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

Maïté Delteil | Night, Oil on Canvas | 24’’x 20” | 2011

Maïté Delteil | Again Peaceful Day | Oil on Canvas | 32” x 39” | 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

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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.

19.10.2012 – 25.11.2012

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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.

22.09.2012 – 15.10.2012

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

Art Musings is participating in the India Art Fair, in New Delhi, showcasing 12 artists. 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 Greco-Roman and Byzantine traditions. Her works juxtapose the classical icon and the popular image. Nalini Malani is a multimedia artist whose practice encompasses painting, projected animation, video and film. She is displaying reverse paintings from the Alice series. 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 large painting is inspired by the events and forces that created independent India, in which he creates his own version of history through stories and not facts. Gopikrishna’s surrealistic paintings appear as fairytales where one can witness the ordinary and the impossible, unity and solitude, illumination and darkness. Nilofer Suleman’s work is inspired by Indian typography and street graphics. Her work is a coalition of styles that take Indian Graphic Culture onto a contemporary platform. Jayasri Burman weaves the decorative and design element of the folk idiom into the intricate patterns of her work, without losing 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 merge in her art. Nandagopal does narrative sculptural work in copper and brass. His work is steeped in tradition yet retains a contemporary sensibility. In Viveek Sharma’s work, social, economic and political topics are juxtaposed and conveyed to the viewer through metaphors. Sharma includes himself in the work by way of a self–portrait, forming an integral part of his narrative. 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.

25.01.2012 – 29.01.2012

Viveek Sharma | Making Of Rama | Watercolour on Paper | 22” x 30” | 2011

Smriti Dixit | Bird Nest | Mixed Media | 39”x 19”x 9” | 2011

S H Raza | Jeevan Pravah | Acrylic On Canvas | 100 x 100 cms | 2012

Sakti Burman | Krishna on a Peacock | Oil on Canvas | 9" x 11" | 2011

S.Nandagopal | BirdCatcher | Silver Plated Copper-Brass and Bell Metal | 28" x 15" x 6” | 2011

Raghava K K | Remote Chord Progressions | Watercolour on Paper | 42” x 30” | 2011

Nilofer Suleman | Padma Laxmi Evergreen Studio | Acrylic on Canvas | 45” x 49” | 2011

Nalini Malani | Alice thru the Looking Glass (Copper Brain Map) | Reverse Acrylic And Enamel Painting On Acrylic Sheet | 23" x 30” | 2011

Maya Burman | Blanket of Flowers – 1 | Watercolour, Pen & Ink on Paper | 10” X 10” | 2011

Gopikrishna | Man and Father in – Law Feeding a Strange Bird | Oil on Canvas | 41” x 35” | 2011

Baiju Parthan | Street- View- Study- 1 | Acrylic on Canvas | 12" x 12" | 2011

Anjolie Ela Menon | Girl with Coloured Scarf | Oil on Masonite Board | 12” x 8” | 2011

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Loss for Words, curated by Avni Doshi, features artists Radhika Khimji, Tushar Joag, Chitra Ganesh, Nalini Malani, Sarnath Banerjee, Adip Dutta, Raghava K K and Tara Kelton. The exhibition Loss for Words emerges from a passage in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’, where the author describes a bout of amnesia that besets an imaginary village. In an attempt to protect their own knowledge, they begin to label everything, until the activity of archiving every bit of information they can becomes their sole preoccupation. In this show, the curator Avni Doshi has invited artists to consider such a situation, where the names and notions of things begin to unhinge. What does this mean for history, for memory and for the way we experience objects?

12.01.2012 – 25.02.2012

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Art Musings is presenting a solo exhibition of Alibaug-based artist Nikhil Chaganlal entitled 50 Revolutions around The Sun on 5 December 2011. The opening coincides with the artist’s 50 birthday, and to celebrate it, the show features 50 acrylic works on Masonite board, depicting his famed portraits. Says Chaganlal, “By exploring the faces, I embark on a journey into the innermost soul of the subjects of the portraits I create – known and unknown. I struggle to create a direct dialogue between my work and the viewer, thus producing an expression in each of the 50 faces that is unique and typical for this particular subject.” Over the years, Chaganlal has developed a unique technique of painting on Masonite. He uses acrylic combined with oil paints and chemical sealants. He almost always paints at night by candlelight, giving his work a gentle luminosity. The entire process is time consuming – the works are multi-layered, with each layer needing to dry before he can work on it again. Once the layers have reached a significant impasto look and feel, the work is ready to be sealed chemically rendering the work 100% waterproof and scratch resistant to any kind of wear or damage.

05.12.2011 – 07.01.2012