15 Mar 2023

Art News: Wilderness Escapades by Krish Iyer

Reconnecting with the past

Bangalore based artist Krish Iyer presents his recent suite of paintings that reimagine sculptures of Khajuraho temples, which decades ago, had set him on a path of creative expression. Iyer revisited the site recently, which is located in a densely forested region, rich in natural flora and fauna. In the temple art and architecture with its iconographic symbolism and its philosophical and spiritual moorings, Iyer has found a way to reconnect with the past, and re-envision it in his art, in a contemporary context.

Abstract painting 1 by Krish Iyer, Art Scene India

Painting by Krish Iyer

The large format paintings in ‘Wilderness Escapades’ reference these sculptures and the underlying premises, to create a spatial interplay of light, colour and texture to suggest the form, postures and gestures of the stone statues in a quasi-representational style. The artist’s interpretations are moored around the historicity of the temples, their geography - located as it is amidst forested land and wilderness, with their beauty and splendor remaining undiscovered for centuries. And, their subsequent desecration by invaders, all of which weave an intriguing narrative of mystery and mystique, of magnificence and ruin, of worldwide fame and remoteness. The art and architecture of the Khajuraho temples combined with their religious, cultural and historical significance form an intrinsic part of their allure. Numerous stories, philosophies and other intangibles lie beneath the surface of the stones, creating sagas of seduction, lure and enigma.

Krish’s canvases explore these histories, the abstracted notions of human potential, philosophies of living, corporeality of the flesh and temporality of life. The visual semantics are anchored in formal aesthetics, with defined line drawings marking the canvas, while the abstract expressionist approach at later stages lends critical layers of texture, and simultaneously recontextualizes historical content.

Painting by Krish Iyer

The tactile surface of the works emerges from heavy textures, layers of dripping paint, and several applications of thick acrylic paint using the impasto technique. The palette knife and other tools transform the canvas, to add depth and dimension, to strip off extraneity and to emphasize salient features of the physical form. Transcendence, man and nature (re)union, the cycle of life and rebirth, and joy of living are some of the key principles that are depicted at Khajuraho temples, and it is these that Krish seeks and attempts to portray in his works. The deliberate obliteration of details in the figures, and the structurally accurate forms that replicate their defiled state, are incandescent with the ironies of transience – both natural and as outcomes of anarchist interventions.

Despite the precision of line drawings that form the basis of the works, Iyer’s methodology is essentially non-mimetic. The gradual yet decidedly gestural transformation of the painting surface as a pictorial array of subconscious thoughts and patterns rescinds identifiable characteristics and accentuates the metaphorical import.

After a successful career in commercial art, Krish has returned to painting with this solo exhibition - to pursue subjects and themes that resonate with him. A chance encounter with the Khajuraho temples almost three decades ago, stayed with him through the years and a strange yearning drew him back to them recently. This series originated from the revisit, marked by an innate desire to reconnect with nature, and to allow subconscious thoughts and emotions to surface and transform on canvas. With this exhibition, Krish attempts to break the invisible shackles that have contained his creativity all these years and to realize his inner potential.

Nalini S Malaviya
Art Critic
March, 2023

- Catalogue text

The exhibition 'Wilderness Escapades' continues from March 20-26 at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore. For further details contact 9900094466. Visit Wilderness Escapades (krishiyer.in)

Please share this article using the social media widgets at the bottom and do subscribe to receive regular updates from Art Scene India.

To contribute articles, please get in touch at artsceneinfo@gmail.com

Also read,

28 Jan 2023

apexart International Open Call 2023-24

apexart International Open Call 2022 winning exhibition "Can you fuck it?" - The Fembot Phenomenon, curated by Amanda Knox - Tokyo 2022

apexart International Open Call 2023-24

Accepting proposals: February 1 - March 1, 2023

apexart will accept proposals for its International Open Call from February 1 - March 1, 2023. Four winning proposals will become apexart exhibitions presented in their selected locations around the world as part of their 2023-24 exhibition season. Curators, artists, writers, and creative individuals, regardless of location or past experience, are invited to submit a proposal online.

The submission process

Proposals of up to 500 words should describe focused, idea-driven, original group exhibitions, and the country and city in which they are to take place. No biographical information, CVs, links, or images will be accepted, and proposals must be submitted in English. Jurors rate anonymous submissions based on the idea only. See examples of winning proposals here.

The selection process

Rather than convene a panel of a few art world people to review hundreds of ideas, apexart’s crowd-sourced voting system invites hundreds of international jurors to review proposals on their own schedule. The crowd-sourced jury is composed of more than 600 individuals from a wide variety of professional backgrounds and international locations—including students from 17+ participating university classes—who will vote on the proposals. Proposals are anonymous and randomized to make sure each submission receives the same consideration. apexart staff does not influence the results of the jury in any way.

The results

The four winning proposals will each receive an exhibition budget of up to $11,000; have an exhibition brochure printed and mailed to over six thousand international recipients; advertising in major and local outlets; and will be part of apexart’s 2023-2024 exhibition season. Working closely with the apexart team, curators will realize their original ideas into apexart exhibitions. Exhibition curators are challenged, encouraged, and required to work within the funding provided to transform their winning proposals into small, focused, noteworthy exhibitions.

To submit an exhibition proposal, visit https://apexart.org/opencalls.php between February 1 and March 1, 2023.

Please share this article using the social media widgets at the bottom and do subscribe to receive regular updates from Art Scene India.

To contribute articles, please get in touch at artsceneinfo@gmail.com

Also read,

1 Dec 2022

Art News: India Art Festival in Bangalore

India Art Festival attracts over 30 galleries and 400 artists for its second edition in the city

The 2nd Edition of India Art Festival (IAF) in the city starting from December 08 – 11 at the Palace Ground, Kings Court, Gate No. 5, Bellary Road, has grown in scale and size this year, bringing cutting-edge contemporary art to the city, presented by over 30 Art Galleries and 400 artists, coming from 40 different cities across India, Singapore and USA.

Opening on December 08, the 2nd Bengaluru edition of IAF will bring all forms of artistic expressions in the art fair including painting, sculptures, photography, ceramics, installations, offering insights into current art trends in India and Asian diaspora.

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India

Aditiraje Bhonsle

Founded in 2011 by the publishers of Indian Contemporary Art Journal, IAF is the only art fair held annually in three metro cities and which has mounted 22 editions so far at Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru.

Whether, it is a seasoned art collector, or a new art buyer who want to acquire the first piece of art, the India Art Festival with 4000 pieces of art across 100 booths, on display at the Palace Ground is a perfect place to fall in love with art. At IAF, the art collectors are spoilt for choices to choose from many mediums and styles - oil paintings, acrylics, water colour, original prints, installations, drawings in myriad styles dealing with varied subjects including landscapes, figurative, abstracts, cityscapes, seascapes, urban and rural scenarios, portraits, nudes, semi-nudes, religious art, traditional paintings, murals, warli art and many more.

The master artists displayed by the galleries include Sakti Burman, Yusuf Arakkal, Lalu Prasad Shaw, S G Vasudev, Laxman Aelay, Gurudas Shenoy, Laxma Goud, Jatin Das, Jogen Chowdhury, Manu Parekh, N S Harsha, P Gnana, Seema Kohli and many others.

Yusuf Arakkal

The Artists’ Pavilion with individual booths by independent artists is so designed as to create a dialogue between the viewers and the art maker, and the artist. It also encourages dialogue between the art market and the artists directly. Here the sale and purchase of the artwork is on an open platform and the buyer or collector can approach an artist and the choices are numerous.

Vinita Dasgupta

This kind of freedom is rarely possible as both the artist and the buyers benefit from this arrangement. India Art Festival Director Rajendra says, "the process of democratizing ‘art viewing and buying’ initiated twelve years ago in Mumbai sort of became a movement; the growing interest in Indian contemporary art slowly made this movement spread to New Delhi and Bengaluru covering significant length and breaths of our country."

Apart from 200 established artists exhibited by art galleries, more than 200 independent artists are displaying in the ‘Artists’ pavilion’ at the art festival. The subjects broached by the artists vary from personal experiences to intense narratives.

Dhyana Das

'Tripurasundari’, a feminine mystique of the goddess by artist Dhyana Das and Kalyani Ravishankar’s ‘Radha-Krishna’, both blend the nuances of classical paintings and contextualize them within Indian religious sensibilities.

In another instance, artist Karthik Kamath, Sonali Surana and Tejaswi depicts embodiment of renunciation, Buddha, the enlightened one in his splendid aura with wavy hair curls & the monastic robe covering both shoulders and arranged in heavy classical folds.

Sunitha Krishna, Smita BP, Kalyani Sinha and Tripti Pandey indulge in an artistic imagery using religious images, cultural symbols and motifs that touches the spiritual chord of the viewers.

Artists Gaurav Dagar, Jyothi Prakash and Prakash Bal Joshi beguile the viewers with their abstract composition using pure forms & colours, whereas artist Muthukrishnan Ramalingam and Rajitha Bonthala chose the middle path of semi-abstract idiom to present their visual stories.

Wildlife, animal and bird paintings is one of the oldest art forms found since ancient times in the cave art. Animal and bird art have come a long way since then in technique and imagination and occupies major part of the contemporary art space in India. Artist Isha Valentine’s symbolic deer with antlers, Priyanka Sehgal’s Sunbird, big cats and elephant by artist Apurba Das, Shakila Ananth and Sudha Anandampillai displayed in the art festival is a fusion of art elements found in Bundi style of traditional art with contemporary times.

Akshata Shetty

The black and white paintings displayed in the art festival by Akshata Shetty, Beena Surana, Om Thadkar, Preeti Baliga, and Priyanka Maurya prove that the paintings need not have to be always done in striking colours to create visual splendour! Viewers are bound to be mesmerize by the unfolding visual drama of muted blacks, ash greys, dark flashes, starry whites with harsh shadows employed in the work of Om Tadkar in his galloping white stallion, whereas Priyanka Mauraya’s dreamy flowery land and symbolic portraits of all sorts by Akshata Shetty and Preeti Baliga creates powerful viewing; these paintings can go with entire range of minimalist modern décor & interior to create aesthetic ambience around living spaces.

Since ancient times to modern times, from fertility goddess to modern-day multitasker, artists have always enjoyed exploring the subject matter of women folk in art. But when the subject is explored by female artists herself, it assumes different significance like artist Geeta Yerra, Parul Sharma and Swati Burde who are exhibiting in the art festival.

P Gnana

The figurative works by Ravi Verma and Vanita Gupta along with Atul Todi and Jayaram Krishna’s figures emerging through geometric patterns on closer look is an added in attraction for viewers.

The notion of beautiful and sublime with sharp contrasts of light and shadow is exemplified in the landscapes by Poornima Deepak and Reema Ravindran whereas Deepshikha Bishoyi, Mridul Garg, Pooja Muthuraj, Shankari Kundu, T V Sairam and Vidhu Pillai prefers suggestive style of abstract landscape which focuses more on expressing emotion while still capturing the essence of a landscape. Seena Mani’s cityscape, Aditiraje Bhonsle, and Kasturi Dutta’s flowerscape are different genre in landscape painting in the art festival that would leave a lasting impression on the viewers.

Among several others noticeable works by master artists, the artists pavilion present a fresh face of India Art Festival at the Garden city. India Art Festival, with mammoth art collection of all sorts of art under one roof is a one stop mega art jamboree for art enthusiasts in this week to enjoy art without getting tired in hopping around art paces in city!

The participating art galleries include Akanksha Art Gallery, Charvi Art Gallery, Green Footprint

Laxman Aelay

Art Gallery, H Art Gallery, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Sara Arakkal Gallerie (all Bengaluru), ArtDesh Foundation, Artvista, House of Emerge, Nitya Artists Center, Studio Pankaj Bawdekar, Studio Rustgrey, Studio3 Art Gallery, The Bombay Art Society, thecurators.art (Mumbai) , ArteHut, Eminent Art Gallery, Gallery Pioneer, Nifa Art Gallery, Gallery Vision Art (New Delhi), Pastel Tale & Uchaan (Gurgaon), Gnani Arts (Singapore), Kalabhawan (Agartala), M Narayan Studio (Pune), Pichwai by Beyond Square (Udaipur) and Subodh Fine Art Studio (California, USA) among others.

India Art Festival will be on from 08 to 11 Dec 2022 at Kings Court, Palace Ground, Gate No.5, Bellary Road, Near Mekhri Circle, Bengaluru from 11 am- 8.30pm on all days.

For further details contact: 9820737692

Excerpted from the press release

Please share this article using the social media widgets at the bottom and do subscribe to receive regular updates from Art Scene India.

To contribute articles, please get in touch at artsceneinfo@gmail.com

22 Nov 2022

Reminiscences by Bharathi S

Recollections: Traveling Through Time

Bangalore based artist Bharathi S. revisits her childhood through paintings that wistfully capture joie de vivre, of carefree days, gone by. The paintings in the new series, ‘Reminiscences’ evoke flashes of vivid memory, of youthful days and simpler times. The kaleidoscopic images depict a fervent memoire tinged with nostalgia and innocence, and of those past moments that were uncluttered and unencumbered from the urgency and stresses of urban life. The works are suggestive of the rich fragrance of imagination and the joy of untroubled days, where time was slower, and perhaps it even stood still, more so, in small towns and villages, where Bharathi grew up.

Her works are akin to photographic film negatives, albeit in color, where masses and forms coalesce and blur, in effortless motion. The colors, as patches of pigments, take shape from a distance, and dissolve once again on approaching closer. Most of the larger paintings have figures of children either playing or watching adults complete household chores – there is an inherent exuberance and dynamism with a heightened sense of motion that is evident. A safe, secluded world is quietly tangible.

An avid traveler, she has been fascinated by clouds – their patterns and how they shift form, disperse, and re-form at times to acquire newer shapes and outlines. Their temporal nature and their transitions, have impacted her perception, in her observations of life and events and their fleeting characteristics. This in turn has inspired the small format paintings, which rely on abstraction as a tool to convey the thematic subjects as they shift forms amidst the colors, and which reemphasize the subtleties of movement and transitions.

Nalini S Malaviya

Art Critic

- Excerpt from the catalogue essay

'Reminiscences' by Bharathi S. continues till Nov 27, at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore

6 Oct 2022

Technology In Museums

Technology can effectively bridge the gap between museums and younger audiences to create seamless experiences that imitate ordinary interactions by adapting and enhancing the same tools that the younger generation uses on a regular basis

In the past two years, it has become increasingly evident that technology plays a very important role in the museum experience. It allows enthusiasts and admirers to stay connected with the world of history and art, whether physically or virtually.

Technology can help bridge the gap between museums and the younger generation since their lives are constantly influenced by the digital world. Museums can create seamless experiences that imitate ordinary interactions by adapting and enhancing the same tools that the younger generation uses on a regular basis. Along the same lines, technology allows museums to boost audience participation by using gadgets that are already in use.

Holographic table at MAP

Technology also helps museums bring to life their ideas and the creative ways in which they wish to engage the audience. For example, the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), one of the first private art and photography museums in Bengaluru, collaborated with BrandMusiq to give the brand a distinct sonic identity through its MOGO or ‘musical logo’. MAP’s sonic identity is inspired by the aim to bridge the gap between the past and the present, the classical and the modern, and the conventional and the contemporary.

These tools make art and history more accessible while making the museum more accessible to people with disabilities such as hearing loss, vision impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

MAP’s involvement in the confluence of art and technology makes for a refreshing change. MAP and Accenture Labs collaborated to create India’s first conversational digital persona in M.F. Husain. The viewers can interact with the artists with questions on his early life, career and family. The usage of speech synthesis software and extensive research on the artist makes for an engaging interaction.

Husain’s holographic avatar, as part of MAP’s collaboration with Accenture India

The virality of different kinds of technology and their reception by the masses help museums understand the kind of devices to use and how they can be made increasingly accessible to the audience. Haptic interfaces, iPads, touch screens, and live screenings are a few such tools that engage the audience and help museums reach out to them virtually without losing their interest.

Kalamkari Prayer Mat, 1850s, Cotton, natural dyes,
Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India, TXT.0021

In another instance of a technology-focused initiative, MAP Academy, the educational vertical of MAP Bengaluru, collaborated with Microsoft to develop the platform INTERWOVEN as a part of Microsoft’s AI for Cultural Heritage initiative. This project is rooted in developing the digital recreation of the histories of South Asia through textiles, making it more accessible and inclusive for a global audience. Viewers sitting anywhere in the world can find connections between artworks and textiles, cultures and histories through this platform. And that really is the magic of integrating the use of technology in the arts and museums. It allows for a wider and more inclusive reach, as well as a greater participation by young audiences; it allows the museum to become an institution of the future.

Technology can be a great tool for expanding audiences and driving engagement, however it must be used strategically. It’s more about determining what service(s) they are providing, who it will serve, and how the audience will benefit from the experience rather than adopting technology for the sake of incorporating technology.

Guest Post

15 Mar 2023

Reconnecting with the past

28 Jan 2023

1 Dec 2022

India Art Festival attracts over 30 galleries and 400 artists for its second edition in the city

Also read,

22 Nov 2022

Recollections: Traveling Through Time

Also read,

6 Oct 2022

Technology can effectively bridge the gap between museums and younger audiences to create seamless experiences that imitate ordinary interactions by adapting and enhancing the same tools that the younger generation uses on a regular basis

Also read,

Search Art Scene India (700+ posts)