Previews

June - July, 2011



Project 88, Mumbai
Place unconsidered trilogy: works by Priya Sen
May 9 to June 11, 2011
Project 88 is having an exhibition of Delhi based artist Priya Sen titled place unconsidered, trilogy, which is eventually her first solo in Mumbai.place unconsidered, trilogy comprises two video works and a series of photographs. Priya Sen broadly deals with the idea of time and its relevance. The works in this show are composed of images that do not belong to a coherent place; neither do they belong to any particular time. These are sound-image compositions in which 'place' is read in a few ways. Drawing inspiration from various sources including films Sen looks at how an electronic image has the ability to stand in for presence and yet at the same time it restricts it as well.

The exhibition includes Antecedent Garden, an ongoing video and photo project in which each version is an opportunity to return to a different landscape and a different childhood. For this show Sen has added a new version to the project titled Out of Distance, which follows from two preceding volumes: Antecedent Garden: Vol.1 - The Book of the Seasons or the Calendar of Nature and Vol. 2 -Scenes from a Museum, The notions of childhood as a site (rather than a moment), and memory as fiction, are somewhat central to this series. The photographic works supplement the idea behind the project and act as captured moments in an ever changing landscape.




Gallery Beyond, Mumbai
Walden Pond
May 12 to June 18, 2011
The very name, “Walden Pond” brings to mind Henry David Thoreau, the writer, philosopher and transcendatalist, who made Walden Pond, in Massachusettes, USA, famous in his book “Walden, or life in the woods”.

Walden Pond at Irinjalakuda, is Renu Ramnathan & Rajan Krishnan's creative child, a space, they ambitiously hope will transcend in continuity, the Walden Pond made famous by Thoreau; as a space for culture and arts to meld, as an address in the future, synonymous with a space with its arms wide open to all creative minds.

At “Walden Pond” is the first such intiative for Fine Arts. Brought together by Mr. Vibhuraj Kapoor and Gallery Beyond, Mumbai, 29 painters & sculptors from all over the country will come together for 7 days to make it their studio, to fraternize, communicate, exchange ideas, expose themselves to various art practices, view films/slides of the participants, create learn and unlearn, in what one hopes, their ongoing quest for that ever perfect Mona Lisa!!

The participating artists are: Anjana Mehra, Farhad Hussain, Murali Cheeroth, Pritam Bhatty,  Puneet Kaushik, Rajan Krishnan, Santana Gohain, Uday Mondal, Ganesh Gohain, Rajesh Ahlawat, Brahm Maira, Sunil Padwal, Sheetal Gattani, Preetha Kannan, Rudragaud L Indi, Minal Damani, Babu Eshwar Prasad, Karl Antao, Kiyomi Talaulicar, Manish Chavda, Tikendrakumar Sahu, Shivkumar Sunagar, Deepak Kanal, Apurba Nandi, Jaya Lamba, N.N.Rimzon, Martin OC, Pramod G and Reghunanthan K





Seven Art Limited Gallery, New Delhi
'Two Positions' by Ganesh Selvaraj & Shinobu Mikami
May 18 to June 11, 2011
Seven Art Limited Gallery showcases the works of Chennai-based painter Ganesh Selvaraj and Baroda-based sculptor Shinobu Mikami.

Shinobu Mikami works in a variety of media including drawing, sculpture and installation. Delicate and poetic in their visual vocabulary, Mikami's works are grounded in an unusually subtle and personal conceptual framework. They are centred on the specificity of the materials she uses wood, fabric, language and drawings - and the experiential memory embedded into these materials and forms. Her works resonate with her personal interpretation of the world and with the signs and memories which she decodes via the labor of constructing an artwork. Mikami's sculptures and drawings reflect precise conceptual and discursive practices which are further born out through the process of the audience's perception of them.  Although her works are highly conceptual in nature, Mikami trusts the audience to complete them with the experience and memories which they in turn bring to bear.

Ganesh Selvaraj makes large abstract paintings and mixed media works on canvas that relay notions of time and infinity, human perception and the artist's personal experience of the world. Often working with intricately placed shreds of coloured paper on canvas, his tableaux have a quality that is both painterly and tactile. Coming out of the Chennai tradition of painting that saw the introduction of Tantric painting in the 1960's and 70's, Selvaraj is similarly interested in the process of being and of making.





Centre Pompidou, Paris & Project 88
Paris - Delhi - Bombay
May 25 to September 19, 2011
Centre Pompidou, Paris - Delhi - Bombay aims to explore India through the works of major Indian and French artists. The exhibition is a collaboration between India and France and will look into various links between the two nations and also establish new areas of communication.

The exhibition will feature a new animation by Sarnath Banerjee and two series of works by Tejal Shah, namely Hijra Fantasy Series and Untitled (on violence). Atul Bhalla will also present a series of photographs titled Ek Rupaya Bada Gilass. Raqs Media Collective will be screening a film which has been especially commissioned for the exhibition.





The Seagull Foundation for the Arts, Kolkata
Thieving Magpie
Digital Collages by Sunandini Banerjee
June 1 to July 3, 2011
Following her highly acclaimed first exhibition in June 2010, a brand new exhibition of digital collages by artist, Sunandini Banerjee, is set to open on Wednesday 1 June 2011 at the Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre.

Sunandini Banerjee, much in the manner of a magpie, collects images from a wide variety of sources and creates innovative, humourous digital collagesa potpourri or a medley or a luck bag, call it what you will.

Created for the annual Seagull Books catalogue, this year's collages are, unlike the large-sized prints of her last show, smaller and in the nature of contemporary miniatures.
There will be 86 works on display. Each collage is printed on archival paper and is part of an edition of 7. Each collage is available for sale.

In 2010, Seagull Books celebrated its 28th year in publishing with The Art of the Book, Sunandini Banerjee's first exhibition of digital collages and book cover designs. Featuring 47 large digital prints on archival paper (24” x 29”), with 7 editions of each.



Art  Konsult, New Delhi
The Museum Collection II
June 18 to  July 16, 2011    
This exhibition, (yet again) talks about artworks of museum quality, the artists no less. Meticulously selected from various possibilities…..

An impactful diptych by Hema Upadhyay, this particular work travelled through seven museums all over the world. An important early work by Surendran Nair, a stunning Siddharth work that is not his typical style, Sudarshan Shetty, Vasudha Thozur and the list goes on. An intricately worked papercut on wasli by Anindita Bhattacharya, bold-lined Prakash Karmakars that never fail to invoke that feeling so nostalgic. The attempt : to bring together masterful works by near contemporaries working at  advanced and complex levels. Works that have achieved eventual virtuosity.