Preview June, 2012 – July, 2012

dOCUMENTA (13) Participated by Tejal Shah and the Otolith Group
Project 88, Kassel, Germany

June 9 to September 16, 2012

Between the Waves by Tejal Shah, is a multi-part installation composed of performative film, text, animation and the spacialization of sound. The work emerges through Shah's recent interest in evolution models that present non-normative complexities and excesses of species and nature, human and animal societies. Tejal Shah, born in 1979, lives and works in Mumbai.

The Otolith Group is presenting a show titled, The Radiant, that explores the aftermath of the Tohoku Earthquake that struck the North East Coast of Japan, triggering a tsunami on March 11, 2011. The tsunami killed many and caused a partial meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In the fissures opened by these catastrophes, The Radiant travels through time and space, invoking the historical promise of nuclear energy and summoning the future threat of radiation that converge upon the benighted present.                                

Under these conditions the illuminated cities and evacuated villages of Japan can be understood as a laboratory for the global nuclear regime that exposes it's citizens to the necropolitics of radiation.

The Otolith Group was founded by Kodwo Eshun and Angelica Sagar in 2002. The Otolith Group live and work in London, UK and in other parts of the world.

Pulse of Abstraction
Agora Gallery, New York

June 12 to July 3, 2012

Pulse of Abstraction is a collection of artworks notable for their beautiful, innovative form of communication. Each image has its own rhythm, its own captivating beat, as the dynamism of its form and colour takes over and takes the audience along for an unforgettable visual experience. The artists fill their creations with honesty and enjoyment, leaving us to marvel at the results. The participating artists include Adka, Sharon Brill, Michelle Chu, Laila Khan Furniturewalla, Donna Howard, Christine Jaksch, Allen Jones, Lori Koprowski, Todd Krasovetz, Sandra McRae, Kamil Sarnowski.

Indian artist Laila Khan Furniturewalla's recent work represents a series where she has moved from oil to acrylic with a predominant use of gold leaf and gold pigment. Her work has a context that relates to her surroundings yet transcends geographical boundaries), international art scenario, showcasing along with reputed artists from world over, etc. She was trained in Fine Art at the Slade School of Art in London, UK. She then studied creative and expressive painting at the St. Martin's School of Art and Design, London, UK.

Onlookers- Solo Exhibition of Ashutosh Bhardwaj
The Guild, Mumbai

June 15 to July 14, 2012

Ashutosh Bhardwaj implies that given the plethora of communicative possibilities and the omnipresence of social and traditional media, the agency of the recipients of this continuous flow of information is diminished. The choices of agency or its applicability are slowly being eroded so much so that, these choices are increasingly fragmented, which in turn aids information fatigue and endangers activity.

Bhardwaj brings to the fore the subject and its idolization. Fear Me (Not) attempts a playful imaging and conception of fictitious idols. Large-sized cricket balls sculpted and cast out of fibreglass have been anthropomorphized. By dressing these balls with various other objects and images the semblance of a head is created. These are balanced on tall pedestals made to look like donation boxes. Each of these 'idols' appears to be representative of a social convention or stereotyping. The work attempts a sardonic comment on the creation of clichés.

Born in 1981, Bhardwaj obtained his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U, Baroda 2004. He is the receiver of the National scholarship 2003-05 and the Nasreen Mohamedi award.

Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures
Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata

June 23 to July 3, 2012

The exhibition depicts motifs- social, cultural, political and visual- that continue to fit in and out of our contemporary sensibilities, regardless of their antiquity or datedness.

Four artists- Kuntal Dutta, Samir Bhandari, Some Kumar Deb, Soumitra Sengupta- from the city come together to visually articulate the different manners in which they connect to the city, its myths and its lore.

Kuntal Dutta's quirky take on predicaments of the post-modern metropolis, plays with the familiar and all-too-identifiable forms of the patachitra, adapting them to fit the modern milieu. The end result is a pithily tongue-in-cheek visual narrative that is sharp and satirical without being arcane.

Samir Bhandari chooses to work with stark colours in order to portray the grim and murky sides of the political face of the city, one that is red with intrigues and violence, black with bleakness, gray with lurking grim possibilities and white with a hope inspite of it all, that keeps the city from being reduced into a sordid dungeon that is all-despairing.

Some Kumar Deb's installation is a vivid and insightful exploration of practices once considered divine and mystical, and their transformation over time into lucrative milching mechanisms that continue to function, nonetheless, with all their resplendent accoutrements. With visual references to the woodcut tradition of printing, the work harks back to a time gone by to depict a time that is.

Soumitra Sengupta seeks to explore, through translucent, wafer-delicate watercolours, the multiple ways in which the city reaches out to him and he, in turn draws his sustenance from it-in a bit that is poetically symbiotic.

Collective Spaces 2012?             
Part-II

M.E.C. Art Gallery, Delhi

July 1to July 31, 2012

Collective Spaces 2012? Part-II is a group show of 88 modern & contemporary artists such as

Anil Shukla, Shailesh B.O, Chandan Sen Gupta, Kayas Saha, Kamal Mitra, Debasish Garai, Tapati Sarkar, Ramesh Gorjala, Kamana Pushkale, Jatin Das, Tapan Dash, Jenson Anto, Ravi. K, Monideep Saha, Uttam K. Basak, C. Prakash, and others.

Transformations

India International Centre, New Delhi

July 5 to July 11

Transformations is an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Amit Harit whose works are expressive of that particular order of beauty in which we can rejoice and that disarms us straightaway. His lines are gently rhythmic and they delight as they are in refreshing colouring in general. One can say that the artist's  creative  activity succeeds in bringing into life the sense of enlargement; the glimpse of perfection; the touch of feeling that transforms apparently insignificant things into hieroglyphs and codes of illuminating, inspiring and purifying revelations; discoveries and achievements. Therefore his art activity would appear to yield joy to the viewer. The lack of violent wrenchings in his work appears to reflect his own nature. The general harmony in the spirit of the art seems to communicate a measure of purity that makes for affection, as well.

Allegories

Art Konsult, New Delhi

July 5 to July 28

Allegories is a group exhibition. The participating artists include Gopa Trivedi, Nabanita Guha, Priyanka Govil, Priyanka Gupta Agarwal, Radhika Agarwala and Sareena Khemka.

Wishes- Solo Exhibition of Watercolour Paintings by Samir Mondal

Gallery Sumukha,

July 14 to August 4, 2012

The current series of works from Samir Mondal titled Wishes are created to mark the occasion of artist completing sixty years. Flowers are always used as a mode of expressing good wishes to people. Flowers stand as a symbol of an occasion of joy and happiness. The artist uses this concept in his current floral series paintings. The artist sees the varieties of flowers in nature itself as nature's everyday wishes to mankind. He thus picks up a variety of flowers and paints them in the alternating dynamic and delicate brush strokes that add a mood and quality to the images he paints.

Living With Great Masters: Kalakriti at Ten

Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad

July 18 to July 25

Living With Great Masters: Kalakriti at Ten is an exhibition of paintings featuring Akbar Padamsee, Bhupen Khakhar, Bikash Bhattacharjee, F N Souza, Ganesh Pyne, Jehangir Sabavala, Jagdish Swaminathan, Jogen Chowdhury, K G Subramanyan, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar, S H Raza, Tyeb Mehta & V S Gaitonde.

Tags: art