EMERGING ARTIST AWARD 2013 | SUJITH SN
Sujith SN creates artworks that map out how spatial rhythms and territorial boundaries of modern urban landscapes inevitably lead to violence. His work addresses the relationship between politics and architecture and its effect on modern societies, and specifically how modern architecture has come shape the political, social, and cultural behaviors of its inhabitants. Having grown up in various cities in South India during a period of rapid urbanisation his practice is informed greatly by these spatial transformations. His work is further is inspired by his training as a draughtsman in the construction industry. Sujith received his BFA from College of Fine Arts, Trichur, and MFA from the Sarojini Naidu School of Fine Arts, Performing Arts and Communication in the University of Hyderabad and . His works have been exhibited as a part of various group shows including The Map is not Territory at Lattitude 28, Relative Visa at Bodhi, Indian Subway at Grosvner Vadehra, London, and several others at Sakshi Gallery and Gallery OED. He had his first solo show The City and the Tower at Sakshi Gallery in 2008. He was part of Khoj Kolkata artists residency in 2009, and has received various awards such as the Kerala Lalit Kala Academi State Award and a Merit Scholarship from the University of Hyderabad.
The FICA Emerging Artist Award 2011 was shared between Charmi Gada Shah and Sujith SN. The recipients were selected by a jury that consisted of artist Bharti Kher, curator Gayatri Sinha, photographer and curator Sunil Gupta, Chandrika Grover of Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council in collaboration with Swiss curator Nadia Schneider Willen, and Radhika Chopra and Vidya Shivadas of FICA.
Solo exhibition | Psalms of an Invisible River by Sujith SN
17 August – 7 September 2013 | Venue: Vadehra Art Gallery, D-53 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024
Vadehra Art Gallery presents the solo exhibition of Sujith SN, as part of the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art’s (FICA) Emerging Artist Award 2011. Sujith SN’s exhibition of watercolours titled Psalms of an Invisible River speaks in a tongue of Holbeinesque metaphors and meanings. The large format works on paper present a world that is both poetic and apocalyptic, and sets the stage for narratives on humanity’s relationship with the world and its various other inhabitants. The invisible river from the tile could be any of the hundreds of rivers running through Indian cities which have been forgotten, misused and hidden under the forest of buildings. They also double as metaphors of people and lives which go unseen amidst the daily humdrum of urban chaos. Sujith’s rendering of space and atmosphere, and the pervading twilight that his landscapes are suspended in, echoes the double-edged character of development.