Art Scene India: Art Bangalore

Showing posts with label Art Bangalore. Show all posts

12 Oct 2019

Art News: Ochre and the Iris by Mridul Chandra

A Visual Travelogue

“Nature is so powerful, so strong. Capturing its essence is not easy – your work becomes a dance with light and the weather. It takes you to a place within yourself.” Annie Leibovitz

Art News: Ochre and the Iris by Mridul Chandra

Inspired by nature, artist Mridul Chandra paints the world around her. Vistas of landscapes from her travels are translated on canvas. She says, "Painting from this vast canvas has been the ultimate challenge, expressing what is in front of me in a personalised semi abstract expressionist manner. The eye searches for a way to depict the real in an unreal suggestion, leaving you in a state of being in the ‘here-and-now’."

She explains that this exhibition is a celebratory expression of experiencing the joys of nature and marvelling at its beauty. The watercolour paintings capture the atmosphere and the soft romantic moods of nature. "Ochre is the first colour on my palette; Iris the vehicle in the eye for seeing the world.", she says.

"My ode in this series is in celebration of well-being. Much like the practice of yoga, or meditation."

Mridul elaborates on how she gravitated towards watercolours,"Transition from oil /acrylic to watercolours came out of sheer curiosity. As time elapsed, I realised how immersive and captivating the medium of watercolours is. Employing a minimal palette, letting the colours flow, creating accidental splurges, enabling the painting to evolve with tonal gradations. Along with light and shadow playing a key role in creating the mood and atmosphere. By attempting small and medium sized works, the show in parts is like a travelogue."

As a result, a deeply meditative world emerges in her landscapes.

About Mridul Chandra:

Mridul has studied from ‘Sir JJ school of Art ‘Mumbai. Hailing from Kolkata, she now lives in Bangalore. Having worked with architects for the Asian games of 1982 to dabbling in graphics, she is now full time in painting. Spanning two decades of a creative journey, she has held solo shows in ‘Jehangir Art Galley’ Mumbai. Duo show in ‘Habitat Art Gallery’ Delhi. Besides several Gallery group shows in Bangalore. Participated in an all-Women’s’ Artist Camp in Gulbarga organised by Karnataka Lalit Kala Academy. Her works are with collectors in India and abroad.

At present besides studio work, she conducts water colour short sessions for the public to generate interest and well-being.

Inauguration - Saturday 19th October 2019, inauguration 3pm-8.30 pm.

All works can be viewed on https://www.mridulchandra.com/

Ochre and the Iris, solo show by Mridul Chandra, from 19th - 10th Nov 2019 at MKF Museum of Art, 55/1 Isha Villa, Lavelle Road, Bengaluru 560001

Timing 11-7 pm.( (Monday closed.) ph: +91 9845736550 +91 7373887557

All images courtesy the artist
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25 Jul 2019

The Melancholy State of Happiness

Frames of Existence

Rekha Rao’s recent series of paintings ‘The Melancholy State of Happiness’ gravitates towards abstraction - fields of colour delineated by bold lines, discrete pigments and dense textures. Conceptually, her works are anchored around her response to her immediate environment, adopting an observational approach, yet an active witness to the rapidly changing times. In this body of works, her ecological concerns predominate and represent urban issues and challenges, such as those afflicting local water bodies and other prevailing calamitous outcomes. A minimal palette paints an evocative landscape that is at times subdued and subtle, and at other moments, bold and dramatic.

The Melancholy State of Happiness, painting by artist Rekha Rao

Red Rain

Rekha’s artistic journey has been unusual and perhaps even extraordinary, a result of an amalgamation of coincidence, destiny and circumstances. Born in 1947, during the year that India gained independence, she grew up in an artistic and politically charged environment that shaped her art practice to a large extent. In a newly formed nation, artists grappled with notions of identity and with reconciling the past with current global phenomena and trends. Politics, society, tradition and geography were key to charting discourses in the creative fields and influenced Rekha as well.

As a child, from the age of four, Rekha sketched and painted alongside her father, who went through each and every work of hers with immense pride. Hebbar believed that a formal art education would hamper her individuality and creative expression and encouraged her to study Indian History. He continued to mentor her through discussions, debates and regular practice. Reminiscing about her father, Rekha writes, he once said, inspiration from his children, especially Rekha - ‘whose view ceaselessly refreshed my own artistic perspective’.

Black Bat

Rekha’s first art exhibition was held at Jehangir Art Gallery in 1969. The foreword to this show was written by Karl Khandalawala, an eminent lawyer and authority on Indian Miniature Paintings, who had also been a mentor to Amrita Sher-Gil. Rekha was married the same year and then travelled to Los Angeles where she lived for two years. Khandalawala was in fact, instrumental in introducing her to the art world in Los Angeles. The experience of living in the United States enriched her understanding of global art, and writings related to feminism, gender and social inequity deepened her world view. This enabled her to revisit, review and reposition her beliefs, theories and principles related to ‘home’ and art.

Childhood memories have often been represented as a kaleidoscope of colours on the canvas, and she elaborates, “Colour has the power to embody and invoke light within each painting.” As a child her father often said that a painting is not a literal exercise where the viewer has to be supplied with a long explanation. “But it is the story of the artist, and whose vocabulary comprises the shapes, surface, texture and colour on the canvas.” Rekha remains a storyteller, weaving colours, textures and motifs into a layered narrative.

Drying Clothes

In 2003, she moved to Bangalore and has lived here since. She continues to work actively for issues close to her heart and runs a non-governmental organization Mali for underprivileged women. She is also a Trustee of the K K Hebbar Art Foundation, which supports deserving artists and art projects.

Excerpted from the catalogue ‘The Melancholy State of Happiness’, recent works by Rekha Rao, written by Nalini S Malaviya.

The exhibition continues till August 4 at Saanchi Art Gallery, Bangalore International Centre, Domlur, Bangalore

All images courtesy the artist

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2 Nov 2018

Art News: Recounting Memories by Gurudas Shenoy in Bangalore

Recounting Memories by Gurudas Shenoy

at Sublime Art Galleria in Bangalore

Gurudas Shenoy’s urban spaces recount narratives constructed around places, their architecture and history to form visual chronicles. The irregular façades of structural forms conceal stories of life and living. An array of emotions, personal and collective sagas and memories lie embedded within the walls of settlements. Archives of human existence entrenched in every brick and piece of glass, the inanimate captures the living breath within its folds.

The evolution of the current series of cityscapes can be traced to his travels across India and Europe. A significant point in his artistic journey, the European visual and cultural environment opened up entirely new vistas for him. It triggered rigorous experimentations on canvas, and an expansiveness in his imagination and thought, resulting in a fresh vocabulary. Paris, Amsterdam and Prague amongst other cities, contributed to a refined aesthetic in terms of colours, lines, form, light and textures, leading him to explore the city in its vitality, sheer energy and its resplendence. His fascination with buildings, old and new, their historicity, and their silent role as witnesses to time and its transformation, their inhabitants and their lives with all its variations, became a muse.

Apart from the cityscapes, Shenoy’s newer works occupy a transitory space, where the structures from an urban skyline gently dissolve their linearity and are suggestive of memories of land and the surrounding environment. Undulating terrains, open skies and hints of topographical details speckle the surface and the works become calmer and unencumbered in their exploration. Perhaps, meditative too, reflecting Shenoy’s state of mind and a personal sense of serenity that he now embraces. The experimentations with colours and textures intensify, and he continues to gravitate further towards abstraction. He revisits landscapes - from places he has travelled to, and represents them as snapshots in time and space. The colours are vivid with strong and often dramatic brushstrokes that capture the essence of the memory – of land, its contours and colours, the play of light and the prevalent mood.

Nalini S Malaviya

Art Critic, Bangalore

Excerpt from the catalog essay Recounting Memories

All images are courtesy the artist

Recounting Memories by Gurudas Shenoy at Sublime Art Galleria in Bangalore previews on 2nd Nov and continues till 28th Nov, 2018.

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31 Oct 2018

Art News: ‘Art Bengaluru’ is back with its 8th Edition

‘Art Bengaluru 2018'– Bengaluru’s popular Art Festival is back with its 8th Edition

At UB City from 02 – 18 November 2018

The City of Protagonists by Saju Kunhan at Art Bengaluru 2018 at UB City, Bangalore,

Image courtesy Prestige Constructions

The media preview today of ‘Art Bengaluru’ offered glimpses into a well curated art exhibition, which brings together 17 Indian artists across 24 exhibits. With its inception in 2011, ‘Art Bengaluru’, the city’s first 10-day art festival was launched with the aim of celebrating art in its various forms. The idea behind it was to bring a multitude of artists and artforms from across India and the world under one roof, thus promoting art awareness as well as a deeper understanding of the arts. The 2014 edition featured artist Liu Bolin from China, popularly known as the 'The Invisible Man', and during the inaugural evening of Art Bengaluru, he performed and ‘disappeared’ into a bookshelf, even as the people watched (read about it here).

Over the years, the art festival has grown from strength to strength and has gravitated towards more serious art and artists. The exhibition this year includes artists Balan Nambiar, Gurudas Shenoy, Kavita Jaiswal, Vipta Kapadia, Parvathi Nayar, Pallon Daruwala, Romicon Revola & Saju Kunhan amongst others.

Painting by Gurudas Shenoy at Art Bengaluru 2018 at UB City, Bangalore, Image courtesy Prestige Constructions

Large stainless steel sculptures by Balan Nambiar at the entrance create a striking visual. The rest of the exhibits are distributed across floors, Gurudas Shenoy's paintings are on display on the ground floor and at Sublime Galleria. Overall, the display is cohesive and follows distinct narratives on each floor - abstracts around natural and urban landscapes, ephemeral abstractions, architectural renderings in the form of assemblages, digital recreations of mid-nineteenth century postcards and photographs that re-orient perspectives are some of the works that you should watch out for.

The art festival offers a great opportunity to visitors and shoppers to engage with art in a public space, and for its entire duration, anyone can walk into the premises and view a diverse spectrum of mediums and styles, displayed with museum-class display infrastructure under one roof.

According to Uzma Irfan, Conceptualizer / Organiser, Art Bengaluru & Director, Prestige Group, "The language of art, as expressed through sounds, colours, shapes, lines, and images, speaks in ways that words cannot. Whether you experience the arts as a creator / artist or as an art lover, you can gain great pleasure and enjoyment from all kinds of art.”

Ganesh Selvaraj - Doing the same expecting difference at Art Bengaluru 2018 at UB City, Bangalore, image courtesy prestige constructions

With curated art walks, the festival also aims to contribute to art education among both children and adults. Art Bengaluru 2018 has partnered with several schools (Parikrma Centre of Learning, Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology and Dr. Beltran’s Animation School, to name a few) to take their students through curated walks to help them better understand and appreciate the arts. Abhishek Naidu, Curator, Art Bengaluru 2018 offers, “Art Bengaluru’s aim has always been to aid in the Bangalorean front of that fight by bringing a selection of works from a diverse set of artists to UB City, thus bringing a much-needed injection of art to the city, along with a wonderfully disarming onslaught of emotion, insight, perspective and reflection that is unique to an enriching art experience.”

Art Bengaluru 2018 will start on 2nd Nov with an evening that will also include musical performances by Aman Mahajan (Pianist), Nush Lewis (Harpist), Raman Iyer (Saxophonist), and The Flying Drummers.

Edit: Updated 02 – 18 November 2018

5 Sept 2018

Art News: 'Bend' - A solo exhibition of contemporary sculptures by Kalyan S Rathore

'Bend' - The Nature Of Change And The Order Of Repetition

A solo exhibition of contemporary sculptures by Kalyan S Rathore

Curated by Nalini S Malaviya

till September 29 at Gallery Manora, Bangalore

Aesthetics in Distortion

The preciseness of mathematical rules, the natural order in nature and the variants that occur during repetition, lie at the core of Kalyan Rathore’s art making. His sculptural installations derive inspiration from form, structure, space and aesthetics that occur in nature - as an innate incidence. Rathore explores elements of design, formation and spatial arrangement as observed in nature and their underlying patterns of morphology to recreate them in his sculptures.

Rathore has been working as an industrial designer and has conceptualised and created several large scale installations, which have been based on mathematical algorithms, and employ multimedia. Applying principles of progressive distortion, he repeats patterns to create motifs that resemble flora, fauna and naturally occurring elements. The sculptural forms appear to grow organically in a sequential manner, mimicking growth and patterns in nature, yet are reduced to a minimalist form that captures the essentials - the essence of the shape, form and motif in a geometric layout.

Serendipity from 'Bend' - A solo exhibition of contemporary sculpture by Kalyan S Rathore Curated by Nalini S Malaviya

‘Bend’ explores the variant that alters the mathematical code at the fundamental level, albeit from an artistic perspective, while applying mathematical rules such as the Fibonacci sequence and other relevant formulae responsible for the progression. For instance, the fractal defines a form created by repetitive application of a mathematical rule, where the form does not have to be homogenous, but it is precise. In the event of an error or variation introduced in the rule, the precision gives way to a slight distortion of the form, while retaining its essence, which is close to what is found in nature.

In the current suite of works, ‘Bend’ employs stellation to build the polytopes with new figures and forms - the essence of floral and animal figures, and patterns prevailing in nature. The sculptures explore plurality of probable motifs, genesis of natural forms, germination of organic life, and a multitude of possibilities that manifests in nature as an intuitive process.

Nalini S Malaviya

Curator

Bangalore

August, 2018

(excerpt from the curatorial essay)

Artist’s Statement:

Reality is warped. Straight lines are ‘straight’ only under the frame of reference we choose to adhere to. Mass is the summation of energy and Energy is an equally distorted idea too. We are left with no friendly-concepts in science when Quantum-physics walks into the room. The more we explore the more we push the wrinkles of uncertainty around the corner. This is not just a metaphorical position but one that rings true in the scientific communities as well.

‘BEND’ is my ode to the world of distortion. Distortion by design and Design by repetitions. Mutations that are born out of repetition and change.

Plural from 'Bend' - A solo exhibition of contemporary sculpture by Kalyan S Rathore Curated by Nalini S Malaviya

Perhaps the key to chaos is in Order. Can this order be harnessed and explained? The answers may lie in nature. Where nature chooses Geometry as a guiding template to render herself. I seek to find the common elements in every form; from an Atom to the Universe. In flora and fauna this seeming waywardness is apparent. On deeper inspection strict mathematical principles seem to govern the recipe for growth, structure and aesthetics. Geometry it appears is the solution nature turns to in order to negotiate and resolve the need for resources.

The sculptor in me wants to pin down a ‘minimum fundamental form’ that applies itself by replicating and changing at the same time. I present to you my series called BEND; The Nature of change and the order of repetition which is an ongoing exploration of Nature inspired structures.

The exhibition continues till September 29 at Gallery Manora, Indira Nagar, Bangalore

Please share this article using the social media widgets at the bottom and do subscribe to receive regular updates from Art Scene India.

To contribute articles, please get in touch at nalini.indianart@gmail.com

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31 Jul 2018

Art News: Grazie Infinite by Shraddha Rathi in Bangalore

Grazie Infinite by Shraddha Rathi in Bangalore, Art Scene India

Intersections of Infinite Possibilities

Shraddha Rathi explores the concept of gratitude, an expressive emotion towards an appreciation of life and for tangible and intangible gifts, in her new suite of works. She creates a narrative which is rich in emotional content and universal in its reach. From personal notes to community messages, the expanse of storytelling weaves a rich tapestry of chronicles, patterns and motifs of human sentiments, moments and memories.

Adopting a multi-media approach, Rathi, a practicing artist for more than fifteen years now, presents photographs, installations, paintings and a video projection in this exhibition. With this series, she emerges from the confines of traditional bounds and expands her artistic and conceptual horizons to put forth a body of work that has meaningful associations on a personal front and has implications for a larger context.

In a significant shift this year, she created a gratitude bench with engravings of phrases and personal messages of thankfulness and appreciation. This bench organically evolved into the present suite of works and forms the cornerstone for her current engagement. Coincidentally, earlier this year she sighted the benches in Central Park, New York with their plaques that read out messages of gratitude, love, celebration and nostalgia.

Thus, innumerable stories that are intimate and personal, which celebrate the joy of living and memories of life and loved ones, and that effectively translate this personal form of gratitude into community efforts, have coalesced to materialise in the artworks for Rathi’s exhibition. Photographs of plaques, benches and the surrounding landscape from Central Park form the artwork. In addition, inscribed messages on wooden benches, swings and a see-saw, and a video projection mapping of gratitude notes that projects the text onto various surfaces, including the witness/participant, are on display. Contextualising and integrating the notion of gratitude and its universality to Bangalore’s public spaces, conceptual maps of parks are represented in the paintings. The minimalist mappings offer points of reference to local contexts and create possibilities of artistic interventions.

The theoretical premise behind ‘Grazie Infinite’ is two-fold, to reiterate and acknowledge positivity as an indispensable emotion and to extend this engagement via site specific projects to the public arena. Rathi’s practice with this shift towards conceptual art and a minimalist aesthetics lies at the intersections of infinite possibilities, employing mixed media narratives and interactive experiences, while situating them within and outside the frameworks of conventional art locations.

Nalini S Malaviya
Art Critic
Bangalore, July, 2018