Pet Shop: Degree Xerox Culture

The new exhibition of project of Chintan Upadhyay, titled ‘Pet Shop’ presented at the Ashish Balram Nagpal Galleries, Mumbai created hue and cry amongst the art loving community for the provocative posturing held up by the artist. JohnyML visits the show and debates the issue of originality in the context of ‘xerox culture’ more »

A Horizon Waiting for a New Dawn

What is happening in the contemporary art scene of the North Eastern States? Does the perceivable ‘lack’ connote our callousness and apathy or the absence of an internal dynamics? Amrita Gupta Singh enquires the North Eastern ‘problem’ in her essay and says that it is high time that we look at the works created by the artists from the region. more »

Whose memory is it, anyway?

The Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata houses one of the largest museums in India. A ‘treasure trove’ though, it fails to attract serious viewers as the curatorial interventions are minimal and the current display looks anachronistic and redundant, says Oindrilla Maity. more »

Excavating the History of the Present

Savi Savarkar’s art is political and provocative. He questions the established order of ‘brahminical’ art production, proliferation and consumptions. Having Ambedkarite ideology on caste and class issues as his driving force, Savi has been working towards establishing a visual language of his own for the last few years. Y.S.Alone, theoretician and art historian analyse the politics and aesthetics involved in Savi’s works. more »

“Who” Are You Looking At?

What does a viewer do in front of a work of art? Is he a passive receiver or an interceptor of a smooth given narrative? Samudra Kajal Saikia, drawing examples from the discourse of spectatorship, attempts to qualify the viewer as an ‘issue’ rather than receiver of the given. The spectator is a troublesome agent, says the author. more »

A Monk who Sold his Ferrari

Amit Ambalal has a monk like demeanour; perhaps a laughing monk. Born and brought up in a Gujarati business family, he could have been a successful business man. But he took the road of abdication for pursuing an artistic career. Amit draws his subjects from the life near around and he sees it with a pinch of satire. During his solo show at the Gallery Espace, New Delhi, Rikimi Madhukaillya caught up with him for an extensive interview. Excerpts »

Primitively Modern Artist

Shreyas Karle is the winner of Bodhi Art Award 2008. A post graduate in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda, Shreyas work with several mediums including video and photography. Interested in public art projects, he would like to see himself as a nomad who moves from place to place, ideas to ideas. Rollie Mukherjee speaks to Shreyas to know more about his art and views. Excerpts »

Shivangi Ambani-Gandhi. Sydney

A dome-shaped, deserted, military bunker on the very edges of the history imbued Cockatoo Island in Sydney, fills with shadows from Nalini Malani’s ‘The tables have turned’ A shadow play (2008). Transparent cylinders rotate slowly, projecting shadows of tigers and skulls and running children as they collide and disappear to create a narrative of epic proportions. more »

To be or not to be… an art gallerist

Anubhav R Nath is a curator and director of Ojas Art and a founder member of Ramchander Nath Foundation. He is a keen observer of the art market and also advices on the same. Anubhav is making a point with the role of Galleries in the market. “A gallery cannot be a museum and should not even try to be as not only is there a conflict of interest but its simply unviable”, he says. more »

The Bodhi Art Award Show, 2008

Shubhalakshmi Shukla discusses the Bodhi Art Award Show’2008 and also she sheds light on the selection process. Nazima Rangwala’s etchings, Sandeep Pasilkar’s “Pushpak”, Shreyas Karle’s “Kala Ajooba, Boshundhara Mukherji’s large ‘hanging’ are the attractions of the show, says the author »

An Affair with Stone

V. K Rajan’s works are meant to bring out the hidden lucidity of stone through ostensible forms and contours. Last month Rajan had a solo show at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery, Kochi organized by Bombay Art Gallery. Renu Ramnanath ventures through the open secretive love affair of the artist with his medium, granite. more »

Myths of Unspoken Biospheres

JohnyML visits ‘Myths of Unspoken Biospheres’ at Guild Gallery, Mumbai curated by Shubhalakshmi Shukla and reviews the works by the two artists Sudheesh K and Jeetander Ojha. “Polemically opposite in their approach and articulation, these two artists try to grapple with the present day reality through their respective areas of interest in history and culture,” says the author »

Art Gallery being a Playground

“Art as an activity is a conflation of child-like play and adult-like responsibility,” feels John Xaviers while visiting a group show, Hide & Seek at OED Gallery, Kochi. Anpu Varkey, Kajal Shah, Kavita Balakrishnan, Neema Vaghela, Pramodh Kumar, Prasad K P, Ruchin Soni, Roopasri, Sujil S, Sujith K S, Sumesh Kamballur, Umesh Unni and Varun Cursetji are the artists participating in the show. more »

Lunatic in My Head - Reviewed by JohnyML »

Sabd - Reviewed by Mrityunjay Prabhakar »

Amit Ambalal - Reviewed by JohnyML »

Delhi Sketchbook – JohnyML »

Mumbai Sketchbook - Abhijit Tamhane »

Kolkata Sketchbook - Oindrila Maity »

Kochi Sketchbook - Renu Ramanath »

Version True - Uma Nair »

Beyond The Faces Of Fame

Imagine a bare-bodied Husain — black eyebrows, white beard — standing in front of his work that he had given to Indian Airlines in the '70s. Then think of Francis Newton Souza at his apartment in New York, standing next to one of his famed Heads. An unusual moment in the life of India's finest abstractionist Nasreen Mohamedi — demure and delicately poised — all these images are part of a historic show at New York's Sepia entitled "A Critic's Eye". The critic is none other than the late Richard Bartholomew who discovered and wrote about the famed Progressives long before the world woke up to Indian art. more»