IDENTITY

PAINTING EXHIBITION "Mystic Abstracts & Fuguratives" Group Show at Mystiq Art Gallery - 11th to 24th July 08 Time : 11:00 am -7:00 pm

Event Details : Group show of artists including Alka Raghuvanshi, Bikash Poddar, Dharmender Rathore, Manisha Gawade, Niren Sen Gupta, Seema Kohli, Sidharth, Siraj Saxena, Sridhar Iyer, Ram Dongre, Pankaj Saroj, Mohammed Suleman, Jiaur Rahman and others.

Jiaur Rahman - The work of Jiaur Rahman titled Friendship:

Jiaur Rahman's canvas shows the spirit of friendship in a very colourful way. The contrast of the background in a brick reddish colour with the bright yellow and blue adorned by the boys is very powerful, it is attractive, yet subtle, it draws your attention but does not obscure the overall theme of the canvas. All the boys have their backs facing the viewer and are intertwined with each other as each has his arm over the shoulders of his friend and their is a sort of wrinkle on their garments that seem to run across all the boys, a force or common sense of purpose seem to be binding them all. Their is an unmistakable sense of common purpose that these lads are pursuing.

Jiaur Rahman has used water color on paper to portray the life in a rural area that is close to either a river or the sea. The liberal use of white,brown, green and blue has brought to life the day to day activities you'd associate in such idyllic surroundings.

You have fisherman cherishing the days catch, surveying their nets for any damages, baskets over laden with fish ready to be sold. Others are viewing the horizon as they wait for their folk to return from the sea. The entire portrait is done in blue, earthy browns and silver hues.The sea is a riot of blue and the ocean reaching the shore and spreading its white foamy spray is vividly captured.

Then there is this depiction of what seems a corridor of power in yester years. The columns now seem dilapidated and the vibrant colors that probably adorned the walls is now just a memory. The floors that were trodden by the powers that be are now barren and eroded with the passage of time. Rahman's use of subdued colors in no way takes away the feeling that this was once something important. The corridor leads to a passage way ending into an entrance, the top of which has an unmistakable presence of what is probably a coat of arms. The image is of a power subdued, lost in the passage of time.

Rahman also contrasts rural life with urban life as well. What catches the eye and numbs the senses is the loneliness the town represents. Mortar, bricks and electrical poles seem more close to each other, rather than human beings. The blackish background of an urban surrounding, of people lost in their own world gives out vibes that are uncomfortable.
Contrast that with the canvas depicting a rural setting. Its as if you have just wiped clean a murky window and can now see everything clearly. The scene is friendly and welcoming. Dogs, sheep and chickens are seen mingling together. The houses are mere huts, but they are homes and not houses of the city. The rural surroundings are clean and not cluttered with the waste associated with an urban landscape. The image is one of an unhurried life associated with the villages.

Source:  http://www.delhievents.com/2008/07/painting-exhibition-abstracts.html

Gallery Espace Presents Veteran Artist Amit Ambalal’s Recent Works Inspired by Bali

New Delhi: Gallery Espace presents “Recent works by Amit Ambalal”; a solo exhibition of more than twenty new works (paintings in oil on canvas & sculptures in bronze) by Ahmedabad-based veteran artist Amit Ambalal from July 22, 2008 to August 12, 2008 at Gallery Espace , Level 0-1, 16, Community Centre, New Friends Colony. The exhibition will be accompanied by a well-documented book on the artist’s stylistic oeuvre by independent critic and curator, Gayatri Sinha. Also on view will be a unique installation of 35 bronze crows which attracted widespread attention when it was first shown in Ahmedabad.

Says Ms. Renu Modi, Director, Gallery Espace : “Ambalal’s work may be seen within a critical phase of Indian modernity, his adaptations and resistance, as he seeks to create a language that is both recognizable and intensely personal.”

Born in Ahmedabad in 1943, Amit Ambalal qualified in Arts, Commerce and Law to become a businessman before taking up painting full time in 1979. So taken in was he by his childhood dream of becoming a painter that he sold off his family-owned business (textile mill) in 1977 to pursue this passion. Trained under veteran artist and teacher Chhaganlal Jadhav, Amit’s engagement with the arts extends to a wide ground of historical research, documentation and collection and his particular interest in the Nathdwara School of Painting. He has to his credit a book on the subject, Krishna as Shrinathji - Rajasthani Paintings from Nathdwara, published by Mapin in 1987, followed in 1989 by an exhibition of Nathdwara paintings from his collection. His work can basically be divided into two categories. One has a contemporary approach to tradition via the popular religious traditions. And the other is the historical Rajasthani Nathdwara devotional paintings he has been creating for the last two decades now. Part of his work also revolves around human drama.

Amit Ambalal occupies a singular position as a satirist-painter who develops parody, caricature and mimicry into visual tropes. He usually works from the familiar and the domestic outwards, tentatively inhabiting unfamiliar worlds. In the present paintings, we may participate in his elliptical style of autobiographical narrative with Amit, his wife Raksha and their dog Dusky and the monkey god Hanuman – figures from known and imagined spaces, who confront change like brave if somewhat, bewildered travelers. The outcome is an alchemic mix of ideas that fosters a sense of dislocation.

The accompanying publication seeks to locate Amit Ambalal within a particular framework: his own roots in a mercantile family with strong traditions of devotion, his seminal research into the visually opulent 19th century school of Krishna as Shrinathji and the reappearance of this twinned strain through his critique of figures of authority and faith. It covers nearly four decades of a practice marked by keen observation that is enriched through references to signs and visual coda, colloquial references and aphorisms.

A prosperous society embedded in a destitute society is thus oft the focus of his work. His portraits of are simple and a direct means of him coming to terms with the horror he sees around him. He has a unique ability of perceiving quirks and flaws in human behavior and making them part of his great pictorial scheme on canvas. It’s often been noticed in his canvases that where his faces, body and gestures are devices of his irony, it's the color, design and texture that gives his paintings the light and easy mood.

 
Hypocrisy doesn't bother him, he prefers to splash it on canvas and mock the world thus. Says he, "I don't decide what to paint before hand, the initial idea may be from a newspaper photograph I have seen in the morning or an antique sculpture. Then as I am painting something starts to grow inside that canvas and that takes on the final form on the canvas.”

Be it historical or contemporary, his work is paired with the critical, irreverent humorist creating a satirical representation of the everyday and the divine, filled with eccentric human and animal protagonists. Works titled ‘Painted Tigers Don’t Bite’, ‘V Fall Victory’, ‘Nat-Raj’, ‘Kaun Hai’, ‘Barking Dogs Do Bite’, ‘Jacuzzi In Jurassic Park’ & ‘Pee-Cow’ all showcase a no-nonsense double-take on a nonsensical universe populated by the beautifully contorted and attenuated bodies of his idiosyncratic protagonists, human and otherwise.

The works thus have a directness of appeal which gives it an assertive quality. His practice of figuration seems to enjoy a rare freedom perhaps not available to those with the weight of academic training on their shoulders. Yet it is not out of naiveté that the artist draws in his characteristic manner. Rather, it is a carefully devised figuration that he makes use of; the deceptive looseness of line in his work is perhaps matched only by the tautness of his terse commentary.

A large part of Amit’s work is in watercolors- a medium he terms as ‘friendly – guiding you where to stop’. However, this current exhibition will showcase his recent works in the oil medium- a part of a series influenced by his recent trips to South East Asia- particularly Bali where he was invited for an artist residency. To quote the artist, “The exotic island of Bali has always intrigued me with its underlying likeness with our own visual culture. The legends of Mahabharata and Ramayana are brought to life in the pictorial images that we see in Far East as also the Ajanta and Ellora Caves of . What is indeed fascinating about the Far East Culture is the harmonious relationship that man shares with nature resonating his acceptance to all its forms, be it gods or demons. Vivid images of graceful women in temple processions and idiosyncratic protagonists, human and otherwise, thus find way on to my picture plane.”

Amit Ambalal held the first solo exhibition of his work at the Hutheesing Visual Arts Center in Ahmedabad in 1980, and has had numerous solo shows through the length and breadth of the country, since. His work has also been represented in several group exhibitions in , including the Sixth Triennial - , 1986, and the Bharat Bhavan Biennale, 1990; and abroad in Amsterdam, Harvard and Perth , amongst others. Winner of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, Amit’s works feature prominently in noteworthy public and private collections like the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum , London , amongst others. The artist lives and works in Ahmedabad.

INDIA ART SUMMIT 2008

India is hosting its first art fair of modern and contemporary art called "India Art Summit". It will be held on 22nd -24th of August 2008, at Pragati Maidan (ITPO) New Delhi. Along the lines of international art fairs like FIAC, Art Basel and Freeze, this is India's step into the asian art fairs circuit. 

The fair will host a range of artworks by some of India's best upcoming and veteran artists who are being shown by 34 Indian and international art galleries. The exhibitors include Nature Morte, Palette Art, Sanskriti, Rob Dean Art, Gallery Espace, Cymroza, Apparao, Emami, Tao, Tasveer, Vadehra Gallery Bookstore among others. A range of paintings, sculptures, prints, installations, drawing and photography will be on offer.

There will also be a day long interactive seminar with internationally renowned speakers like Dr. Robert Storr, Dr. Hugo Weihe, Mr. Philip Hoffman, Ms. Geeta Kapur, Prof. Rajeev Lochan, Ms. Anjolie Ela Menon, Mr. Arun Vadehra, Mr. Dinesh Vazirani. You can register as a delegate on the Summit website.

Check out www.indiaartsummit.com for the latest developments. Do register to attend the fair, sign up as a delegate for the seminar or request an invite for the collectors preview and dinner.

22nd August 2008 (Friday)

11:00am - 2: 00pm (Collectors Preview by invitation only)

2:00pm -8:00pm (Fair open)

23rd August 2008 (Saturday)

11:00am - 8:00pm (Fair Open)

10:30am - 6:30 pm (Day long seminar)

7:30 pm onwards (Cocktails and Dinner at Intercontinental The Grand - by invitation only)

24th August (Sunday)

11:00am - 6:00pm (Fair Open)

7:30 pm (Cocktails at Gallery Espace)

India Art Summit is produced by Hanmer MS&L . This is an annual event and is supported by Ministry of Culture (Government of India), NGMA, HT Mint, Art India, Asian Art News, CNBC and other corporate & media houses.

Posted by:  Neha Kirpal, Associate Summit Director, India Art Summit 2008

Hello,

In the month of July we at IndianArtCollectors specially showcase artwork s of Sohan Jakhar on www.indianartcollectors.com/sohanjakhar. 

Jakhar' s painting s are reference s from hi s surrounding, history and society.  Hi s aesthetic s delineate s the complex inter-relation s of urban and semi-urban scenario. An interesting mix of contemporary style juxtaposed against traditional theme s and designs, he examine s the visual culture of bazaar s and employ s them in hi s unique style of painting using vibrant colour s and motifs  reminiscent of hi s ancestry. It also allie s with the tradition of image making; one that combine s the skepticism of media-derived image s with an actual inversion of the documentary mode of recording facts.

Add work s by Sohan Jakhar to your collection today by simply clicking on Add to Cart. Remember our price s are all inclusive and the work s will be shipped to you by the artist with an authenticity certificate signed by him! You can also pay securely through a credit card on IndianArtCollectors!