of Karnataka, agricultural workers carry their meals wrapped in pieces of cloths, which is locally known as “Butti”. In her work of the same name, Vanita once again uses cloths to foreground a specific tradition from her native land. The little bundles that are heaped on the bare ground are symbolic of the hardworking men who are perhaps occupied in a field nearby. 

Vanita Yaji states in her Blog, “Many people migrate from villages for many reasons, and for some it is a ‘necessity’. Maybe everyone who leaves for a new place carry new hopes and colourful dreams with them”. And she does a series based on this idea. The work stems from Vanita’s own experience of moving from a buzzing city to the secluded Santiniketan. In the tiny bags she carries with her the hopes of a brighter future.  Set against Ramkinkar’s iconic ‘Santhal family’, the image becomes meaningful, a balancing act between “necessity” and expectations.

Vanita’s Golden Canvas presents the acquisitive nature of the modern world. This acquisitiveness is the glowing golden colour that has spread across the canvas. Men and women from different strata of life are clinging and climbing the canvas. Their desperate efforts to reach the pinnacle, quite literally brings to life the real picture where the stuffed-puppets symbolise human puppets, whose strings are pulled by a rapacious value system. In her works, Vanita expresses her contempt for the social-fabric that reduces the human entity to dangling bodies, puppets pulled by strings.

Although Vanita usually addresses big issues with tiny figures and small objects, occasionally she also enjoys working on a large scale.

NEWS 

Essence of S H Raza

Lalit Kala Akademi, Chandigarh will be screening a film on the life of eminent artist, S H Raza. The film titled, ‘S H Raza- The Very Essence’ is directed by Laurent Bregeat. The film will be screened on the 26th of May 2013 at 11:30 am, at the Auditorium, Government Museum & Art Gallery, Chandigarh.The film is produced by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.

Artist S H Raza needs no introduction in the art world. Born in Madhya Pradesh, Raza was educated in art at the Nagpur School of Art, and later on at Sir J J School of Art, Mumbai, before moving to France ot study at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris.

He is a recipient of the Padma Shri award conferred on him by the President of  India in 1981.

The main thematic oeuvre Raza is known for all over the world is his ‘Bindu’ series. The Bindu, a symbol of a starting point or a seed, a beginning of everything, a point or source of energy. He added various dimensions to this series and one could see the Bindu develop into geometrical forms like triangles symbolizing the male and female energies.

S H Raza lives and works in New Delhi.

Maity’s Faces of Life

Bangalore based Gallery Sumukha, hosts a solo show of paintings, and installations works of eminent contemporary artist Paresh Maity. The show is being held at the Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong, and will be on view till the 25th of May 2013.

Kolkata born Paresh Maity, is known all over the world for his paintings, sculptures, photography and installations works which are hugely influenced by his vast travel and journeys across the globe. His inspirations come from such travel experiences and he incorporates them in his artistic expressions with a flair and vibrancy of figuration and style, unique and exclusively his own.

In his current solo show at the Visual Arts Centre, HongKong, Paresh displays works with an undertone of semi-abstract figuration, in a series called ‘Faces of Life’, which are portraits of Indian faces in colourful and emotional scenarios.

He has had an array of solo and group exhibitions all over the world and he comes across as a global artist. He lives and works in New Delhi.

Demolition Man -  Bijoy Jain

Chemould Prescott gallery,  Mumbai presents a new series of installations by Studio Mumbai and Bijoy Jain as a part of its interest in observing the relationship of art and architecture.

The show is titled, ‘Demolition Series’ and focuses on the instinctive and spontaneous response to something without the burden and references of culture or conditionings.

The aim is to present an everyday environment replete with sensory and elemental stimulants and the responses to each of those situations. The installations are specifically created and designed by Studio Mumbai, founded by Bijoy Jain, to evoke a certain indeterminate and sudden reaction through the viewers of the works.

At Studio Mumbai the projects are developed taking into consideration the place and a practice that derives from traditional skills, local building materials and techniques, sometimes from limited resources etc, are used.

The show is on view from the 31st of May 2013 to the 10th of August 2013.

A Sacred Passion

Art Spice Gallery, New Delhi, presents a solo show of works by calligraphy artist, Parameshwar Raju, titled ‘ Sacred Is the Passion of The Sacred Integrity’.

The show displays calligraphy works by the artist in praise of the Lord Shiva. Parameshwar has been mesmerised by the deity and the new works of calligraphic art depict the god in various mythological scenarios from various scriptures.

Parmeshwar is known for the calligraphic finesse in his art. He uses inks, and specially imported nibs on paper and canvas to bring to life his favourite deities, like Krishna,Venkateshwara, Shiva, Surya, Vinayaka among others. Also in this show one can view his wide range of exclusively illustrated series of stories and epics which he have been taken from Ramayana, Mahabharata, stories from Jagannath temple of Puri, etc.

What one views is the artist’s devotion and innovative style of calligraphy and the spirituality each of the works exude. His calligraphy works are his way of being a part of the divinity he depicts in his works.

The show is on view till the 10th of June 2013.

(News Reports by SUSHMA SABNIS)