Upcoming Indian Artists gain Popularity Abroad
Indian art is on a roll to foreign shores. Foreign art fairs and biennales are showcasing young Indian artists with great enthusiasm. June was a month of hectic activity for artists from India.
The country was well represented at the Biennale of Sydney, Australia’s largest and most exciting contemporary visual arts event. The 15th Biennale of Sydney, on from June 8 to Aug 27, is renowned for showcasing innovative and challenging contemporary art from Australia and around the world.
Organised under the conceptual framework ‘Zones of Contact’ it features 85 artists and collaborations from 44 countries across the globe. The Indian artists participating in this event include Navjot Altaf, Zarina Bhimji, Shilpa Gupta, Amar Kanwar, Raqs Media Collective, Ranjani Shettar and Alia Syed.
Another event that took place in June was at Rutgers University in the US, ‘Rites/Rights/Rewrites’ was one of the first Indian women’s video art exhibitions that epitomized a strong feminist statement.
The exhibition comprised six journeys of Indian women artists. The exhibits explored the female body as a site of contestation that exists in locations that share similar post-colonial histories with India. The show recognised that the patriarchal ‘rites’ must displace women’s ‘rights’, which would finally lead to a ‘rewriting’ of women’s histories.
Artists that participated in this event were Monali Meher, Surekha, Sharmila Samant, Darshan Vora, Shilpa Gupta and Shakuntala Kulkarni. Arshiya Lokhandwala curated the show.
Eight artists from around the globe were chosen for Artes Mundi 2, to create a diverse and thought-provoking exhibition. Artist Subodh Gupta, the installation and purely Indianesque-intoned artist, is among those selected. He has also been short listed for the 2006 Artes Mundi, the Wales International Visual Art Prize.
And last but not least at Art Basel, the world’s premier modern and contemporary art fair that took place in Switzerland three Indian artists’ work was showcased. Subodh Gupta’s ‘Leap of Faith’, an installation of six aluminium buckets piled one on top of the other; Justin Ponmany’s ‘Staple Agony II’; and Rashid Rana’s ‘This Picture is not at Rest’.
Indian art is on a roll to foreign shores. Foreign art fairs and biennales are showcasing young Indian artists with great enthusiasm. June was a month of hectic activity for artists from India.
The country was well represented at the Biennale of Sydney, Australia’s largest and most exciting contemporary visual arts event. The 15th Biennale of Sydney, on from June 8 to Aug 27, is renowned for showcasing innovative and challenging contemporary art from Australia and around the world.
Organised under the conceptual framework ‘Zones of Contact’ it features 85 artists and collaborations from 44 countries across the globe. The Indian artists participating in this event include Navjot Altaf, Zarina Bhimji, Shilpa Gupta, Amar Kanwar, Raqs Media Collective, Ranjani Shettar and Alia Syed.
Another event that took place in June was at Rutgers University in the US, ‘Rites/Rights/Rewrites’ was one of the first Indian women’s video art exhibitions that epitomized a strong feminist statement.
The exhibition comprised six journeys of Indian women artists. The exhibits explored the female body as a site of contestation that exists in locations that share similar post-colonial histories with India. The show recognised that the patriarchal ‘rites’ must displace women’s ‘rights’, which would finally lead to a ‘rewriting’ of women’s histories.
Artists that participated in this event were Monali Meher, Surekha, Sharmila Samant, Darshan Vora, Shilpa Gupta and Shakuntala Kulkarni. Arshiya Lokhandwala curated the show.
Eight artists from around the globe were chosen for Artes Mundi 2, to create a diverse and thought-provoking exhibition. Artist Subodh Gupta, the installation and purely Indianesque-intoned artist, is among those selected. He has also been short listed for the 2006 Artes Mundi, the Wales International Visual Art Prize.
And last but not least at Art Basel, the world’s premier modern and contemporary art fair that took place in Switzerland three Indian artists’ work was showcased. Subodh Gupta’s ‘Leap of Faith’, an installation of six aluminium buckets piled one on top of the other; Justin Ponmany’s ‘Staple Agony II’; and Rashid Rana’s ‘This Picture is not at Rest’.