New Delhi: Two young artists at the forefront of their respective generations in the contemporary art scenes of and explore power, eroticism, passion and violence through their multi-media artworks. While Mumbai-based artist Tejal Shah depicts the fantasies visualized by LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Intersex) people; Beijing-based artist Han Bing on the other hand explores the boundaries between profane and sacred; eroticizing ordinary, everyday objects—especially tools of manual labour, construction, and sources of sustenance.

Says Renu Modi, Director, Gallery Espace: “Both Tejal Shah and Han Bing through their multi-media artworks which includes photography, video installation, text-based works, sound works and performance art attempt to modernize, urbanize and discipline unruly populations that transgress the dominant social norms.”

TEJAL SHAH

• Three large scale photographic series: The first photograph titled The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne/Burned on the water is about Laxmi, a very well known hijra and human rights activist based in Mumbai who had expressed the wish to become like Cleopatra. The second photograph, Southern Siren – Maheshwari is also about a hijra called Maheshwari in Mumbai who expressed a desire to become a South Indian film star and see herself in a song and dance sequence, romancing the hero and to be romanced by him in return. The third photograph You too can touch the moon - Yashoda with Krishna portrays Malini’s desire to be a mother by using Raja Ravi Varma’s painting ‘Yashoda with Krishna’ as a reference point.

• 40 small scale bazaar-framed photos in 5x7, 6x8 and 8x10 size from behind the scenes of the shoots of the above large scale works.

• Sound installation with text based works titled “What are You?” – Moving casually between staged performances, documentary, music video and appropriation, these portraits direct the viewer’s attention to the physicality of several members of the hijra (transgender) community in the red-light district of Mumbai. The film moves into the documentation of one individual’s experience of the gender reassignment process and concludes with slow dancing bodies moving with colorful, neo-op, go-go patterns inviting the viewer to the life embracing vitality of this community. The installation includes four beds, which are based on those found in local brothels arranged barrack style and painted in a distressed mauve finish.

HAN BING

• Live performance on March 12, 2010: Titled Dreams of a Lost Home: Mating Season, No. 12; Han Bing will be joined by local people in this live art performative intervention that will take place in the centre of the market, just outside Gallery Espace. Han Bing questions the idea that the urbanization and "modernization" of society as unproblematic "progress," and reminds us of what is lost or destroyed to make way for the new. Holding chunks of rubble from demolished buildings, between clumps of cotton from quilts, and coils of somber, curling smoke from incense, Han Bing and local participants lie dreaming of their lost homes and estranged ways of life, and the cold, impersonal distances that the modern city and lifestyle has created between people. 

• Photographs: The artist will be showing performance photography from his Mating Season (2001) and Love in the Age of Big Construction (2006) series. 

• Video: Titled Love in the Age of Big Construction, the artist asks the viewer to consider the rural people (whom we address as dirty, low-class and uncivilized migrant labourers) who without educational opportunities, start-up resources, obscene work hours, unsafe conditions and unreliable pay; use their bodies as an altar upon which they offer the nation its fantasy of urbanized modernity but, the city in return has nothing but contempt for them and their sacrifices. Han Bing’s video thus, is a sort of secular prayer to all those construction workers.

     Paint Brush and Chisel              

     presents           

‘The Blank Canvas’

at The Art Gallery , Epicentre at Apparel House, Sector 44 Gurgaon.

From 19 th March till 23rd March 11 am to 8 Pm

In its exhibition 'The Blank Canvas', celebrates and honors 23 most promising and emerging Thai artists. For this exhibition we are introducing Mr. Theekawut Boonvijit, Mr. Kritsada Khunkumnanta, Mr. Chainarong Kongklin, Mr. Weerayut Tangtong, Ms. Wisuttisak Booddee, Ms. Ifon Visandash, Mr. Mongkol Kompang, Mr. Wiroon Chaiaupala, Mr. Aumnaj Leamasuwapun, Mr. Sumeth Put-aim, Ms. Sanisa Tulyasukh, Ms. Itsaraporn Sriputtha, Ms. Supap Kludtong, Ms. Waraya Euangpairoj, Ms. Supit Boontham, Ms. Narakron Prathinthong, Ms. Sirirath Jumroenrak, Tusanavit Jitmunkarn, Suratchai Poomngem, Atip Pholpheree, Mr. Kulsakul Bangsri, Mr. Sanchai Suttipong and Ms. Sasita Samarnpharb.

The primary objective of Paint Brush and Chisel is to bring in original, creative and contemporary art-works from across the five continents, show-casing the talent of young emerging artists. All the participating artists show-cased in this exhibition have a commendable academic background and recognition. The artists are the product of six of the finest Art Institutions of their homeland - and have been awarded and rewarded. 

Paint Brush and Chisel, has managed to put the selection and collection at an affordable price point. 
In order to introduce these emerging Thai artists to discerning art lovers in New Delhi and other cities in India - 'The Blank Canvas' is staged not merely as a meeting place of all the Arts, but also return of Art to Life - in the true spirit of Oscar Wilde's wish. 

Gautam Kansara

March 12, 2010 – March 31, 2010

Shrine Empire Gallery

7, Friends Colony (West)

New Delhi - 110 065

India

New Delhi: Gallery Espace presents PipeDreams, a solo exhibition of ten large canvases in mixed media by Mumbai-based artist Anjana Mehra at Gallery Espace, (Level 0-1), 16, Community Centre, New Friends Colony, New Delhi from February 19, 2010 to March 6, 2010.

Says Renu Modi, Director, Gallery Espace: “Anjana’s body of work gives voice to the trials and tribulations faced by those innocent victims caught in the midst of social, political and religious unrest and who have been displaced from their homes during these times of conflict in her large format canvases.”

Says Anjana Mehra: “Pipe Dreams is about an infinite search in our metropolises within the corrosive nature of technologiszed societies. It is about the eventual alienation caused by the accelerated pace of life in mechanized consumer cultures. Pipe Dreams is about that pot of gold which supposedly awaits us at the end of the rainbow.”

New Delhi: Anant Art Gallery presents ‘Between Heaven and Earth’; a semi-retrospective exhibition of paintings in watercolour on paper by the late veteran miniature artist Bireswar Sen from February 19, 2010 to February 28, 2010 at Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, 205, Tansen Marg, New Delhi, India.

Curated by renowned art historian Professor B.N. Goswamy, the exhibition inspired by the Himalayas includes more than 80 small-format paintings in 2.5 x 3.5 inches sizes and has been thematically divided into six sections titled Mountains, Caves, Clouds & Skies, Water, The Human Spirit & Woods.

Says Mamta Singhania, Director, Anant Art Gallery: “Miniaturist Bireswar Sen in his small paperworks has sought to capture the liberating and uplifting experience of spirituality through various forms of nature like the mountains, lakes, rocks and birds.”

Born in 1897 in Calcutta, Bireswar Sen grew up in an atmosphere charged with art. A disciple of Abanindranath Tagore, the artist was also inspired by the celebrated Russian painter, Nicholas Roerich. Some of his works from the exhibition include Me and my Mother!, which portrays a holy man meditating in a snow-bound cave; in ‘One whom we see not, is …’, an ochre-clad figure stands under the shadow of a rock gazing at the sky; while in Fulfillment, it appears as if some maiden in unrequited love is seeking solace in nature among the inhospitable cliffs. Again, in the painting He cometh not, one sees the tangled forms of trees and shrubs along with the little figure of a young woman. A Kulu Courtship points towards the Kulu-Naggar region in the Himalayas which the Roerichs had made their home. As one takes in the wonderfully mellow colouring and the hazy outlines of mountain peaks, it feels as if the artist is telling us a story. The artist passed away in 1974.

Programme

Friday, February 19, 2010: Triveni Auditorium: 7:00 p.m. onwards  

Witness a Poetry Recitation on the theme of the Himalayas by Prof B.N Goswamy and Surjit Patar in Urdu & Punjabi respectively. The recitation will be followed by a Bharatanatyam dance recital by distinguished Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer, Malavika Sarukkai.

Saturday, February 20, 2010: Shridharani Gallery: 5:30 p.m. onwards

Panel discussion on ‘Landscape in Indian Art’ will be addressed by Prof B.N Goswamy, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Malavika Sarukkai, Nikhileshwar Sen, Paramjit Singh, Raghu Rai and Shukla Sawant.