India Today, Feb 13, 2012
India Today, Feb 13, 2012
India Today, Feb 13, 2012
ent over a mirror above which are strung pomegran-ates, Amina Ahmad, 50, re-gards her reflection. She
AMINABEGUM AHMED, 50
A Kutchi-Turk Indian born in Africa, she grew up in UK, lived in Iran and US. Was awarded Barakat prize by the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture .
AHMAD WITH HER WORKFOR THE CAN YOU SEE ME? EXHIBITION
The Babu, the Nayika and the Cat, sculptures by Tapas Sarkar
NO LONGER FOREIGN
Laura Williams of gallery Art18/21 is now a three-time India Art Fair veteran and has seen the event grow from strength to strength, I dont think the international galleries are here to flirt with the Indian art market, but to build strong ties. Given that scenario, I do wish the paper work around transport-ing art across borders would lighten up, says the gallery owner whose artists Alec Cummings and Isabel Rock have made India their second home. Galleries from Europe accounted for 26 per cent of the attendance, 14 per cent were from North and South America, Middle East, Africa and Australia and 57 per cent from Asia, including India.
then invites other viewers to see themselves in a pond dappled with red globules. It speaks of the tran-sience of identity and the persistence of beauty, an installation she created at the art residency of the Engendered Art Space, a 2,000 sq ft gallery at Shahpur Jat in Delhi. Ahmad was born in Africa and is a Kutchi-Turk Indian who grew up in England and lived in Iran and the US. These multiple strains of culture have affected her life and art. There are many artists like her who showed their works at the India Art Fair and in the collateral shows that kicked off in Delhi this January. The diaspora is more relevant in todays transnational scenario be-cause it touches more lives as there
only
beautiful, but calming and uplifting because it is the result of her own spir-itual contemplation. Her work embodies a Sufi state of mind: connection to all
International magazine
K.K. RAGHAVA, 31
Born in Bangalore, he travelled across US, UK and Europe. His work was auctioned by Queens Museum and Christies.Winner of grant from America India Foundation.
Pois ed to be one of the most suc ces sful cros sover artists from Indi a i n the US, his genius lies in his simplicity and open- nes s to take from and give bac k to the envi-
MARKET MANTRA
There were a few grunts of disap-proval when emerging collector Parmesh Shahani commented on the surfeit of commercial work at the fair. Given that six of the large galleries Vadehra, Espace, Nature Morte, Sakshi and Arushi from India and 1x1 from Dubaihad the hugely popular Ravindra Reddys work on display, one can see where his grouse is coming from. Besides Reddy, saleable works by M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza, Anjolie Ela Menon and Laxma Goud were on display.
with Olina Banerji
ied with billboard painters and started an atelier to keep the dying art alive. I wanted to make enough money to be with my girlfriend, who is now my wife, so we rented a van and toured all over the world selling my art works, recalls Raghava, who showed a 6x4 ft mixed media canvas at the Art Musings booth at the India Art Fair that made a statement about the end of the Nehruvian dream and the birth of globalised India. His works are priced between Rs 25 lakh and an astronomical Rs 1.25 crore. For Karachi born Simeen Farhat it will be 20 years since she moved to the US and while she believes that India currently has a strong presence, economically and culturally on the global art scene, the incidence of diaspora in the US was much stronger earlier than it is now. Farhats work com-prises Urdu text used in a symbolic-
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SIMEEN FARHAT, 43
Born in Karachi, grew up in the US. Masters from Texas Christian University, Fort Worth,and recipi-ent of Clay Fellowship Residency, US.
Engendered Space
VIKRAM SHARMA/www.indiatodayimages.com
L.N.TALLUR, 40
sculptural manner. While the calligraphic forms are based on the revolutionary poetry of Rumi, Saadi, Khayyam, Ghalib and Faiz, they are not to be read literally. Instead they create a visual energy. The root for using text comes from the story of the Tower of Babel and also from the fact that language initially was derived from gestures and objects, says the 43-yearold, who studied fine artists at Texas Christian University and Arizona State University. Farhat is showing her work at the exhibition Can You See Me?, a paral-lel art event during the India Art Fair hosted by Engendered Space. She has been jetting around the globe show-ing her work at Xerxes Art, London; The Slick Art Fair in Paris; La Fontaine Centre of Contemporary Art, Bahrain; and at Abu Dhabi. She has been doing brisk sales because her works are priced affordably be-tween Rs 3 and Rs 15 lakh. In the last five years Ive been establishing connections outside the US, with trips to Pakistan, Europe, and the Middle East. Moving to the US definitely helped me see things with multiple perspectives; both as an in-sider and outsider, says Farhat, who is planning a big solo in India. For Ahmad, showing in India seemed the most logical step given the global climate pervading the Indian art scene. I feel very con-nected to where I was born, my her-itage, where I lived and where I am now. The need to have a sense of be-longing is always there and the pain of witnessing and being a part of mar-ginalised communities does not es-cape me, says Ahmad who studied at the Royal College of Art. Earlier this year Ahmad had a solo at the Seven Arts Gallery in Delhi that marked her entry on the Indian art scene. She also showed works at the Seven Arts booth at the art fair titled Oh Subtle Earth. Ahmads works are priced be-tween Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 8.93 lakh. Enjoying the playful and experimental atmosphere of being around other diaspora artists, Sharmistha Ray painted a canvas live on a rooftop at Shahpur Jat on January 24. Having flown in from Mumbai after her suc-cessful exhibition at Galerie Mirch-andani+Steinruecke, Ray, 33, created The Erotic Impulse, a 6x8 diptych that was layered with salmon pink, pale green, vibrant reds and hot yellows. Colours that reflect her musings on gender-sexuality in the surroundings of green foliage and pink prayer flags. Ray quit her job as sales director at Hauser and Wirth gallery, New York, in 2011 and turned to painting large format abstracts on canvas.
Born in Mysore, grew up in Gujarat, Maharashtra,lives in Korea. Studied at Leeds Metropolitan University,UK,got Commonwealth Scholarship in 2001.
He capitalises on strangeness.
Chaitanya Sambrani, ANU School
ofArt,The
Before that she was a British citizen in the Middle East. The Joan Mitchell Scholarship let her study at Pratt Institute in New York, after which she worked with Bodhi Art Gallery as managing director. I was tired of be-ing marginalised in the US where I had to underline my political re-sponse in my work. I want to work without that baggage. Thats why I came back to India and was immedi-ately absorbed into the mainstream, says Ray who has been here for six years. She prices her work between Rs 40,000 and Rs 12 lakh. I dont want the metaphors of migration to be literal. I want to tie in the issues of displacement, migration and the turmoil that can occur from it in a more poetic and metaphorical way. And I want to do that as a glob-alised Indian, Ray signs off.
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