December schedule @ Devi Art Foundation

Dog Day Afternoons @ Asola Farms, Delhi

The Stainless Art Gallery, Delhi

The Stainless Art Gallery situated in the capital city of India, New Delhi is spread over 5500 Sq ft, technologically endowed, state of the art gallery is a force to reckon with in the contemporary space of art. The brainchild of Mrs Deepikaa Jindal, the Managing Director of Austenitic Creations Pvt. Ltd. and the Founding Director of the Stainless Gallery, for whom stainless steel is nothing short of an engaging and rewarding passion.

The Gallery invites artists from diverse spheres of art to render their artistic imaginations and visions for creating sculptures and works of art using this medium. This gallery is one of its kind gallery that provides not just an exhibition but also infrastrucutural support to create these artworks..

The Stainless Gallery began its journey with an enigmatic exhibition held in 2007, titled ‘The Lazy Forest’ by an eminent designer Alex Davis. The Gallery continued its journey with ‘Saptarishis’ showcasing works of seven eminent sculptors of the country, fllowed by the ‘Ashtanayika’, an all-women show exhibiting artworks of eight female artists.

‘God&i’ by Vibhor Sogani, an innovative, young product designer & ‘Ekant’ by architect, Vishal K Dhar, were landmark shows for The Stainless.

This state-of-the-art gallery not only has its own unique collection of eclectic stainless steel art but also offers its space as an exhibition venue to other artists and galleries to showcase their works.

Going beyond its usual Steel Art, It endeavours to host many such cutting edge and creatively charged exhibitions every year marked by concepts & creativity of contemporary painters, photographers, sculptors and artists  from various walks & fields of art. 






*img courtsey: The Stainless, Delhi

Press Release: A solo Exhibition by Gulammohammed Sheikh.

A solo exhibition by Gulammohammed Sheikh. It was his first in N. Delhi since 2001. This exhibition included a number of works that were exhibited for the first time in India, in addition to his recent works at the Rabindra Bhavan, 12-31 October 2011. 

This show featured his seminal piece Kaavad : Home, which was premiered at 'Chalo India: A New Era of Indian Art' at the Mori Museum, Tokyo, 2008. 

A kaavad or a mobile wooden shrine is a traditional object containing painted narratives which performers like the Kaavadiya Bhats of Rajasthan used as a prop for their storytelling. So as the storyteller narrated his story, he would open the doors of the Kaavad to reveal a new layer, building anticipation to the long-delayed moment of the sight of the inner core. To G. Sheikh this portable format not only offered the possibility of greater visibility but could retain within it narratives which could be combined in various permutations and combinations by the mere folding-unfolding of its doors...

This exhibition included a selection of his gouaches, oil canvases and papier-mache works along with other Kaavad shrines and hand-painted and digital books.

As Dr. Kavita Singh noted, “This exhibition is a culmination: bringing to their highest pitch and fullest amplitude many of the themes, motifs, modes and obsessions that have haunted the work of Gulammohammed Sheikh for the past thirty years… That the works in this show mark a particular high-point in Sheikh’s oeuvre, however, is first apparent in the ambitious, even monumental scale of many of the works on show. On a sustained viewing, slowly, they show themselves to be also at the point where the densities of meaning, the intensity of affect, and the weight of elegiac beauty find their most condensed and intense expression.”

Gulammohammed Sheikh (b. 1937) is an artist, educationist and writer whose work has spanned more than five decades. He is a founder-member of Group 1890, which was founded in 1963 by a group of artists. Through his work as an artist and educationist he emphasized the need for engagement with the historical narrative, and the importance in locating it within contemporary art, in order to build a critical discourse. As a pedagogue in MS University of Baroda, initially as a lecturer in Art History (1960-63, 1967-80) and then as a professor in the Painting department (1982-93), he instilled in his students the rigor of art historical research, a discipline which he holds as central to his own artistic practice. As a writer he has published several books and monographs on Indian art, other than editing the Vrishchik journal of arts and ideas with Bhupen Khakhar, and contributions to Gujarati literature in the form of prose and poetry. He has invested his knowledge further in the field by being part of several national committees and organizations in change of policy and institutional advocacy. It is under his curatorial authority that some of the most seminal exhibitions in the last three decades have been realized – this includes Benodebihari Mukherjee Retrospective (2006-7) cocurated with R.Siva Kumar, New Art from India: Home, Street, Shrine, Bazaar, Museum (2002), Birth and Life of Modernity (1989) co-curated with Geeta Kapur and Anis Farooqi, Retrospective Exhibition: KG Subramanyan (1981) among others. His solo exhibitions include Mappings (2004), Palimpsest (2001), Kahat Kabir (1998), Pathvipath (1991) and Returning Home at Centre George Pompidou (1985). He has participated in numerous group shows, including the seminal 1981 exhibition Place for People curated by Geeta Kapur; recent exhibitions such as Horn Please: Narratives in Contemporary Indian Art (2007), Edge of Desire (2004-06), Crossing Generations: diVERGE (2003).






*img courtsey: Persona PR

7 countries’ artist exhibiting Home Spun at the Devi Art Foundation

This festive season, Girish Shahane is curating the show, “Home Spun” at the Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon, India beginning from the 27^th August upto 27^th December 2011.

This exhibition is showcasing the works of more than 36 artists from 5 countries, starting from the host country India to its neighbours Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Oman and U.K. Seven new commissions are executed especially for this exhibition, featuring a significant large-scale sculptural works, to name a few Suboth Gupta’s My Mother and Me, Rashid Rana’s Desperately Seeking Paradise & Hamra Abba’s In this is a sign of those who Reflect.

 As title suggests, this exhibition is a spin on the idea of home. “Home is a place as well as a state of mind: it has both a locational and emotional dimension.”  In this exhibition the artists have satirized mundane, sedentary existence by producing quirky variations on ordinary objects. They have remade articles connected with daily routine – whether sofa sets, brooms, ceiling fans or typewriters – into rich and strange artefacts. These works are light in mood and for the most part small in scale, working as ensembles rather than stand-alone pieces.

The exhibition also focuses on the physical spaces we inhabit. Whether we inhabit them voluntarily or through compulsion, they can express our personality and define our character. The interrogation of built form in Home Spun brings to life abstract issues of identity, security and conformity through tactile materials such as brick, lace and bamboo. Artists employ the cylinder, cube, and the archetypal house shape in their examination of architectural design and its influence on our lives.

 Each section of Home Spun is accompanied by a short text that reflects on the artworks or uses them as take-off points,   The exhibition encompasses sculpture, painting, photography, digital prints, video, and interactive installations aiming to demonstrate that art can be entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time. 

*img courtsey: Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon. India

'And The Falchion Passed Through His Neck...' @ The Latitiude 28, Delhi

15th December I happen to make a visit to Lado Sarai and one of the interesting exhibition that I went for was:

" And The Falchion Passed Through His Neck" curated by Jasmine Wahi is the current exhibition at Latitude 28 in Lado Sarai, New Delhi. This exhibition is on view between 14th December 2011 until 15th January 2012. Exhibition by Anjali Bhargava, Chitra Ganesh, Divya Mehra, Hamta Abbas, Samira Abbassy, Shweta Bhattad and Sangeeta Sandreasegar.

Inspired by Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith beheading Holofernes (1620). The line from which the title of the show derives comes from the original Old Testament story portrayed by Gentileschi. Judith, the heroine of the parable is shown gruesomely beheading the drunk and seduced tyrant, Holofernes.

This exhibition is a reinterpretation of historical, religious and social views of women. Each work approaches overtly sexual and suggestive imagery as a means to convey female empowerment in contemporary society. The distinctive use of 'promiscuous symbolism' and violence serve as a positive rebellion against the suppression of women as sexually and politically empowered beings.

For online exhibition visit: http://www.latitude28.com/index.php/exhibitions/view/33/current/page:1


*img courtsey: The Latitude 28. Delhi

Opening of Issue 6, Take Art