Art We Heart - Art Events and Exhibitions in India
Weekly Round-Up of Art Events, News and Art Exhibitions in India
The harbinger of art, Artsome, presents a weekly curation of the shows dotting the mellifluous Indian art landscape.
Written by Monica Arora
Art Exhibitions in Delhi this week
I. Works on Paper and Ceramic Sculptures
Mona Rai and Ray Meeker
31 October—28 November 2021
Nature Morte
Dhan Mill, New Delhi
Here is an outstanding show wherein two artists are brought together to create a magical symphony with the play of material. Born in the 1940s, both artists have established a distinct vocabulary of representing form and structure in some interesting avatars.
In this, the exhibition is entirely Mona Ray has displayed works that were created during the tumultuous pandemic over the last two years. It is no surprise that these patterned almost meditative creations recreate a sense of focus, isolation and surrender. Deploying mediums such as inks, graphite and paints in tandem with paper stickers, metallic foils, and organic substances, these works have evolved their own unique space that is reminiscent of shadows flitting between bursts of light.
Ray Meeker, known to make clay dance to his tunes, displays a diversity in his newest works, featuring small hand-held, object-like creations and the larger pieces. Instead of working on the traditional potter’s wheel, Ray takes chunks or slabs of clay and shapes it with hammers and crowbars to design each of his sculptures. There is a raw physicality and complete surrender to the abstract and the imaginative that enables viewers to interpret these in their own personal way.
II. The Conference of the Birds
Abhishek Singh, Bhajju Shyam, GR Iranna, Jagannath Panda, Lado Bai, Manjunath Kamath
16 October—7 November 2021
Ojas Art
New Delhi
As an ode to mother nature and in sync with the ever meaningful conversation around conserving the environment, ‘the Conference of the birds’ is an important exhibition based on its theme. The show derives its name from the 12th-century Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar’s epic poem, ‘The Conference of the Birds’ wherein birds fly across seven different valleys in their search for a leader. They glide over the Valley of the Quest, Love, Understanding, Independence and Detachment, Unity, Astonishment and finally, the Valley of Enlightenment.
An impressive repertoire of artists including Abhishek Singh, Bhajju Shyam, GR Iranna, Jagannath Panda, Lado Bai, Manjunath Kamath, Rameshwar Broota, Waswo X Waswo, Madhvi Parekh, Sudipta Das, and others are part of this interestingly themed show. Each artwork, be it by the indigenous and tribal artists such as Lado Bai or Bhajju Shyam or by contemporary artists like Iranna or Panda, is focused around the thought of making the environment an integral part of our highly consumerist and materialistic existence.
Art Exhibitions in Mumbai this week
I. Untold
Shreya Pate
23 September—12 November 2021
Galerie Mirchandani + SteinrueckeMumbai
As a trained architect, the element of simple concretised structure in Shreya Pate’s first solo exhibition is hard to miss. Whilst exploring the domestic dwelling unit within the ordinary existential ecosphere of a single person, Shreya has a tendency to displace objects from their familiar spaces and encourages the viewers to have a conversation with their surroundings. And suddenly, one realizes how things aren’t just what they appear at first at face value.
Art Exhibitions in Goa this week
I. Come Into Play
Darpan Kaur, Sagar Joshi
29 October—30 November 2021
The Project Cafe
Assagao, Goa
This exhibition is curated by Samira Sheth and features works by Goa-based abstract artist Darpan Kaur and Ahmedabad-based sculptor Sagar Joshi. Here is a respite from the exhaustion and sadness inflicted by the epidemic. Kaur’s work is part of a series called ‘Wild Things’ that is inspired by the joie de vivre of dwelling in Goa, the land of luscious green flora, golden beaches and buttercup yellow sunsets.
Enamoured by the small joys life of life, Joshi’s miniature papier mâché sculptures are a celebration of the bond between humans and their pets and are akin to making the most of the small moments in life that make the mundane and the monotonous pattern of everyday life fun.