Art

Exhibition reviews and previews, artist interviews and features.

Object lessons

Subodh Gupta greets New Yorkers with A Glass of Water ♦ Subodh Gupta’s stainless steel glass, filled to the brim with water, created quite a splash in New York. This isn’t surprising for an artist who is often referred to as the ‘Indian Damien Hirst’ in international circles. What is surprising, however, is that Gupta’s …

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Looking back at you

While Gieve Patel’s Clouds and Skulls come across as simple studio sketches, his Wells offer a meditative exploration of the natural world ♦ Over the last four decades, Gieve Patel’s work has turned inward. Wells Clouds Skulls, his solo at Bose Pacia Gallery, Brooklyn, from the 5th of May to the 25th of June, displayed this …

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A picture is worth a thousand pixels

The new photojournalism ♦ In 1972, after a run of 36 years and more than 1,800 issues, Life magazine published its final weekly copy. The issue was a year-in-review, featuring photo essays on the last lunar landing of the Apollo mission and the approaching end of the Vietnam War. Within the glossy pages, which now appear slightly garish …

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Music of the spheres

Ranjani Shettar’s fluttering installations at a New York gallery reveal their secrets ♦ Ranjani Shettar’s skeletal sculptures hung festooned from the ceiling of Talwar Art Gallery from October the 2nd to January the 30th 2010. The filigreed shapes – loops, curlicues and disk-like embellishments – seemed to be suspended in mid-air. From their spare beauty, it …

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Flights of fantasy

An interview with Alia Syed ♦ Experimental filmmaker Alia Syed was born in Swansea, Wales, to Indian and Welsh parents. Over the last thirteen years, Syed’s films have discussed diaspora, subjectivity and narrative, creating mesmerizing visual experiences. From the 24th of December to the 31st of March, Delhi’s Talwar Gallery held Syed’s first solo show …

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Kaghaz Ke Ghar

Zarina Hashmi at Gallery Espace ♦ New York-based Zarina Hashmi has lived in homes all over the world and it is fitting that her retrospective is titled Kaghaz ke Ghar/Paper Houses. Spanning two decades (1979-99), the exhibition showcases Hashmi’s innovative use of paper in three dimensions, although it includes etchings as well. Made by pouring paper …

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Child Speak/Woman Song

Vasundhara Tewari Broota at Shridharani Gallery ♦ Much like her paintings, the title of Vasundhara Tewari Broota’s current show at Triveni suggests more than it says outright. However, as is evidenced from the catalogue essay by Gayatri Sinha, Broota has a lot to say – this time about childhood, and the woman as a mother and …

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Thukral & Tagra

Admen, artists, ambassadors ♦ In the ongoing search to furnish India’s contemporary art scene with international emissaries, it is appropriate that two most prolific ambassadors have a background emblematic of the country’s most shining industry: advertising and design. Anything but appropriate, however, is the impish name of the fake brand that artist/designer duo Sumir Tagra …

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The Street

Yusuf Arakkal at Art Alive. ♦ There’s something very theatrical about Yusuf Arakkal’s “The Street” series. Culled from candid photographs that Arakkal took of people in London, Lisbon, Singapore and elsewhere, and transferred via silkscreen to canvas before painting over them, the works round up a cast of everyday characters, each one unaware that he …

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Lost and Found

Vasudha Thozhur’s intriguing works weave together personal loss and national tragedy. ♦ Vasudha Thozhur has always been interested in collating disparate elements in her work. She paints panels that draw together current events, memory, observations and symbols to create combinations that are sometimes startling and always intriguing. Hence, it is appropriate that this exhibition brings …

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