22 Nov 2022

Reminiscences by Bharathi S

Recollections: Traveling Through Time

Bangalore based artist Bharathi S. revisits her childhood through paintings that wistfully capture joie de vivre, of carefree days, gone by. The paintings in the new series, ‘Reminiscences’ evoke flashes of vivid memory, of youthful days and simpler times. The kaleidoscopic images depict a fervent memoire tinged with nostalgia and innocence, and of those past moments that were uncluttered and unencumbered from the urgency and stresses of urban life. The works are suggestive of the rich fragrance of imagination and the joy of untroubled days, where time was slower, and perhaps it even stood still, more so, in small towns and villages, where Bharathi grew up.

Her works are akin to photographic film negatives, albeit in color, where masses and forms coalesce and blur, in effortless motion. The colors, as patches of pigments, take shape from a distance, and dissolve once again on approaching closer. Most of the larger paintings have figures of children either playing or watching adults complete household chores – there is an inherent exuberance and dynamism with a heightened sense of motion that is evident. A safe, secluded world is quietly tangible.

An avid traveler, she has been fascinated by clouds – their patterns and how they shift form, disperse, and re-form at times to acquire newer shapes and outlines. Their temporal nature and their transitions, have impacted her perception, in her observations of life and events and their fleeting characteristics. This in turn has inspired the small format paintings, which rely on abstraction as a tool to convey the thematic subjects as they shift forms amidst the colors, and which reemphasize the subtleties of movement and transitions.

Nalini S Malaviya

Art Critic

- Excerpt from the catalogue essay


'Reminiscences' by Bharathi S. continues till Nov 27, at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore

 

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6 Oct 2022

Technology In Museums


Technology can effectively bridge the gap between museums and younger audiences to create seamless experiences that imitate ordinary interactions by adapting and enhancing the same tools that the younger generation uses on a regular basis



In the past two years, it has become increasingly evident that technology plays a very important role in the museum experience. It allows enthusiasts and admirers to stay connected with the world of history and art, whether physically or virtually.

Technology can help bridge the gap between museums and the younger generation since their lives are constantly influenced by the digital world. Museums can create seamless experiences that imitate ordinary interactions by adapting and enhancing the same tools that the younger generation uses on a regular basis. Along the same lines, technology allows museums to boost audience participation by using gadgets that are already in use.

Holographic table at MAP , Image provided by MAP for Art Scene India
Holographic table at MAP 

Technology also helps museums bring to life their ideas and the creative ways in which they wish to engage the audience. For example, the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), one of the first private art and photography museums in Bengaluru, collaborated with BrandMusiq to give the brand a distinct sonic identity through its MOGO or ‘musical logo’. MAP’s sonic identity is inspired by the aim to bridge the gap between the past and the present, the classical and the modern, and the conventional and the contemporary.

These tools make art and history more accessible while making the museum more accessible to people with disabilities such as hearing loss, vision impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

MAP’s involvement in the confluence of art and technology makes for a refreshing change. MAP and Accenture Labs collaborated to create India’s first conversational digital persona in M.F. Husain. The viewers can interact with the artists with questions on his early life, career and family. The usage of speech synthesis software and extensive research on the artist makes for an engaging interaction. 

Husain’s holographic avatar, as part of MAP’s collaboration with Accenture India, Image provided by MAP for Art Scene India
Husain’s holographic avatar, as part of MAP’s collaboration with Accenture India

The virality of different kinds of technology and their reception by the masses help museums understand the kind of devices to use and how they can be made increasingly accessible to the audience. Haptic interfaces, iPads, touch screens, and live screenings are a few such tools that engage the audience and help museums reach out to them virtually without losing their interest.

Kalamkari Prayer Mat, 1850s, Cotton, natural dyes, Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India, TXT.0021, Image provided by MAP for Art Scene India
Kalamkari Prayer Mat, 1850s, Cotton, natural dyes,
Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India, TXT.0021

In another instance of a technology-focused initiative, MAP Academy, the educational vertical of MAP Bengaluru, collaborated with Microsoft to develop the platform INTERWOVEN as a part of Microsoft’s AI for Cultural Heritage initiative. This project is rooted in developing the digital recreation of the histories of South Asia through textiles, making it more accessible and inclusive for a global audience. Viewers sitting anywhere in the world can find connections between artworks and textiles, cultures and histories through this platform. And that really is the magic of integrating the use of technology in the arts and museums. It allows for a wider and more inclusive reach, as well as a greater participation by young audiences; it allows the museum to become an institution of the future. 

Technology can be a great tool for expanding audiences and driving engagement, however it must be used strategically. It’s more about determining what service(s) they are providing, who it will serve, and how the audience will benefit from the experience rather than adopting technology for the sake of incorporating technology.





Guest Post

8 Sept 2022

Art News: Art from Heart 2.0

Avijit Dutta

“Art from Heart 2.0”, a charity group art exhibition



More than 30 artists from all over the country are joining hands for the second series of the charity group art exhibition, “Art from Heart 2.0”, is being organized by Mamta Nath, Founder & Director, The Lexicon Art and Artist Swati Pasari from Kolkata at The Lexicon Art, Connaught Place from Sep 3rd till Oct 7th, 2022.

“The exhibition aims at representing the diverse and rich cultural heritage of India while raising funds to support the multiple community service activities being carried across India by Round Table India. This is the second in series, the first being held online in April 2020 to raise funds for covid victims and their families. Its heartening to witness the art community coming together for such noble initiatives, we are looking forward to continuing with this annual event to be able to touch more lives”, says Mamta Nath.

Some of the most renowned names in the art world are part of this exhibition, viz., Avijit Dutta, Gurudas Shenoy, Madhuri Bhaduri, Niren Sengupta, Seema Kohli, Swati Pasari, Venkat Bothsa and Vinita Karim.

Vinita Karim
“We are delighted to associate with The Lexican Art once again for raising funds for our various social causes. While in 2020 funds were diverted to help Covid victims, this year, we plan to divert them to our long-term Project, “Freedom through Education”. Through this project, we have educated approximately 9 million underprivileged children throughout India and have built one classroom a day, every day, during the last decade”, says Manish Lakhotia, National President, Round Table India.


Till Oct 7th, 2022, 11 am – 7 pm at The Lexicon Art, M 12, Block M, Connaught Place, New Delhi








Excerpt from the Press Release



2 Mar 2022

Cut Pieces by KP Reji at The Guild

The Guild presents “Cut Pieces”, a much awaited solo exhibition of recent works by Baroda based artist K. P. Reji at The Guild, Alibaug. 


K. P. Reji at The Guild, Art Scene India
The show is the first presentation in the silver jubilee year of the gallery. Reji’s works are known for their witty take on the state machinery and its multiple modes of ordering of lives of people. In this recent body of works he takes a new direction in exploring this. The meticulously constructed canvases offer a newer language, and furthermore, newer narratives in his repertoire. “K.P. Reji’s oeuvre, marked by its frontal narrative overtures and enigmatic subterranean, political sites, propels us to think about the need to define beauty in a new ontological setting. This drive is evident in his move, on the one hand, towards an allegorical mode of narratology, and a counter-move to suspend the narratorial through the ‘decoratively-real’ exteriors and interiors, on the other. In an intriguing manner, many of his works present themselves to us as allegories on practices, and works of art; as an artistic rumination on representational dilemmas of narrative idioms. 
K. P. Reji at The Guild, Art Scene India
These representational dilemmas stem from an artistic contemplation and reasoning regarding the nature of the political in the discursive universe of what can be broadly called aesthetical practices. Reji’s artistic propositions often remind us, in a Freudian analytical way, that the experience of beauty is bound up with, or is a form of mourning; it is a life-affirming act even though what one is dealing with is the most abominable. His works can be read perhaps as a pharmakon, which ex-poses the melancholies of our time; or better put, in-stances inertias that cloud our thinking and action. In a way, it presences the element of the violence of the sublime—at times, through the fracturing and fragmenting (and tearing) of form, materiality, proportion, and even composition, for the sake of the aesthetic encounter. The constant reinvention of unforeseen potentials of the affective fields of percepts and language Enables this body of work by Reji to enact the redistribution of the sensible, and thereby, open up newer possibilities of the political and the aesthetical. 

In the overall schema of this exhibition, both the phenomenology and politics of perception are evoked through the spectral presence of multiple acts of blinding. It seems that the coming together of these works proposes that only in blinding perception can the claims of colour and line be restituted, and with them, finally, the authority of the fragile and harassed human body.” – Excerpt from “Beauty as Pharmakon”, essay by Dr. Santhosh S

The exhibition continues till April 5, 2022

17 Feb 2022

Art News: Consortium by Fidelitus Gallery, Bangalore

Art exhibition celebrates senior art faculty from Bengaluru

Fidelitus Gallery kicks off 2022 with “Consortium - Art Preceptors of Bengaluru Art Institutions”, a unique art exhibition that draws attention to and features the on-going practice of active senior faculty members from 3 prominent Art Institutions in Bengaluru, namely, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath College of Fine Arts, Kalamandir School of Arts and Ken School of Arts.

Consortium by Fidelitus Gallery, Bangalore, Art Scene India, www.fidelitusgallery.com
Sculpture by Vishal Kavatekar
These institutions are decades old and markers of history in the state that have shaped the art scene in the region. Several of their alumni have gone on to become prominent names in the art industry in the country. Fidelitus Gallery through this exhibition acknowledges and celebrates the contribution of these fine art institutes and their extraordinary educators. The exhibition features 10 eminent artists and teachers - A M Prakash, Babu Jattakar, Gopal Kammar, Nagappa Pradhani, Pratibha T S, Sridhar Murthy, T S Baoni, Vishal Kavatekar, Mallappa S Halli and Nirmala Kumari and presents their paintings and sculptures. The show offers an array of fine art in diverse styles, subjects and themes, and materials and media, for the discerning art connoisseurs.

The initiative is also aligned with the Gallery’s “Heritage Wing” project that facilitates educational programs with respect to Museum and Gallery Studies.

Consortium by Fidelitus Gallery, Bangalore, Art Scene India, www.fidelitusgallery.com
Painting by Shridhar Murthy

Fidelitus Gallery aims to create an inclusive platform for the arts - both performing arts and visual arts, along with curated art educational pogrammes for the community.

The gallery is committed towards creating world class art exhibitions by curating hybrid transformative spaces by following standards of the international committee of exhibitions. It also hopes to make a difference in the arts sector through sustained efforts, all of which will gradually create lasting changes in techniques and processes of exhibiting art in the city. 

The collection from “Consortium” will be accessible in a hybrid form - both physically and virtually on the gallery website www.fidelitusgallery.com. The gallery believes in giving back to society and follows the motto of Art For A Cause, whereby, part of the sale proceeds will contribute towards Shilpa Foundation, which works on providing a healthy environment and quality education for the underprivileged in Karnataka.

Consortium by Fidelitus Gallery, Bangalore, Art Scene India, www.fidelitusgallery.comThe 10 days exhibition will be formally inaugurated on Saturday, 19th February, 2022 at 6:00 pm. It will be inaugurated at the Fidelitus Gallery on 19th in the presence of Shri Alok Kumar, IPS, ADGP-KSRP, Shri Ashok Kheny Ex MLA Bidar South, MD NICE, Dr. Pramila Lochan- Art Historian and Critic, Shri Lahari Velu, and Shri Achuth Gowda, MD & Founder Fidelitus Corp Pvt Ltd. Artists and art connoisseurs are welcome to join the inaugural program.


Consortium by Fidelitus Gallery, Bangalore, Art Scene India, www.fidelitusgallery.comVisit the show here www.fidelitusgallery.com and at the gallery address given below.

The exhibition, “Consortium - Art Preceptors of Bengaluru Art Institutions”, is open to everyone from 19th to 27th February, 2022.

Fidelitus Gallery, Brigade Software Park, No. 42, Ground Floor, B Block, 27th Cross, BSK 2nd Stage, 

Bangalore - 560070

Email: info@fidelitusgallery.com PH: +91 80 68073700


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