PIN POSTER : ART GATE GALLERY

115, Jamshedji Tata Road, 1st Floor, Above Satyam Collection, Next to Eros Cinema, Churchgate 400020
Mumbai, India.

Tel: 022 4213 8855
Email: artgate.sc@gmail.com

Hallucinatory Beauty - Abhijeet Gondkar

Rajesh Salgaonkar’s new body of work is a series that comes from his stay at his London studio. Living in London he missed Goa as much every day, he would do a small watercolor, ink rendering which later grew to bigger sheets the size he needed to portray his entire surroundings at the same intimate level of detail. In one way or another, he was always drawing his world, from the optical scatter of woman, birds and fishes. He came to embrace a self-sufficient tautology which all artists understand in their own way, but few with such clarity of purpose.

Recent work by Rajesh Salgaonkar

The erasure, for the most part, of the elements as the space they left behind was liquidly unfolded and deciphered, induced a psychologically potent side effect. Their absence allows the viewer to enter archetypal precincts, through ambiguous outlines in dreamy blank spaces where scenarios of love, memory are enacted forever, just as he did with drawings of his immediate surroundings, one piece of paper folding under, a new one gluing on until the drawing came to rest.  A consummate painter, Salgaonkar’s painterly surfaces appear to breath color. They inhale and exhale color-spaces, made by a remarkable range of thick or thin, fat or lean, brushed or wiped marks on works of paper that needed the resistance of a solid wall behind it. Surprisingly, Salgaonkar’s whole enterprise is dependent on its beginning: specifically, the graphic translation of his first possession of a moment, a moment both poignant to him as being a potential painting, and a personal incident or experience.

It is in these drawings that the artist commits to paper his obsession with content and color through a myriad of diverse marks. His hand was observed to move rapidly over the surface of drawing paper, the small stub of a soft pencil hidden by his large hands. It was as though his pencil’s point was his eye taking in the significant data.  These drawings allow access to spaces where it would have been almost impossible to take and it is when we think about our own space as viewer in his paintings that we are rewarded with a surprise of location, the deep space is flattened, near forms are volumetric, and the negative spaces operate as both flat and spatial simultaneously. For Salgaonkar drawing is sensation, and taking possession of the image. The next step is the translation of these notations into color, not local color, but the color that comes from his interior logic. The sensation and its perceptual basis change mysteriously into the concept or the idea of color. The painting uses localized color as a springboard to a far more unique and surprising equivalent. Reflected color often plays a significant role. It is the color in these shadows, rather than the color in the light that depicts Salgaonkar’s highly original color variants and ensembles.

One comes to realize that reality and fiction flip everywhere in Salgaonkar’s work. As for the artist’s encyclopedic works of his immediate surroundings, they trade on the traditional fictions of life in the way that disjunctive local spaces and times are fused under a continuous skin of illusion. Yet it is life drawings very much in the tradition of that genre, for all their annotated eccentricities that increasingly come to occupy Salgaonkar’s watercolor masterpieces featuring the, maximal challenges for the artists’ ever-sharpening ability to see and describe. Using careful layers of translucent watercolor, he could now capture the waxy glistening of dolphins, parrots and peacocks and as one grasps the combination of flatness, space, and light in Salgaonkar’s watercolors, the subtleties of his sophisticated palette and tonal gradations reveal a seductive luminosity.  Through this examination one’s mind empties out, leaving oneself in a contemplative state.  Or perhaps better put, one becomes fully engaged in the moment peering simply into the painting’s surface while marveling at the unique and nuanced light held by each work.

Abhijeet Gondkar

February 2020, Mumbai

Nippon Gallery

30/32, 2nd Floor, Deval Chambers,
Nanabhai Lane, Flora Fountain, Fort,
Mumbai – 400 001India.

Tel: 022 49786119
Email: nipponbombay@gmail.com

PIN POSTER: Art Gate Gallery

ART GATE

115, Jamshedji Tata Road, 1st Floor, Above Satyam Collection, Next to Eros Cinema, Churchgate 400020
Mumbai, India.

Tel: 022 4213 8855
Email: artgate.sc@gmail.com

AMBEDKAR AS CULTURE, which will be published by Panther’s Paw Publication in June, 2020.

Ambedkar as Culture

We are glad and excited to announce the first workshop of Ambedkar Literature Factory. For this residential workshop, we are inviting ten applications from dalit-bahujan writers, scholars and artists. In this workshop, we intend to produce the work (research articles, long essays, and illustrative works) on themes given below. After the completion of the workshop, all the works produced by the participants, will be compiled in a form of a book, entitled AMBEDKAR AS CULTURE, which will be published by Panther’s Paw Publication in June, 2020.

Broader themes on which the work must be produced (these are the suggested themes but not limited).

Ambedkar in music| Ambedkar in literature |Ambedkar in poetry |Ambedkar as fashion| Ambedkar in art | Ambedkar in philosophy | Ambedkar in sociology |Ambedkar in cinema | Ambedkar in politics | Ambedkar and feminism | Ambedkar and religion |

If you are interested in attending and contributing to the workshop and subsequently to the book, please send us your abstract write-up (700 words) exploring around aforementioned themes to the following email id.

Email id: ambedkarasculture@gmail.com. Or whatsapp here: 9987133931

WORKSHOP DATE: 20th MARCH to 26 MARCH,, 2020.
VENUE: Madhyam Marg Retreat Centre, Kondanpur, Pune.
CONTRIBUTION: 2800/- Rs (it includes, lodging and food -breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea and snacks for two times. It also includes the travel from Pune to the venue, back and forth)
AVAILABLE SEATS: 10 (TEN)

Cover art: Siddhesh Gautam

Mumbai Event

प्रजासत्ताक दिन के ७१ वे सुनहरे अवसर पर Arhat Theatre की दुसरी प्रस्तुती 'नांगेली' का पहला मुखपृष्ठ प्रस्तुत करने जा रहे है ! प्रतिभावान कलाकार ताथी प्रेमचंदजी के कॕनव्हास पर 'नांगेली' का अंतर्भाव !
सभी कलाकार, नाट्यकर्मी, इतिहासकार, रसिक, दार्शनिक, विचारक, श्रोताओं आप सभी आमंञीत है l  निशुल्क प्रवेश l आप सभी का इंतजार रहेगा l
स्थान- १२वा राष्ट्रीय वसंत नाट्योत्सव, मुंबई विश्वविद्यालय, कलीना, सांताकृझ पूर्व. शाम ७:०० बजे

Releasing Nangeli 's first poster look on this Liberal Occasion of 71st Rebublic Day ! Abstract Painting by Well-known Artist Tathi Premchand !

All the artists, Theatre Artists, Listeners, Historians, Philosophers, Thinkers are warmly Welcomed. Although the ENTRY IS FREE  Seats are limited.  Kindly conform your seats !
Venue- 12th National Vasant Theatre Festival, Mumbai University, Kalina, Santacruz East.
Time- 7:00pm

Graphic Design by- राहुल हाटे

After JJ we all went our ways and till the new mediums like smart phones and social media came to rule over lives,

This was 1979 to 1984; some of the most definitive years in modern Indian history. We were just recovering from the emergency and the eventual downfall of Janata Party. It was a period of great turmoil – the Mumbai mill workers strike, rise of Bhindranwale, Sanjay Gandhi’s death affecting his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Bhopal gas tragedy, the Bhagalpur blindings, operation Bluestar - the period finally culminating in Indira Gandhi’s violent killing by her bodyguards in 1984.

Artist : Uttam Ghosh 

We saw it all, together, Uttam and I. Since then, we have had very strong views on the world that we lived in. There were innumerable conversations – some even resulting in fights! But by-and-large we agreed with one another. 

While all this was happening, his art was taking a distinct form. Added to his very strong lines was his peculiar sense of humor, and then ofcourse the political thought! The cocktail was dynamite!!

The discourse in most of India’s art institutes, as was the case in JJ, was primarily around the craft of that particular stream – application of color, line, form, light and shade etc. The entire effort in those five years was to master technique and eventually get consumed by the lucrative advertising and design industry.

Both Uttam and I had a fundamental problem with this approach. For us, all the educational institutions, not just the art institutes, were part of a social reality, of a historical process. We couldn’t divorce the technique of art with the politics of our land. This bonded us strongly to each other and as a result our final year projects too turned out to be similar. While most students did advertising campaigns on some consumer product or on a service, mine was on bonded labour and Uttam’s was on child labour.

Vilas Ghogre the well known shahir of Maharashtra.

After JJ we all went our ways and till the new mediums like smart phones and social media came to rule over lives, we were mostly out of touch. There ofcourse was that occasional phone call and going for each others wedding etc.

A cartoonist has a critical role in a democracy. S/he takes a ringside view of the real action and then presents it to the general public in a way that not only strikes an immediate connect and makes them laugh but also jabs at the heart. A good cartoon makes you smile and yet see the tragedy at the same time. Uttam achieves this dichotomy so wonderfully in his work. His cartoons are distinctive and rich in content. One unique thing about his art is that he constantly shifts between styles. He doesn’t have a particular fixed style like most cartoonists do. The content defines his style and I find it very interesting how he juggles effortlessly between various kinds of styles.

His personal political affiliations apart, his is the voice of the oppressed, the underdog, and he states his views fearlessly. In college we used to call him The-Ghosh-Who-Walks. Today he is The-Ghosh-Who-Walks-the-Talk!

First up, I must thank Uttam and his mother for the strong liver that I have. When Uttam and I were together at J.J.Institute of Applied Art, he used to get karela (Bitter Gourd) everyday for lunch. There were other vegetables too but there always used to be karela as well. That was a constant and the reason behind this was his mother, who insisted upon it since it was good for the liver. Well, it used to be so yummy that we used to dive into it as soon as he opened his lunch box. So, eating karela for five long years must surely have helped in improving my liver! 

Soumitra Ranade 

 film maker & Writer 

DRAWINGTOON l Uttam Ghosh

Friday / 17th /1/2020
Preview at 6:00pm to 8pm as open
on display till 23rd / 1/2020
Time: 4pm to 7pm

30/32, 2nd Floor, Deval Chambers
Nanabhai Lane, Flora Fountain, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001

RSVP
Tel: 022 49786119
nipponbombay@gmail.com
nippongallery/facebook

#UttamGhosh
#NIPPONGALLERY
#MUMBAIARTWEEKEND

PIN POSTER: NIPPON GALLERY MUMBAI _Solo show

Do come...

Friday / 17th /1/2020

Preview at 6:00pm to 8pm as open

on diplay till 23rd / 1/2020

Time: 4pm to 7pm

30/32, 2nd Floor, Deval Chambers

Nanabhai Lane, Flora Fountain, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001

RSVP

Tel: 022 49786119

nipponbombay@gmail.com

nippongallery/facebook

#UttamGhosh

#NIPPONGALLERY

#MUMBAIARTWEEKEND

Platinum Rating for CSMVS

The drive to contribute something precious to art and culture made the art collector in Rtn. Manoj Israni donate Rs 75 lakh towards an LEED platinum certification for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya and its façade lighting.

 Manoj Israni

Taking into consideration the climate change, the museum hopes to preserve the art collection against perpetual climate change by adopting a green museum of which the Environment Certification is a big step.

It gives us great pleasure to let you know that the Rotary Club of Bombay has succeeded in meeting the target date of December 31st, 2019 to attain the "Platinum" rating for CSMVS, as the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) conveyed its approval and recognition to CSMVS on December 30th.

It makes us all very proud that we have achieved the recognition in the very first attempt. The recognition inspires us to attain new heights in the field of environment management in the years ahead.

T R Doongaji, Trustee, CSMVS, has conveyed his sincerest gratitude to RCB for the financial and moral support extended by the Club for the implementation of the Green Building Certification Project.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, abbreviated CSMVS and formerly named the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, is the main museum in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

LEED certification is sought by museums undergoing renovation or new construction, for the environmental benefits derived from achieving it as well as the cachet it lends. The illumination of the façade and lawns will highlight the beautiful building in an energy-friendly way for the visitors. RCB is helping enhance the heritage structure and the museum is to be illuminated from sunset to midnight.

Source Text and image / facebook/

RIP :Akbar Padamsee.

Sad to hear the passing of one of the last great modernist Akbar Padamsee. One of the pioneers in Modern Indian painting along with S.H. Raza, F.N. Souza and M.F. Husain. Born: 12 April 1928, Mumbai Died: 6 January 2020

FOLLY MEASURES| VISHWA SHROFF PREVIEW: THURSDAY, 9TH JANUARY 2020 | 5:30 PM – 9:30 PM | MUMBAI GALLERY WEEKEND

About the Exhibition

The team at TARQ is delighted to present Folly Measures by Vishwa Shroff. In this exhibition, Shroff continues to journey through the everyday, focusing on the idea of transience and impermanence.  The catalogue is accompanied by an essay penned by Mumbai based independent curator, writer and researcher, Veeranganakumari Solanki. The show is both meditative and thought-provoking in the manner in which Vishwa’s drawings of architectural form uncoversman’s relationship with space over a period of time.

What most would overlook or consider mundane, Shroff is able to weave together highlighting engagement and exclusion through her medium of drawing. The audience is immediately placed into a curious yet contemplative mood by the detailed window panes, finely structured partisan walls (playfully named, Partywall) and speckled cracked floors.

Shroff’s precision and use of earthly tones is not merely a reflection of fashion trends, or time periods but access, encroachment and restrictions. Her work reaffirms that time does not stand still for architecture and the changes within these architectural structures become indicators of the lives lived within these spaces.

Solanki points out in her essay, “at a moment when history’s future is increasingly uncertain, visual colonial comforts and follies are pulled out in the perception and adaptation of architecture. Residues and ruins legitimise our current situation of being, both in the physical and mental state, thereby making us collective by-products of the past. The patterns and forms seen in the drawings are from inhabited spaces. We have all perhaps chanced upon spaces such as these in the city that is dominated by a British architectural identity. The familiarity of these foreign elements conflictingly embeds itself in a feeling of normalcy and home. The shared feeling of sentimental colonial amnesia is acknowledged through habitual mundane elements that visually play out in the spaces we occupy”.

About the Artist

Vishwa Shroff (b.1980) started her artist training at The Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU, Baroda in 2002. She continued on to the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (UK) in 2003. Her career so far has seen six solo exhibitions –‘In Residence’ (2018) at Swiss Cottage Gallery, London (UK), ‘Drawn Space’ (2016) curated by Charlie Levine at TARQ, ‘Postulating Premises’ (2015) at TARQ, ‘One Eye! Two Eyes! Three Eyes!’( 2012)  at the Acme Project Space, London (UK), ‘Memories of a Known Place’ (2012), Birmingham (UK) and ‘Room: Collaborative Book Show’ (2011), Vadodara (India). The forthcoming exhibition at TARQ will be her seventh solo exhibition.

She has taken part in residencies like Swiss Cottage Library, London, UK (2017); Paradise Air, Matsudo, Japan (2015) and Clarke Griffiths Levine, Birmingham, UK (2012).  Besides participating in artist residencies all over the world, Shroff has also been a part of group exhibitions such as ‘Bedroom Spaces’ (2019) at Hospital Club (UK),  ‘ Eating Bread and Honey’ (2018) at SqW: Lab project space, Mumbai (India), ‘Camden Draw’ (2017) at Swiss Cottage Library, London (UK),  ‘Reading Room’ (2016) at Saffron Art, New York, ‘Reading Room: Leaves, Threads and Traces’ (2015), The Winchester Gallery (UK) and ‘Momento Mori’ (2015) at TARQ.

TARQ

Art gallery in Mumbai, Maharashtra

Address: F35/36 Dhanraj Mahal, C.S.M. Marg, Apollo Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001

Hours: 

Open ⋅ Closes 6:30PM

Phone: 022 6615 0424