Urgent: 10ml of Contemporary needed!

14th – 27th August, 2008
Travancore Art Gallery | Kasthurba Gandhi Marg. New Delhi- 110001

Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art presented “Urgent: 10ml of Contemporary needed!” a group show featuring ten emerging artists from across India. Chosen by the FICA Emerging Artist Award 2007 jury members Atul Dodiya, Subodh Gupta, N.S.Harsha, Shilpa Gupta, Annapurna Garimella and Anshuman Dasgupta these artists articulate the most exciting emerging trends in contemporary Indian art.

The exhibition featured Abhishek Hazra, Baptist Coelho, Chinmoy Pramanick, Dilip Chobisa, Lavanya Mani, Rajesh Ram, Reji Arackal, Sakshi Gupta, Sisir Thapa, and Ved Prakash Gupta.

10ml of Contemporary presented ten individual artists, who represent the heterogeneity and paradox within emerging art practices in India. What binds together these young artists is their urgency to respond to the contemporary climate, and to mediate crucial debates. Using historical, textual, spatial and psychological reference points they explore the multi-loci-ed contemporary. The energy that develops here is through the tension, the conflicts and contradictions, within and between their works. They are the small-but-vital 10ml; components that are the essential impetus for change.

This exhibition was a major milestone foe FICA, which has in its last year and half dedicated itself to programming around contemporary art, in supporting young artists and art writers, and promoting public art projects. The year saw many important events from FICA; including the solo exhibitions of the two winners of the last year FICA Emerging Artist Award and the start of a new public art project.

The Jury:

The jury members were artists Atul Dodiya, Subodh Gupta, N.S.Harsha, Shilpa Gupta, and art historians/critics Annapurna Garimella and Anshuman Dasgupta. Initially what began as a jury to choose two winners of the FICA Emerging Artist Award 2007, concluded with the jury members choosing the two winners, as well as proposing that FICA host a group show featuring ten emerging artists from the finalists.

The Artists:

Abhishek Hazra- with a background in Communication Design from Shrishti School, Bangalore, Abhishek is a visual artist who has made a mark with his multi-media installation works which explore the intersection between technology and culture. Text takes center stage in his works, often used in building his imagined narratives.

Baptist Coelho- a designer and photographer, coming from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design and based in Bombay, Baptist’s explorations in visual art is multi-sensory, through a combination of video, installation, sound, performance and photography. His works contend with time and history, memory, place, culture and gender.

Chinmoy Pramanick- a Baroda-based artist, Chinmoy’s works have a nuanced way of magnifying the mundane and compelling the viewer to re-examine the materialistic fabric of today’s society. His works are, as he says, comments on the society and its practices along with autobiographical anecdotes.

Dilip Chobisa- Dilip is a sculptor from Baroda. Dilip’s art works occupy a space between the being and absence of the third dimension, he claims to ‘sculpt his drawings’. The intimate and the minute in life, like a conversation in the corner with matchsticks, catch his interest and hence come up as subject matter for his works.

Lavanya Mani- Lavanya studied painting in Baroda, and is today working from there too. In her works Lavanya has explores and cultivates the role that dyes and printed textiles have played in trade through the period of colonization and beyond. Thus in turn scrutinizing the finer demarcation between the high and low ends in categorizing art practices.

Rajesh Ram- Coming from Patna College of Art and Craft, Rajesh did Art Appreciation from National Museum, New Delhi. Rajesh works by encashing on his personal experiences and memories. He prefers to express in a photo-realistic mode where reality is captured both at the surface and in terms of concept.

Reji Arackal- Reji comes from College of Fine Arts, Trichur, and from Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan. His works should be read with an eye for strong and evocative drawings. His works are sharp witted with an obvious tones of irony in them.  His otherwise calm, iconic figures is but a façade which hides the violence, the conflict that happens within one’s self.

Sakshi Gupta- Sakshi did sculpture from the Govt. College of Art, Chandigarh, and College of Arts, Delhi. This Delhi-based artist likes to explore various non-conventional mediums while working on her sculptures. One of her works come in the form of a bed, where she deals with her quests on freedom and its extended perceptions.

Sisir Thapa- is a sculptor from Santiniketan. To Sisir the greatest victory of man is as an innovator. He identifying himself as an innovator; works with found/junk materials, changing their associations and manipulating their meanings.

Ved Gupta- Ved Prakash Gupta is a sculptor from Baroda. His works plays strongly with satire, and looks at the complexity and multiplixity of human behavior. In his attempt to challenge societal hierarchies Ved dwarfs his protagonists, thereby invalidating the idea of “big people”.