Indian contemporary visual art discourse established its roots mainly through debating the centre-periphery issues pertaining to human life and its socio-political and culturally defined existential structures. A cursory look at these debates clearly shows that most of them have been done by and in the urban-centric academic institutions. more »
Cover story
The Flipside of Euphoria: Local Art Colleges
While the urban centric art academies shine in fame and glory of the contemporary art boom, the small town fine arts colleges get a step motherly treatment. The problems that these regional fine arts colleges face are multifarious. From infrastructural deficiencies to linguistic inferiority, problems are aplenty. JohnyML finds out what ails these small town academies.read on »
Gallery
Neema Vagela
Neema Vagela
The narratives that Neema Vagela creates in her canvases delineate the life of women in contemporary times. The images are at times autobiographical and at times culled out from what the artist sees in her surroundings. The woman protagonist is always given an iconic status in her works. more »
Saikat Surai completed his post graduation in Printmaking from the Rabindra Bharati University, in Calcutta, in 2006. As a child, he grew up in an ambience of art, music and cinema – all of which have a lasting impression on him. Both his mother and her sister were educated at the Vishwa Bharati University at Shantiniketan (owing to the fact that their aunt was the matron of the girls’ hostel), where the latter was a student in the Visual Arts Faculty, better known as Kala Bhavana. more »
OBITUARY
Adimoolam: A Tribute
A versatile colorist and passionate painter K.M.Adimoolam was the pillar of the Madras Art Movement. He passed away on 15th January 2008. Dr.Ashrafi S. Bhagat, while paying rich tribute to the memory of the departed master, tells the reader about his life and art. more »
Anjali, a Kolkata based NGO working for the rehabilitation and welfare of the mentally challenged people recently put up a show of three photographers. This exhibition of photographs is an eye opener for those ‘normal’ people who push away the issues pertaining to the mentally challenged from the ken of attention, says C.S.Venkiteswaran. more »
Romancing the Camera
Jyoti Patil, a photography artist and short film maker based in Mumbai, currently pursuing higher studies in Amsterdam, recounts her experiences with an old camera seller in Hague, his reluctance to buy her camera and how that old man’s vision changed her attitude towards her medium and life. more »
Essay
Poems of Earth
Kochi based artist Rajan Krishnan recently exhibited his latest paintings and installations titled ‘Ore- Substances of Earth I’ at the Bodhi Space, Mumbai. JohnyML says that Rajan’s works are poetry of reality made into a virtual space. To know how and whyread the essay »
Exploratory Ventures: Recent Art Trends in Kolkata
Artists of Kolkata are in a retro mode but with a difference. They make incursions into the city’s history, which is predominantly shaped by the colonial outlook. Oindrilla Maity, while surveying the recent art trends in Kolkata says that most of the artists make interventions in their nostalgic past to articulate the present. more »
Lights, Camera, Action
Mumbai based young artist Dilip Dhore lives a life of mediatized, glamorized and commoditized metro life. He is a participant and a critic of it at once. Dr.Vaishali Sharma analyses Dhore’s works in this essay. more »
Interview
Shaping the Enshrined Objects
Nagji Bhai Patel
Veteran sculptor Nagji Bhai Patel was in Delhi recently for his major solo show titled ‘The Enshrined Objects’ at the Gallery Espace. In conversation with JohnyML, Nagji Bhai Patel talks about his life and art. Excerpts from the interview »
Jazu Bhai Naik, the founder of BA Mehta Kala Mahavidyalay, Amalsad even at the evening of his life works for the welfare of the artists who are not recognized by the mainstream art centers and art market. Teaching art is his mission and guiding artists towards a better future is his principle. JohnyML features the life of this veteran. more »
Random Ramblings
Why do students from local art colleges fear to ask questions in seminars and workshops? Are they self repressive or repressed by the college authorities who curb any kind of vocalizing from students? Amrita Gupta Singh tries to unpack this issue while talking about her experience as a facilitator in a workshop conducted for the students from local art colleges at the MPCVA, Mumbai in August 2007. more »
Destination Asia: Flying over Stereotypes
Often stereotyped in presentation the art of Central Asia has been a much misunderstood category for long. A curatorial intervention has changed it by looking at it through self reflexive lenses. The lands where revolution has become scarce, however still provide the artists with a chance for microscopic scrutiny of the self and belongingness, Amrita Gupta Singh observes. more »
Reviews
Mysterium Tremendum
Young British artist, Barbara Ash recently presented her sculptural installations at Bangalore’s No.1.Shanthi Road. Reminding the human beings of their mortality through the play of sweet kitsch, the artist made a strong statement, says Rollie Mukherjee in her review. more»
From Monuments to Traces
Monuments are inscribed with the narratives of victory, heroism, nationalism, loss and pain. Should there be more monuments erected only to be vandalized and re-inscribed by the narratives of an explosively corporitized society? Tushar Joag in his latest solo show at the Chemould Prescott, Mumbai, though does not provide the viewer with definite answers, raises a few questions and imagines monuments as debris through subversive visual symbolism, says Amrita Gupta Sing. »
The Ma(r)kers of the City
Desire in the city of Mumbai and desiring the city of Mumbai are intricately connected in a Mumbaikar’s mind. Navjot Altaf, in her solo exhibition ‘Bombay Shots’ at the Guild Gallery, Mumbai presented a series of photographs- documented, categorized and technologically manipulated- in order to showcase the miniature fantasies of an average Mumbaikar, Amrita Gupta Singh reviews »
Genesis Retold
Delhi based artist Tapan Bhowmik recently exhibited his works at the Lalit Kala Akademy, New Delhi. His works raises complex questions regarding the human existence, in this review, Dr.Vaishali Sharma says. more »
MY 50TH SOLO SHOW boasted an artist to me and it set me thinking. A study in the West says bad markets tend to produce better art as there is less pressure on artists to produce and fewer temptations to sell out. Plus they are dealing only with collectors and galleries
willing to ride out the hard times. more »
