It is not possible to categorize him as a particular kind of artist. He is a painter, sculptor, and visual artist but art treasure in himself. He is Raj Bhandare

How does one recognize an artist among the crowd? A serene, observant, man of few words and always contemplative? Yes, these are some of the traits that we jot in character of an artist. But I was introduced to the most unique personality who is not only a visual artist but art treasure in himself. He is Raj Bhandare, a multi talented artist from Goa. Raj holds Masters Degree in Architecture, but is more inclined toward creativity in visual form, be it 2D or 3D.

Goa is the treasure house of art and acculration. It is one of the finest global state that shared Indian art, culture and tradition and even technology of Americans, Africans, other Asians and Europeans. and effortlessly blended Western and Portugal culture in it. In fact other than art and culture Goa had first type print press. In modern times, artist like Raj Bhandare, prove themselves global citizens and spread awareness of Indian art through their work. 

There is lot of space and perfect aura to develop spirituality in Goa. One cannot ignore Raj’s spiritual excellence He has a pleasing  personality and spread positive vibrations that inculcates and develops optimism, hope spirituality and love. His work is his reflection, blissful nature peeps through his work. He believes in the fact that every individual craves for joy and peace, but to attain divinity one needs to have self control over the mortal desires. His persona reflects the vibrancy of contentment and bliss.

Raj Bhandare with his recent work -2015- Bangalore City

It is not possible to categorize him as a particular kind of artist. He is a painter, sculptor, and cartoonist brimming with a lot of humor and satire, artist with taste for good music, penchant for ethnicity. Generally a painter is categorized as figurative, abstract, realistic or other.  Although Raj started figurative painting at an early age, he moved on to abstraction. He works in mediums like oil, acrylic, charcoal, burnt wood, steel etc. He has had many successful solo and group shows in India and abroad.

He is greatly influenced by art and artist of India. He is truly Indian at heart. While speaking of paintings and Indian painter’s influence on the artist’s work, F,N,Souza seems to be a great influence. Souza had much command on female form and there is recurring theme of Christianity in his paintings. He disapproved the hypocrisy of church and religion. His paintings were modern, rebellious in nature and far from being acceptable. Raj too seems to propose true spirituality. His painting also reveal the fact that world is comprised of only two factors men and woman and even the religious aspect revolves and involved only sexes.

Live 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsHz1RkzKog

His video on work at the  Dayanand Sagar Academy Bangalore on the Concept of Rubanization (Urbanization, altered spelling conveying right meaning), the reverse osmosis to Development makes us realize that there is only one land wherever you go. Development is possible only when every strata of the society go hand in hand. Trust and hope of improving society is not expressed vocally, silence speaks and common thought of melioration binds the society. These are some shades of his painterly spirit.

  Installation is a tribute to late M.F.Hussain.‘Moments of Silence’ by Raj Bhandare- 2011
Live 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TldrM_2MydM

‘Moments of Silence’, one of the latest installation is a tribute to late M.F.Hussain. The artist call him a teacher who inspired and will continue inspiring the artist who learns from his dedication, passion and preservence. The installation is named Moments of Silence because a lot can be spoken about Hussain’s creativity, his introduction of Indian layman to art world, being a global artists Indianized style of painting, his golden contribution in Progressive artist group and so on but as it is a known fact that Hussain did not get justice in his own country, still he continued his art dedicatedly. Raj pays tribute to this spirit of never loser attitude and passion. Installation conveys emotional bonding of every artist who loves Hussain. The evening time on beach, the lighted installation with darkness around and silently burning candles add to the emotional high. One cannot stop from entering Hussain’s memory lane.   

‘Moments of Silence’ by Raj Bhandare- 2011

Raj loves to travel. He learns from every nook and corner of the world. Every place inspires his creation. In one of the observations he found that institution of religion is universal in nature, however, not at all uniform. It is the reality of all the societies, past and present. Religious dogmas have influenced and conditioned economic activities, political movements, social behavior and educational system. To present this diversity, he has used Linga in various makeovers. This is a series of line drawing, where Linga is being sketched in variation and represents different social circumstances, according to the psyche of a particular community, race or country.

Portraitists  by Raj Bhandare- 2010

The artist is also gifted with wit and humor. He has command over different languages and uses them wittily to convey his message. Completely moved by death of cartoonist R.K.Laxman, Raj dedicated cartoons involving paronomasia, to the late cartoonist using his intelligence and social awareness.

His effort in social awareness is recognized and he was awarded the National Karmaveer Citation for his role in creating awareness on social issues, as an emerging global Indian. He continues to address social issues through his art. Here it would be apt to apply anthropologist Ritu Gairola Khanduri’s analysis of R.K.Laxman’s Common Man to Raj’s nature: Common Man is no dupe: his sharp observations miss no detail of the political circus. He is a silent witness to all actions that have duality and various reactions to the same.It is obvious that Raj Bhandare will continue his probe and keep on expressing through his art.

Interview: by Pankaja JK

It was yet again a fun and confrontation with intelligentsia while interviewing ARTIST Raj Bhandare. An artist perfectly aware of power of Self, has his own take on his expressions and opinion about the art world. The interview was conducted after his tribute to M.F.Hussain ‘Moments of Silence’ where we got to experience sensitive and insightful nature of the artist.:

Artist Raj Bhandare

Hello Raj...Pankaja Calling you...

1.Gobalization is not a novel concept, so what is so special about it in today’s era??

“Localization is the new Globalization, the world and its perception has been reduced to accessing the internet, this is the new World, and a new world order.The “Ethernet” has made“local the new global”. But from an Artistic perspective it’s not the networking that’s attracts, it’s the “connect” that attracts. The soul connect to share universal love, it’s this elements of connectivity that intrigues the soul to search, reach, and share. This aspects of globalization and the power to connect that makes sharing such a far reaching and enriching experience “The food for the Soul”, a journey worth exploring through this new medium to reach the global audience. It is connectivitythat’s truly made local the New Global and vice versa.

2.Which Art Form do you enjoy?

Art is formless, as an idea, its intangible and mystic. The Artist digs into the medium to manifest those ideas into form, for self-satisfaction and gratification, it need not be a particular art form, butthe form is dictated by the demands of those concepts and the best medium suited to explore those concepts. In most of the so called art the “F” is silent, andas in fart there is no form it’s either a big bang or stink……. Fart is in a way is a metaphor for good and bad art. But to be specific, I enjoy the “Line Drawing” as there is the simplicity and well as the complexities in that simple line, it’s the simplest of the form, but one of the most challenging in its attempt to share experience that the my art attempts.

3.Who are your Inspirations?

Inspiration is that Bird that fly’s out from the Cuckoo’s nest.There is a notional connect with the context, hence inspiration is independent of influence, and influence is the net cumulative summation of the artist state of mind. If the art produced has to have its soul it’s in the conception of the idea, and that’s always a Divine intervention.Personally I am influenced deeply by India and its rich culture the level of abstraction in its culture is so deep that even the veneer of abstractions in its mythology and its depiction is is not enough to explore in one life span.

More upcoming Project- Goa Sea side View, by Raj Bhandare

4.Highlight your Artistic Expression/ style.

Style of artistic expression? It’s a question that I seek to know every time I attempt to do as to when, why, how, to do?? This is that “kida” the virus in every artistic pursuit, that the soul in the artist seek to explore and does it through the ritual of explorations experimentations, meditations, Investigations, etc.

Drawing on Dry Series Object by Raj Bhandare-  1-3-2015

5. Goa has given us some of the best and renowned artists like V S Gaitonde, F N Souza. So you see yourself in their line of being a Contemporary artist?

I believe in my art and whatever I do, I start with an advantage of not going to an Art School so in a way I was shielded, protected from all the so called movements and renaissance in  art. The western nomenclature of defining art. It’s like the Pope declaring Mr. So and so is a Saint now why should Mr. so and so say “this is Art” and “this is Fart”?? The question is then why?? Why this discrepancy and racism, within the fraternity by the sugar quoted commercial aspect of salability of works and Branding of Artist. To be more specific, after the death of Picasso, Hussain, Souza, the world is wanting more and nothing stops me to explore and fill that vacuum and opportunity..

Raj Bhandare studio Goa- 2005

6. Why has Goa always been a land of Art?

Goa is a DevBhoomi, It’s the “Blessed land”. Mythology says Purshuram, reclaimed Goa from the sea, so in a way Goa is pregnant with its energies of Divine vibes and one can feel it  moment one lands in Goa. “Its love at first sight” “its lust at first sight too” it’s this combination that propels the mind, body, soul into an orbit that’s filled with good feelings and creativity.

Hoping for another interesting interview soon… bye 

Life Portfolio by Pankaja JK -2015

Towards educating people to the visual language. The events and exhibits here are our small but significant attempts to do the same...Prof.Vishwanath Sabale

 Jamshetji Jijibhoy

Sir J.J. School of Art is one of the pioneering institutes of fine art education in India, since its establishment in 1878 in the current Campus, with generous donation of Jamshetji Jijibhoy, under the British administration. The School today stands in the heritage building with departments of Drawing and painting, Sculpture and modelling, Arts and crafts including Ceramics, Interior decoration, Metal work and Textile Design ; and Teachers training with Art teachers’ diploma, Art Masters and Post- diploma, Diploma in Art Education. The college has undergraduate and post graduate programs with BFA and MFA Painting (Creative painting, portraiture, print making and mural) degrees conferred to the students. The institute has seen great master artists like Pestonji Bomanji, Pithawala, M.V. Dhurandhar, Ravi Shankar Raval, Chimulkar, R.D. Dhopeshwarkar, Rasiklal Parikh, V.A. Mali as also art scholars like like J.D. Gondhlekar, P.A. Dhond, Shankar Palsikar,Madhav Satawlekar, Baburao Sadwelkar, Sambhaji Kadam, V.R. Amberkar, Vasant Parab, Shantinath Arwade. The modern masters like S.H. Raza Vasudev Gaitonde, Akbar Padamsee, Tyeb Mehta, Jeram Patel, Prabhakar Barve, Prabhakar Kolte have begun their ideas here. Even in contemporary Indian art scenario, J.J. continues to contribute with artists like Atul Dodiya, Jitish Kallat, Sunil Gawde, Krishnamachari Bose, Riyas Komu, Anant Joshi,Yashwant Deshmukh, Prajakta Potnis, Tushar Joag, Shilpa Gupta, Sharmila Samant,Valay Shende and many more.

Lighting  by Gulzar 

Sir J.J. is one of the few institutes which have the Art and crafts department along with fine arts

bestowing the fine art degree to all. The teaching is an amalgamation of academic techniques,

accommodating the contemporary changes on every period. The school today holds classes making students technically efficient and imparting the novel concepts through theory classes, beyond curriculum lectures/talks, demonstrations and workshops.This also is a unique institute which has works over 150 years of alumni and masters in its own collection. Since last couple of years we have begun an ambitious project of conserving these work sand restoring the necessary. The works thus restored will be made available to all those who wish to study/research. Our library too is open for all keen towards knowing more. Sir J.J. School has alsoopened its studios for students and artists across the world to come and work in our space. Likerecently the students from Nagpur worked in the portrait studio in order to study the nudes further,since ours is one of the few institutes which holds the nude study.  Our institute had been imparting strongly rooted technical knowledge combined with contemporary transformations in art across the world. In order to do this, we welcome artists and thinkers to come and interact with our students and faculty over the year.

We have been collaborating with FUTUR Foundation, Switzerland over five years, where the foundation selects two students from our institute for a three month residency to Switzerland. We hosted this workshop this year too, where students were exposed to the European contemporary art and a discussion about the same by Prof. Hedi KErnst. Along with art talk, the workshop also accommodated a day long experiment with raku kiln and ceramics. We had a dogra casting workshop for the students of sculpture and metal work departments conducted by Shri Suresh Waghmare. Prof. Ajit Sheel from Shantiniketan took a workshop for painting students introducing them to the new possibilities of platography technique in print making. J.Krishnamurty and his association with J.J. is well known, the J.Krishnamurty Foundation thus began a lecture series on his ideas and philosophy for our students, which were conferred by Dr.Sameer Golwelkar.To make our students observe and contemplate over art, we initiate exhibitions of practicing artists in our space. The show of internationally acclaimed artist Shri Krishna Reddy for initiated by Shri Anant Nikam, faculty of print making, supported by Sir J.J. School of Art, with the first exhibition in our college. The show further travelled to Vadodara, Bhuvaneshwar, Patna, Chennai, Pune and Nagpur.We had exhibitions by JJites, Good Homes where the works of students were exhibited along withartists, as also talk and slide shows by Krishnamachari Bose and Sunil Gawde. Portrait and landscape competitions conceived by our alumni Pradeep Raut were held in the college; portrait group initiated by Shri Vasudeo Kamat  held a portrait competition in Sir J.J.; where they arranged the demonstration of portraits by Shri Suhas Bahulkar, Shri Anil Naik and Shri Vasudeo Kamat, who painted portraits of each other along with a discussion about the art of portraiture.Artists are the reflection of society and we consider it our responsibility to embrace the social issues and envisage over them. We had a competition and exhibition Silent voices which had the paintings done by our students on the grave issue of premature female foetus killing. 

Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, featuring the works of young artists from our institute between 16th Feb 2015 and 22nd Feb 2015

We also contributed in an event through our art for aid of cancer patients. We have also been consciously taking a few steps for art awareness at school level by conducting art competitions and art workshops for them. With all these activities conducted over the year, we exhibit the works of our students in the third week of February each year which showcases their efforts taken throughout. We hosted the 157th Annual Art Exhibition of Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, featuring the works of young artists from our institute between 16th Feb 2015 and 22nd Feb 2015. The exhibition featured works from all our departments of sculpture, painting, arts and crafts and art teachers’ training. Along with the exhibition we had Kalamela comprising of innovative works by the students and social events like dance and music. This year we had dignitaries like Gulzar and Lalita Lajmi on the day of inauguration. Since years, J.J. has been trying to expose students to appreciate not just visual art but also the sister arts of music, drama, dance. Thus we have been consciously arranging the

Patil Rajendra and Johny ML at J J School of Art

performances of ace musicians and dancers over decades; dignitaries like Kishori Amonkar, Pt.Bhimsen Joshi have performed in our institute. Following the established tradition, this year we had Pt. Rajamiya’s recital and the well acclaimed vocalist Pt. Satyasheel Deshpande performing for the musical night and ace kathak dancer Rupali Desai accompanied by Mukand Raj Deo on Tabla. The students from textile department put up a fashion show of designs created by them with the theme Dadaism this year. Also there was an illustrated lecture by art critic Johny ML from Delhi, portrait demonstrations were also arranged.  

Kalpana Lajmi viewing movement with  Prachi Sahasrabudhe at JJ School of Art

The annual exhibition also comprises of prizes given to the proud winning students. The most

prestigious are the government prizes which were given to Swapnil Jagtap, Ciby Samuel in painting, Mayur More, Sachin Kondvaskar in sculpture, Ajay Gadaling, Aniket Satam from metal, KalashriVerma, Jidnyasa Davane from textile, Amruta Telvekar, Priyanka More from interior decoration,Motan Sankalpana, Dhammanand Patil from ceramics and Abhilesh Narnawre, Ruchita Jain and Rajesh Wankhede from MFA.Our college has been able to conserve the traditional values and yet transcend the stagnancy toembrace contemporary. Thus we have been encouraging all forms of information, academic andinvestigational for our students to contemplate. We recognize our commitment towards society and art and towards educating people to the visual language. The events and exhibits here are our small but significant attempts to do the same.

Prof.Vishwanath Sabale 

Dean,

Sir JJSchool of Art Mumbai

Raj More Artist: Brand TV Ad JOHNNIE WAILKER

The Journey Keep Walking

Directed By Santosh K.Maithani

Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works...Moment of Silence - M F Husain by Raj Bhandare : Interview coming soon

Kashmir Art Quest opened the first ever centre for contemporary arts and research in Kashmir - GALLERIE ONE, today at Srinagar.

Syed Mujtaba Rizvi 

The creative and cultural infrastructure in Kashmir has been seriously lacking. The platforms and opportunities for creative expression had become non-existent here due to decades of conflict, ignorance by successive governments and absence of any organisations working in the field of arts. There have been no avenues for the artists to showcase their work. There is no exchange of creative dialogue with the international world. Art education is seriously lacking. Hardly any research takes place in the field of visual arts in Kashmir. In spite of a rich history of arts and crafts, unfortunately due to the conflict our creative sector is now in a crippled shape.

New Art Gallery :  Gallerie One :  Jammu & Kashmir.

To address these issues Kashmir Art Quest has been working towards the advancements of arts, artists and art education in Kashmir since its foundation in August 2009. It is one of our foremost goals to create a situation in Kashmir where an international art-scene might exist – therefore channelize creative energy towards Kashmir. We celebrate a culture of innovation & creativity, and strive to foster creative and cultural entrepreneurship in the region. Over the years through various projects we have been able to revive the art scene in Kashmir, bring it to the public domain, and take it to the international stage.

We are still the only independent contemporary arts organisation working actively in Kashmir. However, today we launched the first ever centre for contemporary arts and research in J&K after over 5 years of hard work and planning.– a historical landmark, and a much needed space especially in a place like Kashmir.

The centre was thrown open in the presence of Director Tourism Kashmir for artists and art lovers.

Gallerie One constitutes of five inter-disciplinary wings, unified in a single-access space spread over 7500 sq.ft.

1) Art Gallery

2) Archiving & Cataloging Centre.

3) Digital Media Lab.

4) Research Centre

5) Library and Leisure Space.

We recognize the need and urgency for the centre for contemporary arts and research in Kashmir which will cater to national and international tourists, local residents, businesses and corporates, institutions, artists and art lovers around the world. We are creating a new, distinct and a world class offering for the people of Kashmir, and national and international audiences alike - also a much needed space in any tourist destination. We will take Kashmiri artists to international Fairs, Biennials, Conferences, Seminars, Events, and Exhibitions, and welcome the art fraternities around the world with open arms. At the same time the centre will bring in fresh perspectives on promotion of Brand Kashmir and cater much of their advertising, marketing and design needs. We will develop strategies with assistance from world leading experts and produce measurable recommendations based on proven science of consumer psychology, brand management, and psychology of advertising and marketing. The centre will link up with institutions around the world to boost the arts, creative and cultural entrepreneurship, tourism, and promotion of brand Kashmir around the world. The Gallery will have curated shows throughout the year.

File Photo all copy right by Gallerie One

The project was conceived, formulated and implemented by Syed Mujtaba Rizvi who is also the Founder and Managing Director of Kashmir Art Quest. Mujtaba Rizvi heads Gallerie One as its Chief Executive Officer. 

Fasal Dar is the Chief Operating Officer at Gallerie One who ensures the right implementation of the project. This project has been possible after years of hard work, and now by the support received from J&K Department of Tourism, who own the space. They prepared the space -  at 1st Floor, Tourist Reception Centre, Srinagar - for this path-breaking initiative (J&K Department of Tourism retains the ownership of the space).

The gallery opened with the inaugral show, 'Contemporary Practices and new Media," curated by Syed Mujtaba Rizvi,  showcasing works by 36  leading and emerging artists. The exhibition explores the bold and challenging practice by Kashmiri artists today. It showcases the shift from traditional practices, and how this practices manifests in contemporary culture. The current show ends on 31 March 2015, and will be accompanied by artist talks, workshops, and seminars.

PHOTO CREDITS: GALLERIE ONE

For More information visit: www.gallerie1.com

If you require any further information, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Regards,

Syed Mujtaba Rizvi
Founder, CEO, Gallerie One.
Founder, MD, Kashmir Art Quest.

www.gallerie1.com

www.kashmirartquest.org

Follow on Facebook. Click Here.

Twitter: @KashmirArtQuest

1st Floor, Tourist Reception Centre,

TRC Road,

Srinagar - 190001

Jammu & Kashmir.

+91 - 9596 355 455

('Gallerie One' and 'Centre for Contemporary Arts and Research' are under the auspices of Kashmir Art Quest)

First project of MOG. ‘Janela’ is an exhibition that intends to stir up histories- Subodh Kerkar

Art is not just my profession but the very breath of my life. My life is inseparable from the creative quests which have nurtured me for the last three decades. Creativity is immensely a private activity, yet Art needs company. Art craves for an audience. Art cannot sing in a desert. I felt the need of going beyond my personal artistic adventures and work towards creating a vibrant art scene in Goa.  The idea of the ‘Museum Of Goa’, ‘MOG’ was born out of this pursuit. An endeavor to create a unique space for Arts, MOG will bring together artists, curators, collectors, art enthusiasts, educationists, students and audiences from all walks of life. It will not only be a space for exhibitions, but also organize workshops, residencies, lectures, talks and art courses. 

MOG will embrace a universal perspective and provide a platform to Indian contemporary artists to showcase their works and connect them with international art milieus. MOG is envisioned less as a repository of objects and more as a laboratory of ideas, where various art forms – painting, sculpture, photography, music, theatre, design, video art, films, installations and many others are in constant dialogue with each other. Housed in a 1038 square meters space, designed by Architect Dean D’Cruz, MOG is situated on the Pilerne Plateau in North Goa, not too far from Calangute. ‘Janela – Migrating Forms and Migrating Gods’ is the first project of MOG.  ‘Janela’ is an exhibition that intends to stir up histories. To dig into the recesses of historical archives, memory and celebrate the ‘connectedness’ of cultures. The waves that wash the shores of the west coast of India have not only carved and shaped rocks, but also ideas, dreams and narratives. The ocean has acted as a medium of intercontinental cultural diffusions.  The word for a window in both Konkani and in Malayalam is adopted from the Portuguese language. It is ‘Janela’. The two languages share hundreds of Portuguese and Arabic words.  ‘Janela’ is an attempt to peep into the shared histories of Goa and Kerala and also explore what historians A. G. Hopkins and Christopher Bayly described as Proto-globalization.  It is also an endeavor to narrate history through the contemporary idiom.

I am grateful to Valentina Gioia Levy for agreeing to curate the exhibition. She has worked hard to give a real international perspective to the show.  

I must thank Yudhishthir Raj Isar (Professor of Cultural Policy Studies – The American University of Paris) and Els Reijnders of The Van Gogh Museum for their valuable advice and guidance.                                                

                                                                                                    

I am thankful to the Kochi Biennale Foundation for giving us a collateral status.

Subodh Kerkar
Director
MOG, Museum of Goa                                                                                                                                         

      

Recent work ‘Janela’ is an exhibition at  Kochi Biennale Foundation

When I met Subodh Kerkar for the first time, last summer, he had already begun to work in the exhibition ‘Janela’ that wanted to bring together mainly Goans but also some international artists. He invited them to reflect on some issues, which revolved around the history of the state of Goa and its relationship with Kochi. When he asked me to curate this exhibition, my first curatorial concern has been now to take up a project already started, respecting its original philosophy, but at the same time, by giving to it my own curatorial cut. I liked the idea that the started point with which Kerkar had challenged the artists was a linguistic element, the Portuguese word ‘Janela’ that means window.

I had already dealt with the question of the message as an expressive medium in artistic practice of Yoko Ono and previously I had explored the relation between the linguistic and the pictorial sign, and the act of writing as performative act in the work of the Canadian artist Carl Trahan. Personally, I have considered the word ‘Janela’ as a starting point with a strong potentiality for exploring new perspectives in the relationship between art and language, image and sign, visual representation and meaning.

Recent work by Sweety Joshi ‘Janela’ is an exhibition at  Kochi Biennale Foundation

After that, the first step has been to analyze Goa’s art scene and understand how to relate to the wider context of international artistic practices.I didn’t know the most part of the artist to whom Subodh Kerkar asked to send a proposal. In many cases, it was extremely difficult to find some information about their works and sometimes I had nothing but few biographical elements for evaluate the proposals they submitted to me. In some cases I found myself in the very uncomfortable position of having to judge an artist on the basis of a single as I already said, my concern was primarily to find common threads that could have been able to open a direct dialogue between local and international artistic practices and researches. That is why, although I certainly took into account local specificities, my selection is the result of what can be considered as a necessary adherence to current global trends.

Considering Subodh Kerkar’s input, I thought that one of the most interesting topics to explore was the issue of ‘migration of visual forms’ seen as the recycling of figurative archetypes in different cultural contexts. This theme has its roots in the history of the past and links with the migration of people and ideas across space and time. In particular, I wanted to pay a special attention to the images connected with the transcendent, that have always had a great importance in European and Indian past art. I particularly concentrated on the question of the sacred image in contemporary times, and questioned its redefinition and the role that it might have today in the context of artistic research, focusing of identity, historical, socio-political and / or anthropological issues.

In my opinion, after the geo-political and socio-economical changes that have characterized the last decade – called by some experts as the third globalization period – was however interesting to face such an issue and try to understand if whether art today could still bind not only the sacredness, but also its visual representation.

Curatorial Note 

Valentina Gioia Levy

All Copyright  by MOG Project

Unfolding white...Decoding white...

Artist : RAJSHREE KARKERA

UNRAVELING WHITE

Imagine the world as white...no? White....which is never used for decoding. Here is the world of Rajshree, the artist who precisely opens up her journey that is crystal clear. She leaves the viewer mesmerised with this unusual fathom of her experience in a very interactive way. She unfolds the untangled life of paper and connects it with self very thoughtfully. Using WHITE must have been a great challenge for Rajshree but she successfully opens up the story of her own significant world with elaborate simplicity. She has intricately crafted the delicate paper to form a 'being' to relinquish her emotional plethora. Rajshree throws a challenge to all of us,'this is my world, and it doesn't really matter if it not the same out there.'Her careful crafting of paper gives various dimensions to white. The shapes take and intricate form. She plays with the spaces within and forms a perspective of her own ideas. It is indeed a great challenge as an artist to work devoid colours. She probably sees her multidimensional world through plain paper. Significance of her creative forms thus leave a spread of multitasking and vision to think beyond two dimensional plain.One does not but help thinking about the careful play of her forms. The challenge of extreme white becomes simple or rather Rajshree makes it simple with her natural ability to transform the complex into a clear interpretation.

Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
Dec 30th to 2014 -Jan 5th 2015
11am to 7pm

WAR OR PEACE? Remembering 100 years of First World War 1914 curated by Mrinal Ghosh

We have planned this exhibition ‘War or Peace?’ at Kolkata Art Gallery to commemorate the centenary of the beginning of the First World War .The Great War started on 28 July 1914 and lasted for four years. It caused the death of eight million people and collapse of three empires – Germany, Austro-Hungary and Russia. It was the first industrial war that globalised not only the technology of war and victims of it but also the structure and nature of violence, where human ethics turned to be totally inconsequential that ultimately gave rise to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to bring a forceful end to the Second World War in 1945. The impact of First World War on human civilization and human memory is therefore devastating. It unleashed the shame on the existence of every human being.

War sonet by Samindranath Majumdar

The war had great impact on art and artists mostly in Europe. Until the First World War, barring a very few exceptions, artists and writers had witnessed the war without actually becoming involved. In 1914 for the first time they all had to take part. Fernand Leger became a stretcher bearer, Kokoschka a cavalryman, Beckman a medic, Derain an artilleryman, Camoin a camoufleur, Dix a machine gunner and so forth. The experience of destruction of war and the complexity of its technology made the artist like Fernand Leger feel, as he wrote to a friend in May 1915, ‘It (the war) was pure abstraction, much purer even than cubist painting itself,’ The comment focuses on the dehumanized face both of violence and humanity.

Since the First World War all the wars has taken a globalised structure. For every incidence of war people through out the globe suffer in some way or other. War has been a fact of every day life. There is no respite from violence. The recent American invasion in Iraq, Israeli attack on Palestine, incidents in Croatia, death of innocent people in the blast of Indonesian aircraft are a few of its examples.In this exhibition our intention is not to document the facts of war, but ruminate on the contradiction between the concept of war and peace. Is peace at all possible in the world dominated by power and greed? Yet how some human values still sustain? How despite continuous confrontation with violence in different form, both local and global, human beings still survive, the civilization progresses and some great minds appear within the civilisation, whose presence justifies that the flame of positive human values is never to extinguish. Here comes the role of peace. Had the urge for peace and love not dominated over the war, violence and hatred, the civilization would have extinguished long back. So there is a contradictory relation between war and peace. Peace also involves some kinds of war. The war against poverty or illiteracy is a continuous agenda of every civilization. War also involves peace. There are people in all ages who, who within the war treats the war victims with love.

Works by Chhatrapati Dutta & Samir Roy

In this exhibition our intention is to look deeper into the tapestry of war and peace that is spread over the human civilization. We have invited twenty artists, who are very much socio temporally committed and continuously experiment with various forms and techniques out of both modernist and post-modern view points. The exhibition will posit the present state of our existence and also that of our contemporary art, where local and global wisdom is very significantly assimilated with each other to flower into a rich visual mosaic. The art also has its own tapestry of war and peace, violence and love. But can the urge for peace and love dominate over their opposite condition? That is the question our artists have tried to put forward.

Mrinal Ghosh 

We have further created a site and a blog so people can interact and share there views in the said matter. Interact with – The curator, the artists, the gallery and with people across the globe.Write on our blog – share your thoughts and/or tell us what you think about Why should we remember? Why should we stop and think about the historical aspects that happened so long ago? Millions of people across the world still feel a connection with the Great War for Civilisation. They knew the people whose lives were changed by it. They remain moved by the enduring works of art that were created as a response to it. They live with its unresolved political legacies. The First World War created a common sense of history that, decades later, still links people 

from many disparate nations!!

For any further details or pictures of the works in the exhibit kindly call us at + 91 33 22873377 / 

88 Contact names : Moumita Chandra , Manish Gupta.

Gallery Kolkata 

'Duckback House'

41 Shakespeare Sarani

Kolkata WB - 17 India 

T +91-33-22873377/88

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This work obviously sets the tone of Salvi’s circumstantial critique or criticality in which he oscillates between the divine and demonic selves-

Apparently innocent looking animals engaged in a sort of self absorption inhabit predominantly in Prashant Salvi’s paintings. Muted speech bubbles hovering around their heads highlight the sagacious vacancy of their minds. In the absolute absence of thinking, as per Indian philosophy, the individual soul becomes one with the universal soul, realizing godhead to which he/she is an integral part but seen divided in mundane situation. This clear meditative depth that spirals down in the works of Salvi however could be a deceptive methodological tool that the artist forwards for a completely personalized critique of the society in which he lives, which I would qualify as circumstantial critique. Salvi, by doing this through his works, however does not stay there forever and using his creative freedom, he moves in and out of the critique, facilitating the idea of criticality not only within his work but also in his personal life. This creative freedom enables the artist to generate counterpoints of agitation as set against tranquility, violence against piety and unbarred eroticism against the implied de-sexualization of bodies.

 As one looks on, the muted animals fade away from the ken of his perception and its place is taken over by a series of imageries, highly and furiously charged with erotic desires verging into the zone of cannibalism and self sustaining homo-erotic playfulness.

In these works Salvi becomes an absent progenitor of images possessed and obsessed with erotic potential. The slow disappearance of animal figures is made possible through the clever introduction of anthropomorphic forms which strangely resemble the male and female genitals. Flowers, frills, uncontrolled growth of shrubs and branches, highly suggestive of erotic nerve ends of human beings, intersperse with animal and anthropomorphic images, bringing forth a series of metaphors loaded with surrealist connotations. Seen in the Freudian point of view, these constantly transforming images, fluid while being sculpturally dimensioned, could suggest the artist’s inner world, the ways of his mind’s working, his fears, anxieties and desires, suppressed for apparent reasons, but refuse to be buried and forgotten. They come back, as the artist approaches his pictorial surfaces, like waves that give a faint hope of subsiding but return with all fury and vengeance. Here, Salvi does not represent his own self alone, on the contrary, he represents a collective self of the society, which he shares, enjoys and at times forcefully resists. In this zone of identification with the collective unconscious of the larger society, the artist plays the role of a Devil’s advocate, deliberately playing up the counter point to the normative and affirmative. Hence, the images that flow out of Salvi’s thoughts may look dark and invested with a strong libidinal drive, which make the works look strangely attractive to the point that one would wonder why this artist is so hooked up with such force of eroticism. Eros, in Salvi’s works fights against Thanatos, as we have seen in the works of many a modern master both in India and abroad. The return of the cruel self, charging towards the sexualized bodies of both men and women, ripping them with all the carnal pleasures possible, then becomes a celebration of life force, the eternal quest to live on using will and libido in full force. This celebration of the cruel self in Salvi’s works may appear to go against the grain of my positioning of his works as circumstantial critique. Interestingly, it is the other way round; in circumstantial criticism and its resultant state of criticality, the generator of it cannot operate as an outsider. He is and he has to be an insider, possessing the social evils and mirroring it for a larger and wider deliberation.

Prashant Salvi in studio

In one of his works, we see a rabbit sitting cozily on a cushion with a mirror hanging and reflecting the other side of its face, while on a red velvet spiral one sees a grey swan with its side wing frames a sharp gazing eye looking at the viewer.

This work obviously sets the tone of Salvi’s circumstantial critique or criticality in which he oscillates between the divine and demonic selves. Rabbits are timid creatures, agile and existential at the same time. Famous for their capacity to reproduce in many numbers, their sexual potency is an understated metaphor here. In this sense, they represent the contemporary human beings who refuse to age. A mirror, especially in a work of art is a representation for human vanity. In this work, the hidden side of the rabbit is seen reflected in the mirror. With naturally frightened eyes, this rabbit with two different faces, one, the ‘seen’ and the other, the reflected, automatically represent a human being, who looks clean and affable but frightened and potent simultaneously. The cushion with blue stripes is evocative of a rich and comfortable life. Swan is a representation of beauty, communication and learning (especially seen from within the Indian context). Salvi makes an intervention here; he places an eye squarely on the body of the grey swan. This eye is the eye of the artist and also the eye of the viewer; one eye becomes mutually reflected two eyes here. To our surprise, we see five eyes clearly drawn in this painting, out of which four are real eyes and one is a metaphorical one. Two eyes of the rabbit, one eye of the swan and the human eye on the body of the swan together make four eyes and the fifth one is the mirror itself. Mirror, an image that comes repeatedly in Salvi’s works, is a philosophical as well as a metaphorical eye. It is a reflection of the self and the eye thatsees the eyes that look at it. This omnipotent eye is the eye of the god who sees everything and reflects everything. Salvi, in this work philosophically sets the tone of all his other works. If what we see around us, including us, are the reflections of an inner eye, then what we call real must be an illusion; something tangible yet intangible. This illusion however is loaded with the knowledge of many other illusions. According to the artist, it is libido that one uses to negotiate with this illusion and make real out of it. And an illusion could be made real only by looking deeply into/at it. The more one looks at the illusion of the world the more one becomes clearer about its trappings.

The more one sees the trappings, the more one becomes liberated from these illusions. Hence a real human being is born. Salvi brings forth the erotic images again and again as an effort to look at these illusions of the world, as if these images were for him like the syllables in a chanting. They are built around the central axis of an eroticized male or female body and their grappling with the illusion is connoted through the possible copulating images, in strange ways and in strange deeds. In this sense, for me, Salvi’s works arelike the erotic ensemble that we see in the facades of Khajuraho and Konark temples. They purge the human beings through desiring gazes and purge them of the evil thoughts before leading them to the sanctum sanctorum of divine existence, which is the human soul itself.

This entry into the core of life, leaving illusions behind is possible only when one is ready to look and see. Looking and seeing could be innocent acts but when applied in an ideologically loaded and culturally constructed (at times genetically malformed) scenario, these aspects of gazing for meaning could be perverse in nature. Gaze itself comes to have negative connotations because of the perversities involved in the agency of gazing. It becomes an ideological positioning of the gazer; looking becomes an act of exercising power over the weaker one for control or pleasure and seeing could be designed at/by convenience. Gaze becomes fornication with eyes, subjecting the gazed to a lower position. Salvi keenly explores this aspect of fornication with eyes as exercised in our society. Despite all sensitizations and awareness programs, our society remains to be predominantly male oriented and gaze is one tool that the male members of the society employ for subjugating the female members. This reduction of women into sexual objects for pure or perverse pleasure, devoid of any aesthetical finesse, becomes a metaphor in Salvi’s works; he aestheticizes what is not aestheticized in gaze. The slow transformation of the crass into an aesthetically sensitive and at times titillating image is what makes the works of Salvi more and more curious on repeated viewing. There is no shying away, as far as Salvi is concerned, from this frontal and unapologetic representation of the erotically gazed, in these works. However, Salvi makes it more sympathetic; without accusing the one who gazes and yet not victimizing the one who is gazed at, Salvi takes a shrink’s point of view and tries to see how this aspect of gaze operates in our society. He builds up some interesting images that are surreally transformed, in order to present his points, which he says that he is unable to escape from forwarding. In his works, young and old men and women, animals, birds, flowers and everything turn into metaphors of erotic gaze. Metamorphosis of the male body in a Kafkaesque way into eroticized organic forms/creatures is one of the metaphors that come repeatedly in Salvi’s works. The eye fornication done by older men with no devices to subsist on for quenching their sexual desires other than these subdued forms of voyeurism consolidates into the form of a torso and lower body clad in traditional male clothes, often riding on certain erected and thorny forms, looking for softer openings to penetrate. Birds appear quite often in Salvi’s works not only as the messengers of god’s words but also as a symbol of human mind that keeps on digging the dirt for pleasure. Digging of any sorts, in Salvi’s works, is brought in as an auto-erotic symbolism. Against this active principle of birds, Salvi sets up mute animals like Donkeys who are real prisoners of their own un-deployable potency.

Recent Artwork by Prashant Salvi

Salvi is a master of colours and design. In his pictorial surfaces, he creates arange of colours which are not often seen in the works of other contemporary artists. They are never bright as in a sunny day nor are they dark in a gloomy cloudy day. They are the colours that exist in the minds of those creative artists that see the colours lay there between the accepted norms of colour usage followed by moderate artists. His palette is more classical and stands closer to those of the masters like El Greco (16th C AE) and Vermeer (17th AE). The Mannerist usage of colours in our contemporary times looks fresh in Salvi’s works and the subject matters that he deals with in his works get an added veneer through such skillful manipulation of colours. His palette, in many ways defines the mood of our times; a time that reveals a lot of glittering ephemerals but hide the dark recesses of mind. Salvi makes an interesting balance of both in his works. He maintains the surface glitter to the point that it could reveal the depth of what is implied. The suggestive nature of his works heralds the arrival of a new artist of our times. Design of space and the employment of visually available designs within that designed space are two highly commendable hallmarks of Salvi’s works. The starkness of the images is often softened by these design elements that he incorporates not only as a background but also as an integral part of the work. Animals prowl, petals flutter, birds fly and dig around and muted speeches anchor well in the deep silence that pervades the world- in this world of novelty and strangeness, men and women celebrate their inner life, angelic, devilish, erotic and potent at the same time. Prashant Salvi is the eye that witnesses.

Mumbai/ December 2014