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From the Concerns Desk
Happy New Year 2008.
On 1st January, every year, waking up late (after partying hard on the New Year Eve) with hazy brains and bleary eyes, we remain in the bed for a few minutes taking stock of the year that has just gone by. Resolutions for the New Year are taken then and there (and we know we are going to break them one by one). Then with a smile we get up from the bed and step into the old sandals with renewed hopes. We are all going to be good boys and girls. more »
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Cover story
Sculpting Pillar to Post
Spiritual by Valsan Koorma Kolleri
Valsan Koorma Kolleri’s latest solo show ‘Pillar to Post: Re-valuations’ at Bodhi Space, Mumbai is intended to generate a discourse on the materiality of elements. Taking a quick trip through the early works of the artist JohnyML tries to contain the essence of the new works in this cover story. read on »
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Gallery
Bhagyanath C
Bhagyanath C |
Bhagyanathan’s works deal with the existential man in contemporary times. Existential problems and the fastness of the contemporary times do not together. And it is in this philosophical gap that Bhagyanathan finds the irony for generating his works more »
We present two paintings by Bhagyanath C » |
Spring Board
Mahesh G
Mahesh G |
Born in Nanjagudu, five kilometers away from Debur, Mysore District, Kanataka on 4th April 1980, Mahesh G finished his BFA and MFA in painting from CAVA, Mysore. He has been painting from the very childhood. Strongly resembling the language of late Bhupen Khakkar, Mahesh’s own language is quirky, passionate and true to life. He paints the people and incidents from his immediate surroundings and gives them a mythical twist. more »
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Offbeat
Ore: The Core of Earth
Rajan M.Krishnan |
Rajan M.Krishnan’s installation ‘ORE’ is going to be a new experience for art lovers in India. Half a million terracotta miniature figures constitute this massive installation, which opens on 19th January 2008 at Bodhi Space, Mumbai. It has got something more than the massive form, JohnyML finds that out »
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| Essay |
The Maximum Minimalist
In the catalogue essay for Prabhavathi Meppayil’s recent solo show at the Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, art critic Marta Jakimowicz explains how the artist blends traditional talents and contemporary thoughts in minimal forms that thrive with the energy of art and art history more »
The New Gujarat Contemporaries- Part I
In the art scene of Gujarat, despite the interesting and intriguing political changes, there happens a silent revolution; a revolution destined to change the complexion of art in Gujarat. For the first time, JohnyML articulates this silent revolution and he calls the new breed of Gujarati artists, The New Gujarat Contemporaries. »
The New Gujarat Contemporaries- Part II
In this essay, JohnyML details the individual characteristics of the New Gujarat Contemporaries and also explains how these artists look at social development as a human catastrophe in disguise. more »
The Improbability of Styles
Rollie Mukherjee, a Bangalore based young art historian recently exhibited her paintings in a solo show titled ‘The (Other) Self. Noted art historian H.A.Anil Kumar reads against the common stream of criticism that tried to place her works stylistically incoherent. Rollie’s works are not an interaction between two institutionalized streams, but between the one which is institutionalized and the one which is yet to be institutionalized, says Anil Kumar more »
Buffalo Soldiers of Baroda
The students of the Department of Art History and Aesthetics are in war path. They want their temporary teachers back in classrooms. They look brainwashed and blindfolded to act like cannon fodders. JohnyML looks at the absurdity of this students’ struggle for a few temporary teachers. more »
Across and in Between
Shelly Bahl and Nitin Mukul, two contemporary artists recently collaborated to produce a project on an ancestral building in New Delhi. Brooklyn based writer Murtaza Vali writes on this video, performance, music and painting project and tries bring out the nuances that connect the artistic concepts with the formal renditions, supplemented by the artists’ statements. more » |
| Interview |
The Emerging Sequences of World
Baiju Parthan |
Baiju Parthan looks relaxed after his major solo ‘Liquid Memory+Rant’ at New Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery. He is happy for his new but secret academic achievement. In conversation with JohnyML, Baiju Parthan talks about the thoughts that he put into the creation of the LM+R works. Excerpts »
Being Sane in an Insane World
Prabhavati |
The sounds of light hammers tapping on soft gold and silver fill in Prabhavati Meppayil’s works as she finds her technique and inspiration from a village of goldsmiths. Her works carry the essence of local and global cultures, myths and news. Prabhavati opens her mind to Shubhalakshmi Shukla, about her art, technique and philosophy. more »
Moderato
Shubhalakshmi Shukla speaks to the Korean artist Kim Kyoungae about her art and life. Kyoungae is concerned about the ecological imbalances happening around due to urban development. Her art speaks of these concerns. excerpts » |
| News |
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Nagji Patel at Gallery Espace, New Delhi » » |
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Mark Him » » |
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Prabhavati Meppayil at Sakshi, Mumbai » » |
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Tushar Joag at Chemould Prescott, Mumbai » » |
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Suryakanthi’s Golden Feather at LKA, New Delhi » » |
| Features |
A Shirt for the Future
Noted Indian artist N.S.Harsha was recently on a residency at Deng Kong Elementary School, Danshui, Taiwan. He played a Pied Piper there, bringing the school children out of their class rooms to paint on large size white shirts, which they would keep as a living work of art at their homes. A feature from Taiwan »
A Place for Artists and their Dreams
2008 February will see the inauguration of Uttarayan Art Centre, Baroda. Uttarayan is designed to house all kinds of arts, from Sculpture to Multimedia art. JohnyML visits the first sculpture camp held here as a preamble to the formal inauguration and reports »
Sweating Utopias
Jitish Kallat and Gitanjali Dang walk along the memory lanes as the artist comes back to Mumbai art scene with a two-gallery solo show titled ‘Sweatopia’. Gitanjali sees how this 33 year old artist has grown from ‘PTO’ to “Sweatopia’. more »
A Moment of Reunion
Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with a group show titled ‘Kashi 10 Light Years’. For the artists, the event became a moment of reunion and celebration. JohnyML reports from Kochi. more »
Mark Him
Riyas Komu’s latest project, ‘Mark Him’ is all about the unsung heroes of football. When millions of dollars are spent on football stars in the western countries, in India football players are treated as pariahs. Mark Him is a philosophical take on this issue. In this article, the artist himself says why he chose a theme like football for his art project. more »
Retrieving Childhood Souvenirs
Dr.Veena Shekar goes through the works and life of the Bangalore based artist G.E.Gurusiddappa and says that the artist’s mainstay is his vast resource of memories. Referring back to the childhood innocence, Gurusiddappa negotiates with the contemporary life, says Veena Shekar. more »
Probabilities of Occurring
Baroda based artist Arunanshu Chowdhury recently had his solo show at the Sumukha Gallery, Bangalore in collaboration with the Guild Gallery, Mumbai. In the catalogue essay JohnyML says that the ability to capture the historical sense of probabilities is what goads Arunanshu Chowdhury towards the making of his paintings. more »
Capturing Music in Colours
Noted painter S.Harsha Vardhana’s recent solo show at the Gallery Espace, New Delhi was appreciated by the art lovers in the city. In the catalogue forward Suren Navlakha narrates the story of the development of Harsha Vardhana as a multifaceted artist. more »
Of the austere surface
The Baroda based printmaker turned painter Santana Gohain works towards revealing the hidden layers of the immediate. Her works have an austere quality, a silence that contains sound and the darkness that contains light, observes Vrushali Dhage. more »
Feeling Latterite at your unfamiliar so(u)les
Shilpa Padhyam is Valsan Koorma Kolleri’s dream project. Designed and built in locally available latterite stones, this is a centre for all arts. Located in Patyam, Kannur District, North Kerala, Shilpa Padhyam will be fully functional in 2009. JohnyML visits the centre and features. more » |
| Reviews |
Seeing, Consuming and Obscuring of objects
Gallery OED, Kochi recently presented a group show titled ‘Obscure Objects of Desire’ curated by JohnyML. . This show seemed almost as a defence of ‘object’ as a philosophical condition at the verge of getting recognized for its sheer physicality of experience, says Kavita Balakrishnan »
Battleground of Extremities
Jitish Kallat’s new exhibition ‘Sweatopia’ at Chemould Prescott and Bodhi, Mumbai once again deals with the trials and tribulations of a city that aspires to be a mega city. Amrita Gupta Singh however feels that the thematic intersections of poverty seem too glossy. Will these poor people featured in Kallat’s works ever live a life of dignity, given the endless migrations and displacements that globalization ensures, with the respective state governments unable to provide basic human rights to these peripheral presences, asks the author. more »
The Gift to Experience
Shubhalakshmi Shukla visits the works of Hamid Bin Amar, a Hyderabad based artist who recently had a solo show at the Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai. Bin Amar’s paintings takes inspiration from the poetry of Wali Deccani and the modernist art tradition, observes the author. more »
Beyond definition
A group show of seven women artists from Gujarat, curated by Arati Desai, recently created some interesting waves at the ABS Red Earth Gallery, Baroda. Art historian Rita Sodha visits the show and says that the artists have either strived to transcend their familiar spaces and seek a redefinition of their art forms or traversed the indefinable, fleeting and unbridled realm of dreams, desires and fantasy. more »
The Majestic Chariot
Pradip Maitra is in love with steam engines. He paints them as if they were his soul mates. Oindrilla Maity discusses Maitra’s art and its historical lineages, and above all this artist’s undying passion for the ‘iron beauties’ in this touching review. more »
Chak De India
Amrita Gupta Singh walks into the virtual football field created by Riyas Komu at the Guild Gallery, Mumbai as a part of his latest solo show ‘Mark Him’ and says that there are not only dribblings and headers but also trappings and fouls. A corner kick review »
‘Kashi’ - an impressive retrospective
In this interesting review of Kashi 10 Light Years show, Kavita Balakrishnan finds out the truth of the Mumbai-Kochi axis in contemporary Indian art and also sensitively locates the aesthetical nuances that facilitated such an axis. more »
And When She Roared the Universe Quaked
Shakuntala Kulkarni interrogates the constructs of the gendered body and the multiplicity of the feminine self in a patriarchal society via paintings and video-based installations. Shubhalakshmi Shukla reviews the show and says that both the vulnerability and power of the gendered self encapsulates within the cascading spirit of the primordial mother goddess. more » |
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