Feelings

Solo show by Devdatta Padekar

(Tuesday, January 22 to Monday, January 28)

Mystic Visions - at the Art House, Singapore

Solo show by Sanjay Kumar

Sanjay's artistic expression in his own defined language takes us to an era reminiscing the life of Buddha. In the present time of material abundance and people's intemperance, peace has become language of different era. Sanjay's work shows the power of peace. All stories are woven for viewers to get deep in to the subject keeping Buddha in the centre of mind, heart and body transferring the energy to the viewers. Bhikshapatra turns in to Gyanpatra, Shunya becomes Sara or Anant, that's Buddha, defining the cycle of life from a drop to an ocean and ocean to a drop.

Kalpana Shah

(Thursday, February 28 to Sunday, March 10)

Equilibrium - 13th Anniversary Show

“What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.” - Henri Matisse

Equilibrium is not just about duality as good & bad, up & down so on and so forth. If we truly want to understand equilibrium lets look at a Tree that has deep roots, which offer the foundation and stability for the entire tree to grow. From the roots grows the trunk, upright and strong, then there are branches upon that, and leaves, and fruit, and further more there are colonies of innumerous birds and creatures who establish their realms on its upright stability. Art also grows upon the strong deep-rooted creative values and ideas of an artist. Art and the artist both grow simultaneously in harmony and compliment each other as the well-balanced elements in their composition. This explains and inspires essentially of equanimity to survive in harmony within the art community. The state of equanimity in an artist’s day-to-day struggle for existence they are led to confront dualities of life: success or failure, happiness or misery etc., but these all are complimentary to each other and thus are balanced. An artist has the feeling of attachment and detachment with his creation at the same time resulting feeling of hope and joy. That is the state of equanimity of the creator and his creative expression. Nature’s law is most powerful, and every natural law has two sides to it, creative and destructive. These two processes working in harmony with one another maintain life and spin the wheel of evolution. Maintaining equilibrium between them by establishing balance between their opposing cosmic forces, nature promotes evolution. This promotion of evolution is the absolute balanced state of creative activity; nature does this spontaneously by self-referral functioning the hence, safeguards the existence and upholds the path of evolution, the path of righteousness.

(Thursday, February 13 to Friday, March 8)

Life Around Us

Solo show by Nisreen Moochhala

(Monday, April 1 to Sunday, April 14)

Adrenaline Rush

Solo show by Brinda Miller

My latest works are of acrylics and mixed media on canvas + paper. They include luminous forms set in tangential planes that shift and slide over the surface. They move like asteroids interfaced by basic forms that intersect with one another, ap pearing and disappearing as multiple washes give them visual momentum. Forms are worked in translucent layers that involve many techniques that succeed in merg ing and separating color, volume, line and texture of architectonic rhythm. These tilting planes collectively build a matrix that is meant to capture strong dimensions in compositions to achieve depth growing in its ability to exploit the Modernist tension between the material reality of painting and the imaginary space beyond the picture frame. Embedded within are the abstract idiom references to local histories, while adapting them to accommodate a personal obsession for relentless experimenta tion– A bright palette, splashes of paint and a unique technique from being spon taneous and free flowing, yet structured .The rich earth chromatic tones touched by an inner glow dominate my canvases. They are colored with vibrancy and are set against jewel tones- rust, oranges and indigo surrounded by swathes of inky black and smoldering reds.

My work is landscape based and inspired mostly by my travels all over the world. My works are an accidental experimentation of an impulsive process. The use of material and stencils, to imprint their textures, was a discovery that deserved to be used or rather reused, and developed so that the artworks could have a life of their own. It so happened that after smearing papers with paint and imprinting their tex tures on canvas, I took them up again to cut, paste, or mix and match them. sub consciously, I create multiple dimensions with paint. I use techniques such as pasting strips of paper, or slivers of dried paint, to create these artworks. I manipulate colors with contrasting splashes of color with areas that are enhanced with gold and silver leaf. My strategies include diverse materials that are strung together and tightly held, in earthy, coherent compositions. Exploring materials within a frame allows me to bend the rules within my own metaphysical confines. There is connectivity between each of the works. … And yet they differ from each other.

My latest works can be interpreted as a new phase, wherein my preoccupations are based on principles of the abstract. Form loses its outline in my landscapes. nature asserts its presence through vestigial lines – straight, angular, an arc or an ellipse, and through other geometrical devices.

It is apt, that my paintings with their new approach are showcased under the title ‘Adrenaline Rush’. Clearly, my paintings with their conscious denial of form, their preoccupations with color, particularly in their strong textural as well as aesthetic values, are seen as more than abstract landscapes. with this new body of work, it is somewhat self-evident that I wish to wrestle with the basic tool-bar of painterly options. I let the rigid make peace with the fluid, actively overlaying drips and strips in a bid to find order within a space of a self-inflicted chaos. It is a bit like letting loose a spell of chromatic hooliganism and then administering the same with another fierce round of chromatic governance; as the playful artist of this painterly unrest, I eventually restore the law and order on the canvas.

My art imitates my life. My busy multitasking life is reflected in the way I paint. There is a certain excitement, as well as a touch of anxiousness that drives me to work. I believe that my involvement in diverse art related activities have contributed to my growth as an artist. I paint several paintings at a time. I believe I have crossed another hurdle in my quest through an uncharted discovery of myself.

Brinda Miller

(Wednesday, November 13 to Sunday, December 1)

In An Iridescent Land

Solo show by Senaka Senanayake

What space does Senaka inhabit in the twenty-first century, this painter of nature and the natural world? When art is about distortion and disassembling, his fantastical realm seems far removed from his peers, a love song, almost, to a vanishing world. Where is his place? What does he say to us?

Senaka’s painterly language is about decency and tolerance, humanity and existence, beauty and balance. He teaches us about the values we are rapidly losing as we turn our backs on the earth that we inhabit, to create artificial islands of selfish prosperity, ignoring what we see around us – and, need I daresay, at our own peril. The planet lies plundered as the rapacious among us loot her. Tomorrow is an endangered concept. The future is upon us; it lies in today. Senaka could have chosen to paint that violence. Instead, he chooses to remind us of the beauty that is an important ingredient of our lives. It is what we must preserve, for ourselves and for our future generations.

Kishore Singh

(Friday, October 18 to Sunday, November 10)

The Autumnal Cadences in Blue & Red

Solo show by Ravi Mandlik

In the present exhibition Ravi Mandlik meditates to return to contemplate his art practice. It is not on a variety of things he ponders, but on a few recurrent concerns through which can be sensed underlying verities. The moment of aesthetic distance in Ravi Mandlik's work has a double edge. An alumnus of Sir. J.J. School of Art Ravi Mandlik with several international shows is respected as one of the most significant artists working in Mumbai today, producing work that uniquely straddle modes of abstraction. Beginning with a remembered experience, Mandlik works on any series for long periods, often several years, characteristically producing richly coloured, sweeping compositions, which continue into the painted space itself. Mandlik's penchant in working in different scales is evident particularly in his more recent series in mostly done in three formats-medium(40 x 30 inches) and large(48x 94 inches) mainly. The shapes and substances assuming a mental quality, conferring upon the mind that brought them forth a thrilling if somewhat a power of detachment and an acomplished syntax of language able without modification of its own nature to transmit an indefinite variety of mystical messages. There are 26 works in this show titled  "Autumnal Cadences in Blue and Red". The current enthusiasm for cool, distanced conceptual strategies threatens at times to transform abstract painting into a purely cerebral understanding. Mandlik reminds us of the pleasures to be found in visual seduction. He has an ability to state the most enduring truths in a style that is measured and patiently gathers a subliminal energy.

Nanak Ganguly

(Tuesday, October 8 to Thursday, October 24)

Stories of Invocation - Two Artists , One Energy

Rini Dhumal & Seema Kohli

Rini’s and Seema’s works might appear like simple invocations to goddesses before whom millions of women and men chant prayers, but they are more layered than merely simple narratives of a soporific religion. Both seek to dwell on the role of the goddess in a society where terrible wrongs are wreaked against women. Do we need goddesses when the universe they nursed in their wombs is poisoned with mankind’s ugly desires? Polluted beings hold the world to ransom. Extinction threatens us. Neither artist proclaims to provide any answers, yet the answers are to be found on their canvases. You are your own goddess, they seem to say, you hold your self and your future in your own hands, and though those hands may not be divine, they have the strength to care and bless and protect. If Rini brooks no resistance, it is because hers is a path to empowerment. Femininity is strength, she appears to suggest, but when justice demands avengement, Kali is but a breath and prayer away.

If you wonder whether Shiva is in hiding, or evoke the absence of Ram and Krishna, Seema serves up an alternate universe where the union of Stree and Shakti are paramount, but make no mistake, she stands too for the independent, individual woman. Dreamer though she might be, she is also her own protector and vigilante. Her painted universe might demand an offering of energies, but she creates a distinctive voice for her goddess-woman.

Could you imagine a raas without Radha? Or without Krishna? Any wonder she turns to the gods and male energy in her search for the perfect partnership, one in which they neither overpower nor are subservient to the female principle. Krishna entrances; the Buddha enlightens; Lakshmi is benevolent; Saraswati shows the way to wisdom. In a world of strife and violence, of sectarian politics and mob rampages, the gods, and the goddesses of the nine nights, are a celebration of their infinite variety, of their effervescence and playfulness, their dharma and duty. They provide a brief interlude from the rigours and stress of life.

In reinvigorating our senses from the apathy of tedium and reiterating our faith, they serve a purpose higher even than that of prayer.

May you be bestowed the joys of Sarvamangala, the blessedness of Bhavani, the beauty of Durga, the womb of Jagdamba…

Kishore Singh

(Saturday, October 5 to Tuesday, October 15)

Small is Beautiful

Conceptualised by Kalpana Shah

(Monday, September 16 to Sunday, September 29)

Beyond the Canvas

While ‘painting on canvas’ remains an integral part of most  art collections in India, the market is very steadily opening up to newer mediums and styles of art presentation. Sculptures have become a ‘must have’ in any important collector’s collection and younger collectors are also keen on works on interesting new mediums;including photography, digital works and installations.

(Thursday, August 22 to Tuesday, September 10)

Bombay Landscape

Solo show by Tina Chandroji

The blurring divisions between grand narratives and minor narratives have become a regular feature in the present day debates on globalization and cosmopolitan trends. It is no exaggeration to say, since time immemorial the legacy of Indian arts and aesthetic have made its presence felt in larger picture of the history of world art- be it through the trade during Mughal period or during the British Raj. What has remained unchanged is the undying knot between the tradition and modernism. And in the dominant times of shrinking world, Indian art loudly ‘unpacks’ itself to the other world. Indian art is no more confined to the scrutiny of western gaze but engages itself in the talks with the audience of the far shores.

Unlike the times of 1960s-80, when selected Indian artists made noise in the western world of art, today Indian art openly ‘unpacks’ itself to the viewer. It allows the viewer to come and read through the labyrinth of Indian motifs and metaphors. What makes this process of ‘packing’, ‘showcasing’ and ‘display’ interestingly is the fact that Indian art remain rooted in the past and present. The pre-colonial Indian traditional art practices and motifs are easily located in the present day Indian art piece. The alternative gaze has subverted the conventional socio-cultural hierarchies.

 The new wave of cosmopolitanand modernity has led to cultural pluralism. The artworks of Tina Chandroji in similar line, ‘unpacks’ the supremacy of belief in God within the Indian tradition. The figures –Jesus, Ram-Sita, and Buddha- occupy the central space within the frame of modern day décor. The coming together of religion and other mercantile goods draws the view closer to the multiplicity of Indian art.  Born in the metropolitan state of Mumbai, Tina has witnessed the togetherness of cultures- urban and rural, centre and periphery. She explores and dismantles this binary through her artworks. The dialogue between art, politics, and culture seek democratic art form, where the independence of artists lies in the fact that celebrates the cross-cultural framework. Tina through the new language of subsuming difference reclaims the reality. The reality is no more given but the artist reclaims the reality embedded deep within the high and profane.

Dr. Alka Pande

(Wednesday, July 24 to Saturday, August 10)

Structures

Solo show by Somenath Maity

Somenath’s paintings titled, Structures are an intense response to the urban landscape. The structures loom large like gigantic mirages on faraway horizons, dematerialising into a sky that seems to thin into nothingness, as well.  Buildings and monuments, roads and maps and all else that is part of to a city dweller’s everyday existence   unspool upon the canvas lazily as if in a dream. Everything, those  tall , sky kissed spires, veils  of  haze or the air bubbles that well up and float  to the  edge of the canvas ,  give you an impression that the artist wants us to believe in his version  of the city- a  floating oasis.

His technique has seen a marked departure from the short brush strokes and strong use of the line.   He has moved away from the brooding indigos, deep ochre and earth hues and has given way to lilacs, ebullient greens and dreamy pastels. There are times when you yearn to see the tightly wired, taut pen and ink drawings he did twenty years ago. They had a haunting intensity that was hard to forget. But, Somenath rarely stays in the same artistic space. He is restless and likes to move on, to play with his work, turn it upside down and do new things. His intrepidity and fluidity are what keeps his work fresh.

In this series of paintings the quintessential Somenath is still evident. It is hard to miss the drama and flourish. There is the meticulous eye for detail and his innate sense of harmony and spatial balance. He is very good at landscaping the urban maps we all carry within us. We can at once identify with both, the facade and its inner spirit. Yet a lot has changed.  Somenath‘s new work is characterised by play, light and energy. His colours are vaporous, and forms lyrical. There is an almost stylish creation of dream like states.

Somenath’s works are a tribute to his passionate love for the city. His talent for turning the busy and brusque metropolis into a personalised and intimate place pulsing with life and enchantment is what makes ‘Structures’ worth viewing.

Manju Pillai

(Tuesday, June 18 to Tuesday, July 2)