Press Release
On the occasion of the Brick Lane Festival for the Bengali New Year, Art Border Line would like to share with you the pleasure of exploring influences of contemporary Bengal on the creation these rising Artists.
Beyond the memory of literature, music, language and people, Bengal represents an unforgettable Art of living, a deep and rich landscape of colours, seasons, music, emotions and stories, which remain etched in our minds across time and space. The true multicultural centre in the Indian sub-continent over centuries, Art Border Line is introducing an Annual series of showcasing the diverse spirit and energy of Bengal.
Participating this year :
Tapas Konar
Born: 1953, Lives and works in Calcutta, India
Selected Shows : “Who Do you think I am ?” , Art Border Line, London; E.M.Schoo Gallery, Amsterdam (Solo); “Continuity, Disjuncture and Creativity”, Akar Prakar Gallery,Kolkata; Indian Contemporary artists in Yugoslavia, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi,
Beijing HEART Gallery, China; Similiraties & Dissimilarities , Tao Gallery, Mumbai; Bengal Art, Alliance Francaise de Calcutta; Art Trend in Bengal in the 90’s, Art Today Gallery, New Delhi. Contemporary Indian Art, Bharat Bhavan Biennal, Bhopal.
Tapas Konar uses the primal lines of rural symbolism and figures to represent his inner most identification. While he frees himself from the communal prejudices his paintings often reflect the different states in which the individuals find them selves, half reality and half dream like characters interwined with the familiar mythological characters. He captures the desire of societies to render the deities, gods and even Modern day Avatars into a likelihood of our daily personalities, in the different ages of man. Using mixed media he works mostly on paper preferring the subtle drama around the central figure who by his regard and his gestures in not alone.
Hiran Mitra
Born: 1945, Lives and works between Calcutta, India and London.
Selected Shows : Paper Landscapes March 2007, Gallery 27, London (Solo); Inner Sensations, by Art Border Line, London (Solo), Works of Movement in Dance, Theatre , Rabindra Sadan , Kolkata (Solo);
“ Journey with Rang Number” Academy of Fine Arts Kolkata, Performance painting, Sculpture, drawing
installation along with performance. Right line Gallery , Bangalore (Solo) Graphics on film, 10th
Anniversary Celebration of Nandan Film & Cultural centre. Calcutta (Solo); Retrospective of two decades 70s-80s, Birla Academy of Art and Culture , Calcutta, (Solo); Open Window group show, Singapore ; Contemporary Forms, Cima Gallery, Calcutta; Color Palette, Habitat Centre, New Delhi; Art & Bread “, Hannalore Christ, Hamburg, Artists of the Millennium, Calcutta.
Upcoming: Solo in Galerie Thuillier, Paris; Site specific work for Florence Biennale.
Hiran Mitra captivates the fleeting moments, the traces of memory, an eclipse, a powerful surege which ebbs as soon. In a narrative environment of folk music, theatre, and cinema, he keeps the essential, the symbol and brings the viewer’s consciousness to a twilight zone between reality and timelessness. Dense black is a positive field yet he lets the translucide layers of acrylic pour over the canvas, or a gushes of spray paint capture their own space. The artist broke away from the academic fine arts approach to explore the chromatic philosophy of the Mind.
Eric Gourdikian
Born: 1967, Lives and works in Paris and London.
Selected Shows : private shows in Paris and South of France.
With a sensitive eye for details, tones and expression both as a Photographer, Eric moved on from being a Printer of Black & White traditional prints for famous names such as Marc Riboud, Boubat etc. He spent many years in the Paris fashion circuit. Recent trips to Calcutta, opened up a hidden sense of self, of life’s perpetual cycles, the liberation as well as the constraints that compose every individual, provides fertile grounds for expressions in literature, music and deep founded cultures. He remains minimal, subtle and almost soundless, letting the observer lose himself in reverie in this silver print series called Life.
Surekha
Born: 1970, Lives and works in Bangalore India.
Selected Shows : Indian Summer, Beaux Arts Museum Paris, Kunstpalace , Berlin, Various shows, workshops, public spaces across Europe and Asia.
Surekha explores the relation between skin, memory and the feminine form. Having experimented in multi media she is constantly redefining the social and cultural perceptions. Here is we have captured some of her earlier works of which a rare set remains yet available outside the museum collections. The series of photos explores an individual in a celebratory mode in isolation of the context and geography. These photos were shown in the Indian summer show in Paris. Surekha’s essential base was built in Shantiniketan art schooling with which she still has a fond connection.
Anita Mitra
Born: 1945, Lives and works in Calcutta, India.
Selected Shows : Various private viewings in Calcutta and Mumbai, due to the unique nature of her works. Retrospective of earlier works in Cimroza Gallery (solo).
Anita Mitra has questions the role of recycled cloth and decorative stitch work in expressing spontaneously the visuals and mental narrative. After 12 years of teaching fine arts, she moved to using the layers of recycled quilts to directly capture her thoughts. Each work takes about 3-5 months and is a culmination of five values of Time, Love, Harmony , Beauty and Design. This is part of the feminine function as well as the essence of her environment. In her recent works she explored the behaviour of pointilism and weaving motion.
Madhu Mangal
Born: 1945, Lives and works in Paris
Selected Shows : Espace Cultural Paul Ricard, Paris ; Aluminium Péchiney, La Défense ; Forum of University Paris XIII ; Abbaye de Molesmes ,Côte d’Or ;Espace Lino Ventura,Garge les Gonesse ; Gallery Serio Vittorio, Paris ; La Gallery d’Art, Corbeil-Essonnes ;Gallery Delta, Paris ;Montmart Foundation,Paris; GalleryMédiatèque,Saint-Grégoir ; Grand Gallery Vitry-Chatillon ; Centre Cultural de Sablé-Sur-Sarth ; Gallery Crous- Beaux- Arts, Paris ; Gallery Lieu dit, Saint- Symphorien ; Gallery Obj’m, Lyon city, Grand prize of painting Exhibition, Saint- Gregorian City; Festival of the Artist,Organized by Paul Ricard; “memories of France” French Embassy and Lalit kala Akademi, New Delhi;Indian artists for The France,New Delhi Alliance Française ; Harmony Art Show, Nehru Center, Mumbai .
Inspite of his many years in Paris, Madhu Basu continues to be influenced by the distant memories of his homeland, the humidity, the earthy colors, the fertility and dream like airs. There is a Bengali proverb which says that « All the Universe is contained in a pot ». The relevance of the proverb resides in the fact that the potter interacts with all the five essential elements – earth, water, wind, fire and space – when making pots. Like man, the pot too must embark on a spiritual journey in the course of which it takes on its own distinct identity, plays an important role in birth and death rituals and fulfils other essential functions in man’s daily life. The pot plays a vital role throughout all the stages of man’s life. All the primal elements found on Earth – fire, water and clay – are essential for making pots. From time immemorial, men have feared and venerated the primal elements.
Diptesh Ghosh
Born: 1945, Lives and works in Paris
Selected Shows : Group shows with Open window, Lalit Kala Academy, Kolkata, Tao Gallery, Mumbai.
The perspective of an artist of the world is not a projection but that of enquiry. By looking at the world from a transparent, invisible glass floor , Diptish questions the power relations, the human positioning and the metaphoricl pedestal once removed. A humourous young artist he has taken the most popular role models of footballers, Riickshaw(pushcart) pullers, hermits and the artists himself in their working role seen from directly below.
