Sunday 6 December 2015

Giji Scaria


Artville Artist Of The Day
Gigi Scaria
Dry Hard
Watercolour & Automobile Paint On Paper
60" X 72" 
2011
Born in 1973 in Kothanalloor, Kerala, Gigi Scaria completed his Bachelor’s degree in painting from the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, in 1995, and his Master’s degree in the same from Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, in 1998.
Gigi Scaria’s work draws the viewer’s attention towards the painful truths of migrancy and displacement. The issue of non-belonging and unsettlement reverberate between the walls on his canvas. “Gigi’s particular position is to investigate how city structures, social constructs, and the view of location is translated in social prejudice and class attitude,” says critic and curator Gayatri Sinha.
Scaria’s solo shows include ‘Absence of an Architect’ at Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 2007; ‘Where are the Amerindians?’ at Inter America Space, Trinidad, in 2005 following his residency at CCA7 there; the Art Inc., New Delhi, in 2001; and Great Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 1998. Amongst his group shows, the most recent include, ‘Popular Reality’ at the Stainless Gallery, New Delhi, Jam Jar, Dubai, and Clark House, Mumbai, in 2008-2009; ‘Keep Drawing’ at Gallery Espace, New Delhi; ‘Walk On Line’ at Avanthy Contemporary, Zurich; ‘Indiavata (India + Avatar): Contemporary Artists from India’ at Gallery Sun Contemporary, Korea; ‘Young Contemporary Indian Artists’ at 1x1 Gallery, Dubai; ‘Click! Contemporary Photography in India’ at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi; and ‘Who Knows Mr. Gandhi ?’ at Aicon Gallery, London, all in 2008. Scaria also completed residencies in Biella, Italy in 2002 and New Delhi in 2004. In 2005, the artist was honoured with the Sanskriti Award in Visual Art. Scaria lives and works in New Delhi.
img courtesy:http://www.paletteartgallery.com/
courtesy: http://www.saffronart.com/

Saturday 5 December 2015

Vivan Sundaram


Artville Artist Of The Day
Vivan Sundaram
Figure in Double Skirt
Fiberglass, plastic, rubber & iron
62" x 30" x 15"
2013
Sundaram is an artist who has been consistent in his pursuit of a politically honed art. Some of his early work from the 1970s, such as the series The Heights of Macchu Picchu, The Discreet Chann of the Bourgeoisie and The Indian Emergency give voice to a constantly reactive subjectivity. During the early 1970s, he was actively involved with the student movement, and worked with activists. This activism later manifested in his involvement with the work of the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat), of which he is a founder member and trustee. A keen organizer, he initiated the Kasauli Art Centre in 1976, which has hosted numerous national and international ~ts workshops and theatre productions.
Sundaram's major output of paintings through the 1980s marks his involvement with a historically conscious figuration. One of the interesting dimensions of his work is the excavation of the historical through the painting. Often the historical also manifests as the personal in a situation of asserting a Third World identity and a position of solidarity with the exploited and the working classes. Sundaram's political consciousness has always seized upon the topical, upon the question that needs to be asked. The Gulf War of 1991 occasioned a series of works in engine oil and charcoal on paper. Though the use of unconventional media is not new to Sundaram, this series may be seen as being special in the move towards a more conceptually-oriented practice, that from then onwards, operates increasingly in three, and then four dimensions. In thematic terms, Sundaram's recent work remains concerned with social and environmental protest, and with an 'archaeology' of the recent past. In terms of practice, his interests in the appositional interventions of Dada and Surrealism. a well as such tendencies as Fluxus has led him to constantly reinterpret the role of the artist and the values of authorship and creativity, giving his recent work a strong conceptual content. Several of his recent projects involving the use of photographs, found objects, video and three-dimensional constructs in a variety of materials, are expressly COLLABORATIVE. His role here becomes that of the arranger, the conductor, a curator in a quasi-archaeological dig that probes identities in the contemporary international context. Some of his recent exhibitions have had the appearance of meticulously presented mini-museums, each one geared to the expression of a set of conceptual meanings that are coded into every detail of the organized space.
Vivan Sundaram lives and works in New Delhi, where he is a Visiting Professor at the Jamia Milia Islamia University.
img courtesy: http://www.vadehraart.com/
courtesy:http://www.contemporaryindianart.com/

Thursday 3 December 2015

Pushpmala N


Artville Artist Of The Day
Pushpamala N
The Green Yogini
2004
Signed and dated in English (verso)
C-print on metallic paper
24 x 20 in | 61.0 x 50.8 cm
Eighteen from a limited edition of twenty
The artist is particularly known for incorporating popular culture into her work. The artist has adopted various popular personas and ironic roles as a vehicle for examining issues of gender, place and history. The comic aspect of her work carries a particularly sharp edge in her photo-based installations and projections, exposing cultural and gender stereotyping while exploring the complex terrain of contemporary urban life in India.
The emphasis on theatricality was shared by the artist who reinvented herself as the vampish heroine of her own cinematic 'photoromance', which she set in Mumbai and captured in a series of black-and-white photographs for the 'Century City' show.
courtesy:http://www.saffronart.com/

Wednesday 2 December 2015

Murali Cheeroth


Artville Artist Of The Day

Murali Cheeroth
City Fossils II
Inches : 66 x 66
Medium: Oil on Canvas

Born 1966 Thrissur, Kerala, completed both his BFA and MFA from Kala Bhawan, Santiniketan in 1992 and 1995 respectively.

His has held his solo shows at Ahmadabad presented by Kerala Lalit Kala Akademi in 2000 and at Maharashtra in 2000 & 2001. He has held 3 two-man shows at Cochin in 2007 & 2003 and 1 at Ahmadabad in 1997.

He has participated in over 20 group shows across India and aboard, lastly featuring at Emerging India, presented by Art Alive Gallery at the Royal College of Art, London, in 2007.

He has received many Awards including State Lalit Kala Akademi Award in 1997-98; Kanoria Scholarship for Print Making in 1997; Cultural Scholarship by Department of Culture, Ministry of Human Resource Development, and New Delhi during 1993-95. He lives and works in Bangalore, Karnataka.

courtesy:http://www.artalivegallery.com/

#art #contemporary #artist #muralicheeroth #artville #artistoftheday

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Jitish Kallat


Artville Artist Of The Day 
Jitish Kallat
Title: Annexation
Year: 2009
Media: painted black lead and steel
Size: 72.05 x 59.06 x 51.18 in

"My art is more like a researcher's project who uses quotes rather than an essay,with each painting necessitating a bibliography," Jitish Kallat, while defining his art. His obsessive use of the self image in his paintings as the main protagonist makes his works autobiographical. The autobiography addresses personal relations as well as the ones he has with his ancestory, time, death... 

He chooses a method that is a very economical, nearly abstract , form of narrative. Images float around the protagonist, like icons on a computer screen, creating a webwork. The sources are "any visual material relevant to me." Images of the print media are photocopied, transferred on to the surface, hence 'real', as against the painted which he considers fictional. The images are like a picture puzzle, which the viewer has to decode and conclude upon. The treatment of the picture plane is like a battered wall, and refers to the duality in his painting. 

The use of text, for titles, which are very important to Jitish, infuse the paintings with a sense of humour. An emblematic , which actually began as a joke on his classmates while at the Sir J.J. School of Art, is ironical for him. "It is like copyrighting an artwork which itself has been appropriated from so many histories, people, collaborations .." It acknowledges an acceptance as well as his critique of the modernist concept of authorship in which he revels.