As part of the Focus Festival Mumbai, Art Musings has collaborated with Tasveer to present 37 Indian Still Lifes. 37 of the leading photographers working in India today investigate the subject of still life, and to see how this subject can be explored in a specifically Indian context. Whilst one of the central genres in the history of art, this has been an all but neglected field of enquiry in contemporary photography in India – overshadowed primarily by the social documentary of Indian photographers and the increasingly conceptualized gaze of foreign reportage in India. As such, the cultures, events and landscape of India are often documented, but the presentation of physical objects, and the narratives therein remain largely uninvestigated.
Art Musings presents a solo exhibition of Nalini Malani (1946, Karachi), one of India’s best-known senior experimental multimedia artists; who has from the very outset, given the alternative voice a platform in her politically engaged art. The exhibition features paintings, as well as a shadow play, comprising 30 turntables and reverse, painted cylinders, as well as a single channel video work. Building up innumerable layers of fragmentary images into dreamlike and allegorical constellations, Malani’s work can be interpreted as a series of phantasmagorical tales. They are charged with critiques of violence, repression and contradiction that plague contemporary society, without becoming didactical but opening up thought provoking interpretations for the viewer.
Art Musings at the India Art Fair – Booth E- 1, in New Delhi, is showcasing 11 artists. S H Raza’s work has mystic aspects of Hindu philosophy. The ‘Bindu’ is more of an icon, sacred in its symbolism, and placing his work in an Indian context. Sakti Burman’s paintings evoke the look of a weathered fresco, using a marbling effect, achieved by blending oils with acrylics, and employing pointillism. Anjolie Ela Menon’s art incorporates diverse cultures, with traces of Byzantine traditions. Her works juxtapose the classical icon and the popular image. Nalini Malani is a multimedia artist whose practice encompasses painting, projected animation and video. Baiju Parthan, an inter-media artist, works with traditional media of painting as well as digital technology based installation art. He is showcasing a suite of small paintings. Raghava K K’s work is inspired by current and past events, in which he creates his own version of history through stories and not facts. Nilofer Suleman’s paintings, with elements of Indian typography and street graphics is a coalition of styles that take Indian Graphic Culture onto a contemporary platform. Jayasri Burman weaves the design element of the folk idiom into the intricate patterns of her work, retaining the natural charm and naiveté. Maya Burman’s paintings have a tapestry like effect, the details of Indian miniature painting and French art nouveau tradition merging in her art. In Viveek Sharma’s work, social, and political topics are conveyed through metaphors. Smriti Dixit’s palette consists of textured fabrics and plastics. She embraces the processes of experimentation and creation to communicate the concepts of rebirth, recycling and renewal.
31.01.2013 – 03.02.2013
Anjolie Ela Menon | Tara | Oil on Masonite Board | 36” x 24” | 2013
Baiju Parthan | Hard Grain | 24” x 24” | Acrylic on Canvas | 2013
Jayasri Burman | Nurturing -1 | Watercolour | Pen & Ink on Paper | 36’’ x 36’’ | 2012
Maya Burman | Summer of Dreams – 8 | Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper | 10" x 10” | 2012
Nalini Malani | Nature | Limited Edition – 1 of 7 | Mixed Media Collage | Pigment Inks | 21" x 21” | 2010
Nilofer Suleman | Jyotishi Aiyer | Acrylic on Canvas | 49” x 45” | 2013
Raghava K K | Merry Old Soul (Study) | Acrylic on Canvas | 28” x 18” | 2012
Sakti Burman | Maa | Oil on Canvas | 51” x 38” | 2012
S H Raza | Bharat – 2012 | Acrylic on Canvas | 100 x 200 CMS | 2012
Smriti Dixit | Ivory Quilt | Mixed Media On Canvas | 96” x 96” | 2012
Viveek Sharma | Reflections of Mahatma | Oil On Canvas | 24” x 23” | 2013
Art Musings is proud to present a solo exhibition of Maïté Delteil, (1933, Furnel, France) entitled Enchanted. This is her third solo exhibition in Mumbai with Art Musings, after the highly acclaimed Gardens of Grace, 2004 and Fruits of Grace, 2007. The exquisite images that comprise Delteil’s recent body of paintings at first glance may appear to express a preoccupation with the genres of still life and landscape; but they are more accurately readable as meditations that unfold in the borderland between memory and fantasy, wakefulness and dream. Delteil’s attentiveness to detail is a form of devotion: her paintings are songs of praise, in which she exalts the beauty of things even as they pass into decay and dissolution, as creatures of time. The exhibition will also see Art Musings releasing a coffee table book to coincide with the exhibition, which will document the artist’s works spanning her entire career, some rare photographs of the artist with her family including her husband celebrated artist Sakti Burman and daughter Maya Burman, as well as contain in-depth writing by eminent writers.
12.01.2013 – 02.02.2013
Maïté Delteil | The Golden Sky | Oil On Canvas | 8.5” x 10.5” | 2012
Maïté Delteil | The End Of The Day | Oil On Canvas | 38” x 51” | 2011
Art Musings is proud to present a solo exhibition of Padma Shree S H Raza entitled Vistaar. In the course of a career spanning nearly seven decades, Raza has dedicated himself to a quest for vital forms that convey his earliest memories of landscape and cosmic expanse, language and silence. The circle or ‘Bindu’ has become more of an icon, sacred in its symbolism, and placing his work in an Indian context. To Raza, painting is akin to the meditative practice of japa, the fully –engaged repetition of a mantra, until it is deepened and concentrated into a pathway of energy. Working with basic forms such as the point, the circle and the concentric diagram, Raza has pursued a pictorial japa as a means of approaching the deep sources of the self. His art lends itself to such a quest for intensity: the compass of its scale meets the eye in an intimate encounter; the linear stroke, the chromatic pitch and the unspoken sound explode, not at the distance set by the frame, but within our minds. In his favoured vocabulary of motifs, alongside cosmic references as the bija or seed, the bindu or focal source, the divya-chakshu or inner eye, and the kalpa vriksha or cosmic tree, the artist also dwells on the twinned nagas, the interlocking serpents emblematic of regeneration, and the yoni, the locus of the female principle.
27.11.2012 – 05.01.2013
S H RAZA
Jeevan Pravah
Acrylic on Canvas
100 X 100 CMS
2012
S H RAZA
Neel Shyam
Acrylic on Canvas
100 X 100 Cms
2011
S H RAZA
Neelabh
Acrylic on Canvas
120 X 60 CMS
2012
On Request
S H RAZA
Aabhas
Acrylic on Canvas
100 X 100 Cms
2012
Bangalore based artist, Nilofer Suleman, (1963, Indore, India) is in Love with India and with each exhibition it grows. Her next solo opens with Art Musings on 19 October 2012, entitled Bombay Bioscope. Before big screens and bollywood, there were bioscopes. Beautifully adorned and unassuming, you could peek into them and watch the real world around you disappear, revealing a painted universe. Bombay Bioscope does exactly that. Watch Mumbai as we know it dissolve into an older world where stars come to Parsi cafes, dreams are made in old studios, walk through the streets of Chor Bazaar and pick up old crumbling books at Fort; watch a movie in Palace theatre. A celebration of Bombay and all its innocence and beauty, a city that unites and goes on and on and on. Suleman is inspired by Indian typography and street graphics. Her work is a coalition of styles that weave together a host of Indian influences: animated characters, old and charming lithographs of gods and goddesses hidden away on tin boxes, hilarious misspelt words and matchbox art. Nilofer Suleman’s style juxtaposes the real world on the streets to a softer world where lotuses sprout from any surface, serpents fall asleep daintily in one’s hair, and blue-skinned lovers embrace.
Art Musings is presenting the next exhibition of Smriti Dixit entitled Feasting & Fasting. The art of Smriti Dixit is born out of her experiences with everyday life. Drawing on small moments and intimate interactions, she fashions objects carefully, using handmade techniques, engaging in the tactility of her materials, becoming familiar with their specific properties. The artist says, We can touch with our eyes, see with our ears. Dixit’s art is an indelibly feminine procedure, finding its foundations in the process of its creation as much as in its final form. The activities which go into creating this diverse body of works are as varied as stitching, quilting, adhering and even distilling distinct elements which are brought together.
Art Musings opens their next exhibition on 28 July 2012 with a group show featuring renowned contemporary artists Baiju Parthan, Gopikrishna, Shibu Natesan, Raghava K K, Sudarshan Shetty and Bose Krishnamachari. The gallery will display important works from their archives, which are part of their permanent collection.
28.07.2012 – 25.08.2012
Sudarshan Shetty | Wet Paper | Oil On Canvas | 72" x 48" | 2005
Baiju Parthan | Yield 2 - Oursourced | Acrylic On Canvas | 6 X 12
Shibu Natesan | Untitled | Watercolour On Paper | 23" x 17"
Art Musings opens their next exhibition Quarto 2012 featuring Shruti Nelson, Viveek Sharma, Pradeep PP, and Ajay Dhandre. In Shruti Nelson’s mythical world, one is transported into dreamy, breezy landscape inhabited by figures and wild animals in their natural splendour. The use of paper on paper collage is emphatic and almost three dimensional in format. There is no pre-planned narrative, but a spontaneous abstract idea of the feel of a place she would like to evoke. In Viveek Sharma’s work, social, economic and political topics are conveyed to the viewer through messages and metaphors. This series entitled, ‘Freedom by Midnight’ are inspirations drawn from the aftermath of the great freedom struggle that the people of India experienced together with its leaders. Ajay Dhandre investigates the dawning of an era of revolutionary experiments. Humans morph into cyborgs, the line between biology and technology starts to blur. The seamless merging of intelligent machines with organic life gives rise to a new hybrid reality, indicating an evolutionary step into the future of human history. Pradeep PP graduated from JJ School of Arts in 2008. He is the recipient of the Kerala Lalithakala Academy Award. Through his paintings, Pradeep tries to depict the deterioration of traditional life, the fast changing social and cultural epoch, and the loss of human values due to an overpowering invasion of urban life style.
28.04.2012 – 20.05.2012
Viveek Sharma | Life on Fast Track | Oil on Canvas | 48” x 60"
Viveek Sharma | Freedom by Midnight – 1 | Oil on Canvas | 48” x 24”
Shruti Nelson | Untitled | Mixed Media on Paper | 36” x 36”
Shruti Nelson | Untitled | Mixed Media on Paper | 19” x 13” | 2012
Ajay Dhandre | Cyborg – C60 | Watercolour & Pencil on Paper | 60” x 66”
Ajay Dhandre | Cyber Horse-H40 | Watercolour & Pencil on Paper | 30” x 20”
Art Musings is presenting the debut solo exhibition of Nandan Purkayastha, entitled Monochrome, where the young artist is exhibiting intricately detailed pen and ink works on paper. The series is based on the ancient custom of Durga Puja. The paintings offer a rendering to the process through which the purpose evolves. From preparation to packing, it is more a feeling and living of the art and harmony than religion. The series takes one through the entire process from creation, devotion, celebration to immersion. The exhibit becomes a means of altering “dust thou art and unto dust thou returns” by conveying how an idol can never be the means of exalting spirituality. It is perhaps one of the most endearing visual celebrations. The idols of Durga are sculpted from clay and reach their end by dissolving into the river-beds, a yearly routine, time-bound. Yet, the lessons that one learns and the sentiments that one attaches, the belief one holds and the craft one creates, is timeless.
06.03.2012 – 15.04.2012
Nandan Purkayastha | Glass Blowers - 4 | Pen & Ink On Paper | 30 X 58 | 2011
Nandan Purkayastha | People Having Prasad | Pen & Ink On Paper | 28 X 60 | 2011
Nandan Purkayastha | Glass Blowers - 3 | Pen & Ink On Paper | 30 X 62 | 2011
Nandan Purkayastha | Building Up The Pandal- II | Pen & Ink On Paper | 21 X 29 | 2012
