The Enchanting World of Yusuf's Art | 20th Oct - 12th Nov 2024 at Juneja Art Gallery, Jaipur

The Enchanting World of Yusuf's Art

20th Oct - 12th Nov  2024 at Juneja Art Gallery, Jaipur

Yusuf's creations are an intricate dance of sensory and emotional depth, seamlessly blending perceptions and realities with a metaphysical openness that invites endless exploration. Each piece is a unique voyage, traversing the landscapes of memories and sensuous experiences, all while maintaining a remarkable 'lightness of being'. This lightness belies the substantial 'load' of life that his works carry.

The serene and buoyant atmosphere, rendered through subtle gray tones and vibrant colors, invites viewers into a tranquil yet dynamic world. Yusuf's lines flow effortlessly like veins through rock, yet they can twist, break, and splinter, imbuing his works with a poignant and captivating quality. These lines often rise and fall in gentle undulations, coalescing into amorphous forms teeming with life, inviting contemplation on the essence of existence.

The curves, crevices, and cavernous depths of Yusuf's lines invite a deep reflection on the nature of being. Even the broken lines and bold patches of color engage in a profound dialogue, creating a narrative that is both sublime and compelling. His works possess a mellifluous quality, drawing viewers into a magnetic sphere rich with intent and substance. 

Renowned painter and art thinker J. Swaminathan once observed of Yusuf's lines:

"These drawings are self-contained entities of their own. They reveal a world of meaning to us not contained in our lexicon. Yet, our senses apprehend them. We are able to sense them without being able to pigeonhole them. Herein lies the magic of the drawings of Yusuf."

This magic extends to his paintings as well, which could make them an essential part of any artistic discourse.

The Ethereal Elegance of Yusuf’s Sculptures

'Kalpvraksh'

In Yusuf's oeuvre, his uniquely crafted sculptures too stand out. These pieces, suggestive of the relationship between man and machine, eloquently address the modern human predicament—how to live with machines. Almost in a state of flight, the sculptures possess a certain grace, and their presence is enchanting. They remind us of how we are bound to live with machines, providing comfort yet also causing discomfort. At times, we wish to free ourselves from their clutches, yet we remain tethered. One might also recall the superb film by Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times, which explores a similar  dilemma. But let’s return to where it all began for Yusuf.

One day, Yusuf saw a photograph in a newspaper of a man carrying a sewing machine on his shoulder, waddling through rising floodwaters, trying to save the machine. In the photograph, the man's head and the machine’s head appeared almost fused together.

'Yakshini-2'

Yusuf was moved by this portrayal—a man and his machine united in a single moment. Coming from a family of master tailors, he was naturally drawn to the scene, having been familiar with sewing machines since childhood. Later, he learnt that the photograph was taken by photographer Steve McCurry as part of his monsoon series from India and abroad. The photograph fired Yusuf's imagination, and the result was a series of sculptures done with various materials. The series continues with ever-changing, appealing imagery, consisting of faces both ordinary and divine, with many components from nature.

One of the figures, with a predominant blue shade, exudes a distinct charm. The ornate, bead-studded headpiece, earrings and wings convey a certain regal and divine essence. Interestingly, the machine here does not have a dreary and dull presence. Rather, the relationship shown is symbiotic, almost idyllic, evoking a sense of abundance, power and a certain shimmering sacred splendor. The face has a rather calm and introspective expression, unfolding its wings in a sort of spiritual ascent, with the radiance of a deity but with the framework of a device.

'Devi' 

The textural feel of the sculptures is powerfully executed. As with his paintings, the painstakingly intricate details of the sculptures are crafted with love and care, offering a seminal visual delight. The subtlety with which the man’s desire to see beauty in machines is conveyed is astonishing.

Whether we choose a flight from the machine or a flight with it, we find ourselves on the brink of transformation. In whatever way we look at these amazingly done “bodies,” we tend to appreciate them for their elegance, charm, and integrity which leave us with a sense of awe and admiration.

Prayag Shukla

Poet & Art Critic, New Delhi

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My Lines

When a point moves, a line is drawn. In my art the line plays a very important role. When I picturise the group of lines as a basic element, a strange happening occurs. Many lines emanate from this indivisible point, which then give birth to innumerable unrecorded lines. So, when I draw one single line I am actually creating two of them – positive and negative. The white lines between two drawn black lines is not purely space that has been left out. It is actually a deliberate effort. They also form to my line drawings, the same way as the black lines do. The two combine to produce a sensuousness which breathes life into my lines and gives them dynamism and mobility.

'The Served Man'

For me the line is a living unit, full of limitless possibilities I believe that when an artist creates a shape using the line, then it is the line that gives it a definite shape, then ending all other possibilities. That is why in my line drawings you do not see shape of any natural thing – my group of lines is full of possibilities capable of being taken anywhere. My creations are not created through extraneous lines. Infact they are a group of innumerable lines which can be increased or drawn in any direction. And so my line drawings have their origins from the lines, their space and form is always basic where the innermost values remain the same and where the possibilities are endless.

Yusuf

'Affirming IDENTITIES' | 05th - 18th March 2023 at Juneja Art Gallery, Jaipur

Surjit Akre is a significant name in the contemporary art scenario of our country. She has remained sincere and prolific in her art for over 45 years now, having undergone the rigorous training program in Fine Arts between 1978 and 1985 from the then Soviet Union, from The Repin Institute of Art. With her superb ability over line, form, light and shade Surjit does her alma mater proud. Women artists through their art, frequently explore their social confinement and subordination to men. In effect, their art tends to become not only biographical but also vehicles of social criticism. In this respect Surjit’s quiet and serene temperament is extended into her work. What clearly runs through her works almost unfailingly is a sense of longing for love, understanding and companionship. A lot of her compositions therefore have a wistful aura.

Transiting between dream and reality her works are nevertheless completed rather than empty rounds of her subject matter. Her smooth flowing lines, lyrical forms and vivid coloring, emerge from different backgrounds, open and bright, dark and brooding, or again smooth or sometimes heavily textured. Discernible also are her compositions influenced by traditional Indian paintings, replete with vibrant colors, small motif like elements, flat colors and beautiful organization. Though women as a concern remains central to her, she also feels deeply on other issues like poverty, the injustice of fate & the traumas of partition of India. So pathos and irony run side-by- side in her canvasses, but only after dreams, romance, frustration, and the longing for respite to live and work peacefully.                     
Aruna Bhowmick, New Delhi.

  

The Feminine Touch

Surjit Akre is one of the artists who extensively dwells on the situation of the female - her desires, ambitions, dreams, aspirations, moods, engagements and her leisure moments. Romanticism too touches the heart of her art occasionally and these are very effective, endearing compositions she has created. Such works, when presented in her color spectrum, enthrall the audience. A pining woman in her work titled "The Passion" where time is running out like galloping horse; a woman seated on a bed of thorns with a dozen masks hanging behind her simply present the current problem , as to what mask to choose in order to mitigate the situation. "Flowers and thorns" & "Moonlight" were some of her earlier works in oils that highlighted the tensions and contradictions faced by the female in her journey through life’s tricky lanes.

R.S. Yadav, New Delhi

  

Art is my patience. I interpret the life of general people in my paintings, their Love, anger, struggle for life, dreams, suffering & all happenings in life. I also paint autobiographical paintings. The main medium which i love is oil on canvas because it is durable & i can also try different textures in this medium. I also love to do pencil, charcoal and drawings on paper. I have developed my own style, which took several years of practice & experience. When I see my art i feel that life is so beautiful, yet complicated & deep because my paintings are the mirror of life. I depict life as i feel, and every painting shows different aspects of life, which is also felt by the viewers. Since the Post-graduation in 1986, from the prestigious Academy of Arts, Repin Institute of paintings, Sculpture & Architecture at Saint Petersburg, Russia, i have done over 6000 paintings on different series like Mother & Child, Wm; Peace, Shringar, Desire, Prakriti, Terrorism, Literacy, Man & Animal, Family, Knowledge is power, and on many other varied subjects.

 

Surjit Akre's paintings are self expressive

"The human body is the most beautiful of God's creations which is why the human form has played an important role in all my paintings", says Surjit Akre, renowned artist of National & International fame. Love plays a predominant role for most artists. Surjit's work also predominantly focuses on love and the traditional form of emotions as is clear in all her exhibitions till date. While focusing on love it is not only the love between man & woman but also between mother & child that she seems to have explored rather deeply. Nationally and Internationally awarded Surjit Akre believes that having lived in the Soviet Union for a long period her paintings were heavily influenced by the existing social realism. To be able to realize her true identity and style she decided to come back to her own country. She slowly graduated from the earthy colors of the Soviet style to the bright and vibrant colors of India mainly, red, yellow and blue.  In her formative years as a painter 1986 to 88 she must have made 50 paintings namely- Behind the red wall, Literacy., Tribal girls, Bleaching clothes, Vegetable seller, Family of fruit seller, Evening, Talk of mothers etc. For her thesis project she submitted her painting titled 11Adult education" which is still on display at Repin Institute at St. Petersburg, giving testimony to her work. Surjit Akre is the only Asian student who completed 7 years at this renowned institute till date. For a number of years Surjit has been associated with the RCSC (Russian Center of Science & Culture). She is also the founder member and President of Inda-Russian Art Club.

Her initial works were influenced by Amrita Shergill's style but by 1989 to 94 there was a distinctive shift in technique. In this phase she made about 150 paintings which were different in theme and style and colors bearing titles like - We need peace, We also want to live, Red bird & unhappy man, Woman with unfilled garland, Dream of the earth, From my childhood, Mother 20th century etc. With the passage of time and evolution in her style came a certain maturity. From 1995 to 99 she used a single theme for a number of paintings thereby making a series on Holy city, Mother; Hunger, Mama I miss you, Shelter, God today, Man & Animal, Shringar, Family, Knowledge is Power, War & Peace, Spring etc. In her series about Hunger she has depicted 3 types of hunger - Hunger for food, hunger for love and hunger for knowledge. There is focusing on the main subject and unwanted detailing is done away with. From 2000 to 2004 she used the basic colors without mixing of white to create artworks an Prose of sand dunes, Prakriti, Mother& Child, The Blue God, Dances of Shiva, Dream of unswerving love, No to global terrorism etc.  She is expressing her own emotions and feelings through the various forms of woman in her paintings. Surjit says that her woman is usually depicted as sad, even when portrayed in Shringar Ras she is suffering the pangs of separation, loneliness and dejection. She feels that in her portrayal of womanhood she uses contrasting moods and facets. The important "roop" of woman is motherhood. No sacrifice is too great for her to protect her child and home from harm. In 2001 in her series Prakriti she has portrayed woman as representative of nature because even in our epics, woman is described as being akin to nature. But Surjit also depicts other subjects close to her heart namely terrorism, social ills, violence, hunger, poverty etc. Terrorism is depicted through "Shiv Tandav" where an enraged Shiva is dancing on skulls, the dance of death. In the same way she has depicted the dark days of Punjab and the 1984 Blue star operation in her work entitled "Past Memories". The incidents of those days had a strong impact on her when she saw people with fear in their eyes and the destruction of the temple. The violence of those days is depicted so realistically that she was awarded Rashtrapati Silver Medal and M.S. Randhawa memorial cash award.

For a person who is widely traveled both in India and abroad Surjit transforms into a little girl when reminiscing about Taran Tarn the village she was born in during the S0s. She remembers her joyous childhood at the hands of her grandmother, the fresh smell of the earth, the early morning baths in the stream, the fresh cool air, the endless amount of mangoes which she got to eat thanks to being the only child living with her grandmother. These precious moments have been captured in her series "From my Childhood".

In today's time Surjit finds that the foundation of family relationships is crumbling. She feels that this is due to the insane pursuit of wealth at any cost by every individual. All forms of material comfort are being pursued, but only for the self, ignoring even the elders of the family. Whereas earlier the elders were the foundation of the family, the thread that held the whole family together, today that same elder is a burden to the family and society. This is very unjust she feels, elders should be given their due which will hold the entire family together, like an old shady tree that encompasses the others with the shade of its branches and holds everything together with its roots. This negative effect of the blind pursuit of wealth at any cost is what she is busy portraying on her canvas these days.

Surjit feels that this insane pursuit of wealth has permeated into the psyche of the painter also. Today's artist is hell bent upon creating a painting that will adorn somebody's living room and forgets the objectivity and honesty of his art and talent. Great artists did not compromise their talent or their art and despite great odds of poverty and despair never gave up. All this materialism pains her a lot.

Dr. Jasvinder Kaur Bindra

  

Surjit Akre was born in 1954 in Taran Tarn, Punjab, India. She is the first Indian artist who has achieved a post graduate degree in easel painting, faculty of Fine Arts from Russia, Academy of Fine Arts, Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture & Architecture. A Professional artist to the core, she has served on different juries & won several awards and Honours including senior and junior fellowships for outstanding artist from the Govt. of India, Ministry of H.R.D, Dept. of Culture, New Delhi from 1989-1991 and 1996-1998, AIFACS President of India's silver plaque and Dr. M.S. Randhawa memorial cash award in 1990; In 1987 Sahitya Kala Parishad award. In 1985 she was awarded and highly commended at the annual post graduate works exhibition in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2008 she was awarded Friendship Medal from the Russian Center for Scientific and Cultural Cooperation under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Moscow, Russia. In 2008, Silver Medal for Generosity by the Institute of Art named after K.A. Savitski, Russia. Honour award for the contribution Inda-Russian Friendship by the Mayor of Penza city, Russia. Awarded International Award in 2017, named after Nikolai Roerich in nomination artistic creativity in Visual Art, by the Government of Russia. She has held 71 Solo Exhibitions in India, Russia, U.S.A, Canada and participated in several major exhibitions, and Artists camps at National and International level. She is the founder of Roerich's Art Society, affiliated with the Russian Cultural Center, New Delhi. From 1986 to 2018 she has organised and curated exhibitions of Indian and Russian artists. Her works are in many private collections all over the world and also with many Govt. Organizations, various Art Organisations and in several Museums in India & Abroad.

 

Juneja Art Gallery founded in 1994 by Sangeeta Juneja, is now one of the biggest Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries in India with a space of over 6000 sq ft. The Gallery has so far sponsored 144 art shows under its brand name Artchill, which showcases diverse palette of creative and multimedia art by the best of Indian artists, from well-known, established, award winning artists to the young, promising names of our Contemporary World, each having a distinct artistic attitude. So today Artchill is a place for both the well-established as well as emerging artists with a brilliant performance. The extensive collection consists of Paintings, Sculptures, Reliefs, Graphics, Photo Art and Multimedia Art which can be viewed anytime by appointment apart from the current shows.

Artchill has also showcased Indian Art in various International Art Events.

Sangeeta Juneja is also a consultant and she advises Indian & overseas Collectors to create their art portfolios.

Fractional WHOLE | 16th Oct - 16th Dec 2022 at Juneja Art Gallery, Jaipur

 Diverse visual narrations bound by creative expressions

Indian Art scene is witnessing and embracing universal changes in this age of socio-political flux. Art is no more a regional phenomenon, as has been the case of different schools of thoughts that once persisted to reflect the essence of any land. The age of awareness and information has captured the human mind to be more politically aware and socially active than before. But still there are artists who have preserved the sanctity of their original skill irrespective of any influences. Contemporary readers, art lovers & viewers are more willing than their counterparts thirty years ago to appreciate works that resist tightly defined analytical categories.  

For the last 28 years, Artchill has curated and conceptualized art shows that highlighted diverse art forms like paintings, sculptures, reliefs, installations, caricatures & art photography in its galleries based in Jaipur and art fairs across the world. This is the 143^rd art show sponsored by the Gallery since the time it was established in 1994. The gallery focusses on the creative expressions by brilliant artists & emphasizes on the powerful and innovative presentation of their artistic abilities thus providing a unique & thought-provoking art Experience for all the viewers and visitors.

‘Fractional Whole’ takes you through diverse forms of endlessness and continuity within a wide range of practices. It can be a state of mind, a gesture, an incident, an act, a behavior or a response to any stimuli - all have a movement that could be either linear and directional, cyclical or temporal. There is a play of presence, absence and the infinite in-between states, not necessarily in its physicality but also in varied intangible forms. Everything appears static as an image and yet beholds movement, referring to a realm of formalistic, aesthetic, philosophical, psychological, socio-political & cultural contexts.  

Artists persistently breathe & pour out their unresolved tensions, moral issues, curiosities or their angst. This current show at Juneja Art Gallery, surveys a body of work that leaves itself incisively open, somewhere between being created and wholly complete. The works are bold and powerful and carry a story to narrate & echo the trials and tribulations of observations they all ponder over in the everyday idiom of lifestyles and experiences. Nature offers them pictorial and aesthetic beauty and inspires them with images and ideas. These artists never lose focus as they glide over their energy, deftly using elements of abstraction, distortion and simplification to create an alternative world on canvass. 

Diverse & mind-boggling works take the viewer into the journey of a Fractional Whole, speaking of the inner and outer worlds. It could be satirical, esoteric, psychological, innocent, spiritual, dreamy or surrealistic...many such deeper emotions that we could relate to or connect with. Each of these artists create intimate glimpses of uncanny worlds and mindscapes suffused with an atmosphere of the unknown. Processes and the possibility of instability, openness, and perpetual transformation underlie the creation and understanding of all the exhibited works.  

There is striking evidence of great strength and skill in organizing forms and colors and creating the effect of enchantment and fantasy : to create vitality & dynamism in an animate mass is a difficult proposition. It takes courage and tenacity as artists explore an addictive idiom, reflecting in some ways the conditions of artistic practices within the broader domain of expressive culture. It surely directs its critical and affirmative energies towards an ongoing engagement with the dominant certitudes of its era. The works then operate in a lattice of interfaces between belonging and being, open to influences both local and global, the skill of training and the color of contemporaneity. 

When we see these fractional windows that artists open for us, or fragmentation in its unity we are able to see the larger Whole, in its Totality. 

Compiled by Sangeeta Juneja

Show is on view till 16^th Dec 2022 at Juneja Art Gallery, Jaipur.

ABBAS BATLIWALA AKASH CHOYAL AKBAR PADAMSEE AMIT KALLA ANJANI REDDY ARPANA  CAUR   ASIT  KUMAR PATNAIK BAALAA  R.  BARRY WILSON  CHIRAYU KUMAR SINHA DEEPAK  KHANDELWAL DHARMENDRA RATHORE DHIRAJ SINGH DILEEP SHARMA DIPIKA HAZRA GANESH KUSHWAH GANGA SINGH GOBARDHAN  ASH GOURISHANKAR  SONI FARHAD HUSAIN INGRID PITZER JAGDISH CHANDER  JAI  ZHAROTHIA JIMMY  CHISHI

KANCHAN CHANDER KASHMIRI KHOSA KHETANCHI KIRAN MURDIA KISHAN MEENA L. N. NAGA LAXMA GAUD MADAN  MEENA  MANASH RANJAN  JENA MEENU  SHRIVASTAVA MOUMITA MUKESH SHARMA NAYANAA  KANODIA NIKHIL BISWAS NIREN SEN GUPTA P. N. CHOYAL PARAMJEET  SINGH PARESH MAITY  PRAYAG  SHUKLA   PROKASH  KARMAKAR SANT  KUMAR SATISH  GUJRAL SEEMA  KOHLI SHABANA QUADRI SHABNAM  HUSSAIN

SHAHID  PARWEZ SHRIDAR  IYER SHUVAPRASANNA SRINIWAS  CHARI SRINJOY  GANGOPADHYAY SRIRUPA  SEN SUBRATA  GANGOPADHYAY SULTANA KHAN SUNEET  GHILDIYAL SUNIL  PADWAL SUNIL DAS SUPARNA  MONDAL SURENDRA  PAL  JOSHI SURJIT  AKRE SURYA  PRAKASH SUSHIL  NIMBARK TATIYANA  CHAGAROVA VIDYASAGAR  UPADHYAY VINAY  SHARMA YUSUF

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Laxma Goud

Laxma Goud’s detailed figurative works depict exaggerated mythic figures among the rural realities of the Indian countryside. In operatic etchings, pastels, charcoal drawings, paintings, and sculptures.

Goud draws on his childhood in rural India and incorporates traditional tribal ornaments and elements of Indian dress such as lungis and saris.

Yusuf

My work shows the interrelationship of man and machine today. We are surrounded by machines, in which we are told that we are living in a world where we have wings and we are all flying from beyond the limit.   

All the work is being done by the machine, slowly the sensations are ending, and we are increasing the need, the world is running through the mind, the body and the emotions are becoming secondary..

Farhad hussain

Farhad’s vibrant paintings have a youthful, playful energy. Simple and easy on the eye, his works show an understanding of the complexities of Human nature and relationships. They sit comfortably with the viewer, with Just a touch of humour and sarcasm. His human figures are well defined and emanate individualistic character traits, making them relevant to the Scene being played out in the art. Saturated colours and vibrant backdrops are becoming the hallmarks of his works.

Farhad lets many influences flow into his work—flashes of miniature Paintings, Kalighat Chitras and Japanese prints evolve into a wholesome Image, making it easy to recognize his work.

Ingrid Pitzer

As a trained sculptor at college of Art, Berlin, I wanted to explore new 'sculpture' - material and was awarded a residency in Japan.

There I discovered, what a strong Material paper can be, if strong  fibers are used to cast 3dimensinal Art works. In Addition to this, these strong fiber materials are pure nature without any chemical Additions and therefore last up to hundreds of years.

This quality, among others, is the big difference to commonly known paper machee, which is only recycled industrial material of the lowest level and therefore does not survive many years. 

I became obsessed with the wondrous and enchanting abilities of handmade paper as a sculptural material.  Whenever I go to work at a new place, I always respond to that very surroundings which becomes the source of Inspiration. Like this two exhibited works were created in the backwaters of Kerala - and they could not have been created in the normal  Studio environment.

Jagdish Chander

Gazing at huge works of Jagdish Chander ,we find that it is not normal portraiture,but a method of working out human faces wherein each detail is knit in a pattern, and that pattern overrules the separate details of a face. Apparently, the artist aimed to electrify the whole of his compositions, so that viewers strongly winced; for his work is not designed to be a polite, or pretty one, but the very foundational base of our being :in his work the heart is laid bare, tellingly. A sensory contact with an outer as well as inner mental environment occurs - which the deeper physical, emotional and the rational centers receive and interpret.

Baalaa R

His entire works are being installed in sculptural manner using various types of innumerable materials to enhance the subject-matter of prints. The basic nature of these art works is to express an altogether modified concept in the prevailing contemporary art field .The key substance in the works containing different means of skillful application of technological expertise, the quality of materials were so handled as to enhance the projection of concept when the underlying concept would become predominant. Such a process is experimental and innovative so as to make an attempt to revamp the way of expressing the abstract concept. It is also an attempt to establish the reality that art forms a bridge between the processes of spirituality through scientific applications; which means a material manifestation of an interface between the realization of ‘truth’ and the guidance to objective practices. To define this entire process “the maximum most simplicity contains in it the maximum most complexity” 

Dhiraj Singh

Why I do what I do…

My X-ray art is for me a way of using the dramatic and the otherworldly to shed light on the regular and the immediate. I think my fixation with X-rays has its roots in my childhood. My X-ray works are an attempt to essentialize my experiences. Pare them down to their bare bones. X-rays have for me become a way of seeing things without the stuff that holds them together. It’s a way that reduces human form to its essentials. In grey and black and some white. Not surprisingly my first X-ray work was called ‘Urban Shaman 1’ and it tried to show urban life as an arrangement of body parts and objects such as a gun, cell phones, keys, car tyres and god statues. Some people find my works scary and morbid. Agreed those skulls and bones can be intimidating at first. But there are bigger truths that the initial shock and awe help us see.

Dileep Sharma

Unafraid to chart new territories, Dileep Sharma plays with images and colour to give us a vocabulary embedded in the miniaturist and folk art traditions of his home state Rajasthan. Objects, people, cultures, traditions, emotions—all combine easily and represent a global take on social and political issues in a mildly satirical way . His work is colourful, with motifs embedded within forms—cut and mixed to often make a sharp comment on the impermanence of the world dominated by media. He brings in humour, fantasy and social commentary with a very light touch. The artist currently lives and works between Jaipur and Mumbai. He has received several national and international awards and residencies, and has held several solo and group shows.

Nayanaa Kanodia

When the world that disturbs me and the world of which I have an intimate understanding of are absorbed and amalgamated, a new artistic dialect is created. The conversation I hope to create in my work is a certain truth of life and on a deeper level, a well thought philosophy.

Individuals may interpret my paintings in vastly disparate ways and each view will be equally logical and plausible, thought provoking and intriguing. A picture of the moment is built and whole histories and relationships become visible.

Being India's chief practitioner of Naive Art, my work delights the viewer with its whimsy, the flat bright polished surfaces, vibrant and dynamic colours and extraordinary plethora of intricately worked details, patterns and shapes. My paintings are reflections on the charming idiosyncrasies of my subjects with a fine degree of wit and gentle satire and yet contain the most important social messages of our lives.

Brief Profile

An economist turned painter and a brilliant colourist with a strong individualism in her work ,Nayanaa Kanodia can be considered to be the pioneer of the genre of L’Art Naif in India. She has held innumerable shows in India and abroad. Her paintings are in the collection of major art collectors and corporate houses all over the world. Musee International D’Naif Art in Paris permanently displays her paintings. She has exhibited and demonstrated her painting techniques in Victoria and Albert Museum in London.She was the first Indian whose paintings were selected in Paintings In Hospitals.UK. She has been featured in an international publication Women in Art by Reinhard Fuchs, a rare honour for any Indian artist. She was chosen from all the artists of The Commonwealth Countries to have a solo show in their newly renovated complex in London . Impressed with the social messages being conveyed in her paintings, a consortium of schools in Los Altos, U.S.A. is using her work as a medium of instruction to their students. She has recently been appointed as a juror for PrismaArt Prize for their Rome Dividere in Europe. She is the first Indian on their panel which is an honour not only for her but also for her country. She is associated with many charitable societies, gives talks and conducts workshops and presentations on art in various organizations and universities. She is also a judge in art competitions. She has attended Art Camps in India, London, Sweden, Italy, Moscow, Greece, Bangkok and Cambodia. Her work is characterized by the air of whimsy, flat bright polished surfaces and the extraordinary plethora of intricately worked details and patterns.

Arpana Caur

Arpana Caur affiliates to this prominent school of time explorers. ‘I am obsessed with the phenomenon of time ‘ she said once, and her paintings are witness to this obsession in many ways. The motifs in her paintings from classic art- Scissors are a repeated symbol and remind us of the Fates, antique goddesses of destiny, who cut the thread of life when the time is due. Traffic lights are phase of order and timing. Everywhere you’ll find the river of time, form which powerful plants emerge or twisted dead trunks and branches submerge. A mediating yogi, oblivious of time and space, stands on one foot and ponders ascetically over spiritual eons. Delhi-based Arpana Caur has held solo shows in India, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Munich, New York and Stockholm. She was commissioned by the Hiroshima Museum of Modern Art to execute a large work for its permanent collection on the 50th anniversary of the Holocaust in 1995. Her works are in Museums of Modern Art in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, V&A London, Bradford, LA, Hiroshima, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Kunst Museum Dusseldorf and Swaraj Archive Noida. She got a Gold Medal in Triennele International 1986 and Lifetime Achievement Awards in Punjab and Bihar. She founded the Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, along with her writer mother Ajeet Caur, through which she supports fine arts and vocational training for the underprivileged. A strong advocate for protecting the environment, she is also committed to the restoration of heritage.

Kashmiri Khosa

Working and living in solitude and silence of the Tapovan area of Dharamshala under the Dhauladhar peak of the Himalayas since more than twenty five years. Till now I have been trying to understand and grasp the ancient Indian texts and trying to transform the very thought and wisdom of these texts into modern visual language of art on Canvas.The present series of works are called '' THE MUSIC OF UNIVERSE ''. These are the limited edition signed digital art prints on quality archival paper. These digital works are inspired from the nature and surroundings next to my studio in mountains. Without nature human beings can't live normal lives. Nature can exist without man, but humans can't exist without nature.

Chirayu Kumar Sinha

On a lighter note is the work by Chirayu Kumar Sinha titled Bronze Chamiya, one very humorous heads created in stoneware of women dressed up to go out for the evening. Using all the elements of ceramics, he has created a lasting image that is jocular and displays a fair amount of skill.

Fractional WHOLE | Opening 5 pm , Sunday, 16th Oct 2022

 Diverse visual narrations bound by creative expressions

Opening 5 pm , Sunday, 16th Oct 2022

 

Indian Art scene is witnessing and embracing universal changes in this age of socio-political flux. Art is no more a regional phenomenon, as has been the case of different schools of thoughts that once persisted to reflect the essence of any land. The age of awareness and information has captured the human mind to be more politically aware and socially active than before. But still there are artists who have preserved the sanctity of their original skill irrespective of any influences. Contemporary readers, art lovers & viewers are more willing than their counterparts thirty years ago to appreciate works that resist tightly defined analytical categories.  

For the last 28 years, Artchill has curated and conceptualized art shows that highlighted diverse art forms like paintings, sculptures, reliefs, installations, caricatures & art photography in its galleries based in Jaipur and art fairs across the world. This is the 143^rd art show sponsored by the Gallery since the time it was established in 1994. The gallery focusses on the creative expressions by brilliant artists & emphasizes on the powerful and innovative presentation of their artistic abilities thus providing a unique & thought-provoking art Experience for all the viewers and visitors.

 

‘Fractional Whole’ takes you through diverse forms of endlessness and continuity within a wide range of practices. It can be a state of mind, a gesture, an incident, an act, a behavior or a response to any stimuli - all have a movement that could be either linear and directional, cyclical or temporal. There is a play of presence, absence and the infinite in-between states, not necessarily in its physicality but also in varied intangible forms. Everything appears static as an image and yet beholds movement, referring to a realm of formalistic, aesthetic, philosophical, psychological, socio-political & cultural contexts.  

Artists persistently breathe & pour out their unresolved tensions, moral issues, curiosities or their angst. This current show at Juneja Art Gallery, surveys a body of work that leaves itself incisively open, somewhere between being created and wholly complete. The works are bold and powerful and carry a story to narrate & echo the trials and tribulations of observations they all ponder over in the everyday idiom of lifestyles and experiences. Nature offers them pictorial and aesthetic beauty and inspires them with images and ideas. These artists never lose focus as they glide over their energy, deftly using elements of abstraction, distortion and simplification to create an alternative world on canvass. 

Diverse & mind-boggling works take the viewer into the journey of a Fractional Whole, speaking of the inner and outer worlds. It could be satirical, esoteric, psychological, innocent, spiritual, dreamy or surrealistic...many such deeper emotions that we could relate to or connect with. Each of these artists create intimate glimpses of uncanny worlds and mindscapes suffused with an atmosphere of the unknown. Processes and the possibility of instability, openness, and perpetual transformation underlie the creation and understanding of all the exhibited works.  

There is striking evidence of great strength and skill in organizing forms and colors and creating the effect of enchantment and fantasy : to create vitality & dynamism in an animate mass is a difficult proposition. It takes courage and tenacity as artists explore an addictive idiom, reflecting in some ways the conditions of artistic practices within the broader domain of expressive culture. It surely directs its critical and affirmative energies towards an ongoing engagement with the dominant certitudes of its era. The works then operate in a lattice of interfaces between belonging and being, open to influences both local and global, the skill of training and the color of contemporaneity. 

When we see these fractional windows that artists open for us, or fragmentation in its unity we are able to see the larger Whole, in its Totality. 

Compiled & Curated by Sangeeta Juneja

Opening 5 pm , Sunday, 16th Oct 2022.

On view till 16th Dec 2022.

Juneja Art Gallery, C - 34, 36, Road 1, Bais Godown, Jaipur.

Abbas Batliwala Akash Choyal Akbar Padamsee Amit Kalla Anjani Reddy Arpana  Caur   Asit  Kumar Patnaik Baalaa  R.   Barry Wilson  Chirayu Kumar Sinha Deepak  Khandelwal Dharmendra Rathore Dhiraj Singh Dileep Sharma Dipika Hazra Ganesh Kushwah Ganga Singh Gobardhan  Ash Gourishankar  Soni Ingrid Pitzer Jagdish Chander  Jai  Zharothia Jimmy  Chishi Kanchan Chander Kashmiri Khosa Khetanchi Kiran Murdia Kishan Meena L. N. Naga Laxma Gaud Madan  Meena  Manash Ranjan  Jena Meenu  Shrivastava Moumita

Mukesh Sharma Nayanaa  Kanodia Nikhil Biswas Niren Sen Gupta P. N. Choyal Paramjeet  Singh Paresh Maity  Prayag  Shukla   Prokash  Karmakr Sant  Kumar Satish  Gujral Seema  Kohli Shabnam  Hussain Shahid  Parwez Shridar  Iyer Shuvaprasanna Sriniwas  Chari Srinjoy  Gangopadhyay Srirupa  Sen Subrata  Gangopadhyay Sultana Khan Suneet  Ghildiyal Sunil  Padwal Sunil Das Suparna  Mondal Surendra  Pal  Joshi Surjit  Akre Surya  Prakash Sushil  Nimbark Tatiyana  Chagarova Vidyasagar  Upadhyay Vinay  Sharma Yusuf

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