G A L L E R Y C U R A T I O N S

Over the last ten years, as a curator I have been exploring gallery spaces as sites for a new aesthetic discourse.Beliving that experience, rather than knowledge can play a crucial role in decolonising the mind creating new commonsense(s). Curatorially, I have invested heavily in exhibition design and in provoking inter textualities. Inte-rmediatic experiments, the idea of artistic practice and abstraction have been very important for me over the years.

3 SENTENCES ON CURATION

A collaborative exhibition by PRACforum

@24 JOR BAGH , NEW DELHI

Professionals in Art and Curation

Conceived and structured by ten curators, '3 sentences on the curatorial' consists of multiple subsets of reflections and collisions in their practices. The exercise is positioned as an encounter with the self, with exhibition space, and with curatorial practices. Each curator selects and responds to the others' propositions, quotes or proposes objects, texts, artists and artworks.Akansha Rastogi, Anannya Mehtta , Julia Libertad , Rahul Bhattacharya,Mayank Mansingh Kaul , Meera Menezes , Priya Pall , Siddhartha Chatterjee , Pramod Kumar, Heidi Fichtner Amit Kumar Jain 

in reference to: 36 hours facebook group , Arturo Hernández Alcázar, Atul Bhalla, Eka Archiving projects, Harun Farocki, Manmeet Devgun, Mansoor Ali, Mayank Mansingh Kaul, Natalia Ludmila, Rana Begum, Raqs Media Collective, Ruchin Soni, Shaheen Ahmed + Moumita Ghosh, Sujit Mallik, Vidisha Saini + Poornima Sardana, Wala...more or less 

MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH

@ NIV ART CENTER,  NEW DELHI

                

Solo show of Rashmi Khurana''s abstract paintings 

THE POSSIBILITY OF BEING

@ Exhibit320, New Delhi

The Possibility of Being is a curatorial engagement with five artist immersed in image making with a constant dialogue with Painting and Drawing both in terms of medium and practice.   The curation is dedicated to (re) exploring linkages between the image, the socio-political and painterly practices as we come to the end of an era which was (is being) called Contemporary.

Rekha Rodwittiya, Jagannath Panda, Muktinath Mondal, Ashim Purokayasta, and Nataraj Sharma.

DRIFTERS

@ ART KONSULT GALLERY, NEW  DELHI

An exhibition that plays with the notion of 'emerging artists' and to re examine artist curator relationships

This show is a complex snap shot of new contemporary Indian artists who work out of (the culture scape called) Delhi. The show puts together a mix of artists’ whose works the city has not quite engaged with (in terms of the dominant gallery structures) and are curatorial deemed important to be viewed and engaged with. The snapshot claims complexity because it does not fit into the conventional idea of upcoming artists, yet it is constructed out of a curatorial hunch regarding an array of artists who have been working in the city for sometime now and have worked away from the market glare and the all consuming stylistic homogeneity. One key aim of this show is to establish that art exists outside of dominant trends and often such work often reflect a layered sense of artistic practice and a kind of personal engagement with art making which was being rendered unfashionable during the market boom that clouded our taste.

It is a non thematic show, thought the pressure to bestow a theme on every curated show is hard to ignore one feels that this goes against the nature of this curatorial endeavor. The curatorial enterprise instead chooses to focus on a critical selection and working out display in close collaboration with artists

Artists - Shantanu Lodh, Anindita Bhattacharya, Kanak Sashi, Saumya Anantkrishnan, Puja Vaish, Al Said Hassan, Paratibha Singh, Kumar kanti Sen, Paribartan Mohanty, Nidhi Khurana, Megha Joshi, Vinita Dasgupta, Raj Mohanty 

Broadening the Canvas:Celebrating Blemishes

@BENGAL GALLERY, ICCR, KOLKATA

For the Kolkata Rainbow Pride Festival 

The exhibition was aimed to generate dialogue on diverse expressions of gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual identity, sexual and romantic relations as also associated socio-economic issues like health, education, law and the domain of work, this show aims to be a platform for expression and dialogue, and also a zone that makes contestation possible.

The exhibition has been designed in three sections – Body, Mind and Soul. 
Artists list  -  Balbir Krishan, Anuradha Upadhyaya, Deepak Tandon, Jayna Mistry, Mandakini Devi, Manmeet Devgun, Moumita Ghosh, Prakash Kishore, Rudra Kishore Mandal, Syed Taufik Riaz, Paribartan Mohanty, Suchismita Ukil, Tapati Choudhury, Jose Abad and Vidisha Saini. 

Musikal Chairs

@ VISUAL ARTS GALLERY, INDIA HABITAT CENTER, NEW DELHI
Assistant curator - Sushismita Ukil 

MUS!KAL CHA!RS is a solo project by the artist duo, Yadvendra-Saggar, who have tried to showcase the unfairness and the potholes in the system in this body of works, which rises in a youth revolt, angsty and raw. By employing images in the popular visual culture of iconic figures in contemporary world history in a pop-art inspired kitschy fashion, the artists are commenting on the failure of democracy worldwide, while mocking the consumerist, capitalist societies.

New Directions In Old Media

@ TRAPEZOID ART GALLERY, NEW DELHI

Within the conventional Contemporary Indian Art production, the emphasis on manual/physical labour comes up as a kind of noise, a disturbance which takes away from the digital/conceptual art itself. Contemporary art’s investment in labour, analogue and old media assumes various forms and it is symptomatic of changes in the economy rather than expressive of a broader consciousness in which painting, sculpture, printmaking and photography become the expressions of a new wave contemporary.

 The September show has artists: Syed Taufik Riaz, Manasi Trivedi, Preeti Agrawal, Akash Gaur, Nidhi Khurana Soni, and Vidisha Saini

Mending Fences| Surat

@ SCIENCE CENTER, SURAT
Co Curator - Karishma Shah

'Mending Fences' aims at connecting the language, practice and culture of contemporary art with such centres. The exhibition will be showing the best of the varied

practices that are emerging as the future of contemporary art, with a collection of young and early mid career artists.This show is also a fundraiser for the Student's fund of 'Fine Arts College-South Gujarat University - Surat'
Artists - Abhijeet Paul, Brigu Sharma, Birendra Pani, Chinmoyi Patel, Deepak Tandon , Jagruti Dabhi, Jimmy Chishi, Kanak Sashi, Mansi Trivedi, Moumita Gosh, Megha katyal, Mehul Patel, Piyush Thakkar, Pratul Dash, Preksha Thaker, Pooja Panchal, Puja Kedia, Rajarshi Smart, Rudra Kishore Mondal, Saurabh Desai, Sandip Daptari, Shefalee Jain, Siraj Saxena, Vishwa Shroff, Yadvendra + Sagar 

FRIENDLY STRANGERS

@ NIV ART CENTER, NEW DELHI

Empty Spaces have the most energy fields than anything else in the universe; and all the object, matter, particles we know, constitute just ten percent of the universe....or even less. The fascination for the dark matter and empty spaces…and more importantly the floating energy fields within is what binds Ajay Narayan and Shridhar Iyer together. This engagement allows me to curatorially put together two artists who are stylistically poles apart. Yet, inspite of the stylistic difference, Shridhar and Ajay have worked together in collaboration in terms of sharing of ideas and space.

In a strict sense this is not a ‘two man show’. Friendly Strangers is a essentially Ajay Narayan solo with Shridhar Iyer giving it support. Shridhar has been celebrating a quiet journey of discovering a new medium, and is seeding a very strong series. Ajay on the other hand is maturing within his early style. One is more focused on matter one more on energy. Yet together they are engaged in re-presenting the unknown. The unknown that is falling out of fashion as the world becomes more material obsessed and Man lands on Mars.

DRIFTING STILL

@ ART KONSULT GALLERY, NEW DELHI

Drifting stillis proposed as a continuation of a curatorial urge to propose a new understanding of emerging, invest worthy artists and exhibition display.  the show opens on the 15th of september at the art konsult gallery with the lauch of the post show catalouge launch of drifters- delhi+mumbai  and a pre show catalouge of drifting still

.     Paribartan Mohanty, Kanak Sashi, Anindita Bhattacharya, Shantanu Lodh, Vinima Gulati, Nidhi Khurana, Puja Puri, Pratibha Singh, Akshay Rathore, Surya Singh, Megha Joshi, Akash Gaur, Michal Glikson, Francesca Ramello, Kuumar Kanti Sen, Aditi Chitre, Mandakini Galore, Neha Thakar, Rabindra Patra,  Jimmy Chishi


Story Teller: Stories told and

 Retold

Vinita Dasgupta's solo booth for Art Konsult Gallery at the 2013 India Art Fair. Always a challenge to curate inside a art fair with its visual excess.





DRFITERS -1 

@ ARTISTS CENTER, MUMBAI

The show presents three young, talented, brave practitioners of painting who have worked on the fringes of art institutions to evolve personalized expressions which are intimate, sensitive and yet (sometimes) political. The artist were near contemporaries at the Faculty of Fine arts, MS University of Baroda, and have over the years have grown to appreciate and support each other’s artistic practice….it was only natural that they would Drift and anchor together. Ruchin Soni alias Hiralal, Nidhi Khurana alias Champa and Aditi Chitre are painters who’s enthrall, captivate and enchant by being able to generate intuitive poetry while expressing their personal mythologies/journeys and anxieties…and needless to say they are the ‘Drifters’.

STOP - REWIND - FORWARD

An exhibition of paintings by Harsheet Thukral at the 'Drawing Room', Shahpurjat 

MOVING THE CENTER 

Moving the Center, is an curatorial attemt to begin a decentralising process from the urban, cosmopolitan centric contemporary art, and to open up questions regarding languge in the making of visual arts. Folk Art in India has only recently being acknowledged as an intrinsic part of contemporary expression and the standing of folk+tribal art as a frozen tradition. It is true that some masters have been recognised as extra ordinary sculptors or painters, yet we treat contemporary art and folk+tribal art as two different streams. One of the agendas for MATI India is to rework this polarised relationship. It is not just because aeroplanes entered Madhubani Paintings fifteen years ago, but also because contemporary art rural India is bursting with creative and technical brilliance and is definitely a part of our contemporary viewing culture. Moving the Center is a show celebrating this breaking of boundaries, showcasing some of the best modernist and contemporary folk+tribal art. Moving the Center, will seek to begin a journey towards fulfilling MATI’s goal to do away with the work folk itself, and establish a history of contemporary art from rural and tribal India.The show is curated by Siddhartha Tagore and Rahul Bhattacharya which will feature some of the best of contemporary folk and tribal art of India comprising master artists like - 

Jangarh Singh Shyam, Kaushal Prasad and Jaidev Baghel, Jivya Soma Mashe, Baua Devi as well as important talents like Venkat Raman Singh, Rajendra Kumar Shayam, Govind Yogi, Rambharos Jha, Montu Chitrakar, Narmada Prasad Tekam. The exhibition will bring together contemporary painting traditions from Saura, Gond, Warli, and large scale stunning sculptures from Bastar. The narrative scroll painting tradition will be showcased through Pichwais, Pata Chitras, Raghurajpur, Santhal and Bengal scrolls along with masks from Bastar, Bengal, and the Bodo region. Many of these artworks have a history of ritualistic contexts, but have now become an integral part of contemporary visual culture. We need to arrive at a space where these works occupy different languages within the spectrum of contemporary.



one ROCK

A solo exhibition of Deepak Tandon's works at Veranda 8 , Chicago
Co Curator Gunjan Chawla

BETWEEN AMBIVALENCE AND CRITICISM: 
5 stories of contemporary abstraction'

Saba Hassan, Shobha Broota, Kavita Jaiswal, Sohan Qudari, Deepak  Tandon
@ Art Konsult Gallery, New Delhi 


NO SQUARE CIRCLES: 
drawing by sculptors

George Martin, Manjunath Kamat, H G Arun Kumar, Latika Katt, Chinmoy Pramanik, Dilip Choubisa , Ram Bali Chauhan
@Lalit Kala, New Delhi