All That Is Life
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Curatorial Note All That Is Life Lockdown after lockdown, all of last year and most of this year, we have been stuck within the confines of our four walls. Being home can be a creative journey and sometimes not. Home can become a studio but sometimes not. Relationships and life have become transient. Everyone has had their own unique experience of loneliness, acceptance and hope. We will witness transformation and re-birth as we follow the artist’s internal journey through the pandemic. The new and the old. The known and the unknown. Claustrophobia and finally, freedom. This show features 20 upcoming artists who have responded to this crisis and forged their way forward. I have selected specifically these artists because of the resilience they have shown over the years. I have followed their practices intimately to know this. Their work is a meditation on the uncertainty of the times we live in, and our very human, but futile attempts to hold on to experiences and memories. Saloni Doshi Founder, Space118 Digbijayee Khatua Zarrin Fatima Shamsi Room 1 Arvind Sundar Anni Kumari Digbijayee Khatua Digbijayee Khatua (b.1989/ Orissa/ India ) received a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Painting from BK College of Art and Crafts, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, 2012, and Master of Visual Arts in Painting from College of Art, New Delhi, 2015. He has been the recipient of various awards and scholarships in his career and participated in many important residencies like Piramal Art Residency, Mumbai 2016; Kochi Muziris Biennale Post-Graduate Residency, Vagamo, 2015, and KHOJ Peers Residency, New Delhi, 2015. He has been awarded a gold medal by Prafulla Art Foundation, Mumbai 2018. He has recently participated in group shows with Anant Art, Malhar: A lyrical exposition, 2020 and Telling Tales: A Journey into Narrative Forms 2020, Revisiting the Urban, 2018 at Bikaner House, New Delhi. He has also participated in India Art Fair, New Delhi 2019,, 2020; Shrishti Art Gallery, Hyderabad, 2019; Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai 2019; MOMus Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2019; 56th, 57th, 58th National Exhibition of Art, 2015, 2016, 2017 at Lalit Kala Akademi; Indo-Korean Young Artist Exhibition, Seoul, Korea, 2016; Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2016 and the Students’ Biennale, Kochi Muziris Biennale, 2014-2015. Digbijayee’s artworks reflect contemporary landscapes that have been marked by rapid urbanization, power-lust, ecological instability, and the declining mental health of city dwellers. Digbijayee lives and works in New Delhi, India. Digbijayee Khatua | Life During War Watercolor On Paper 23 x 47 Inches 2020 Digbijayee Khatua | Day After Day Watercolor On Paper 23 x 47 Inches 2020 Zarrin Fatima Shamsi Zarrin-Fatima Shamsi (b.1994/ Vadodara/ Gujarat/ India) is an artist, printmaker, and art educator. She holds a Master’s Degree in Graphic Arts and a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. Zarrin has participated in several group shows and workshops in India as well as abroad. She has recieved an Award from Bombay Art Society for Best Painting under Student Category, Mumbai in 2016, The online Affect Art Competition under the category of New Media, India in 2020, Special Jury Award for the Best Artist by Golden Brush Awards, 2021, Manorama Young Printmaker Award 2020 and she has been given an honorable mention for Printmaking in the Inception Grant, 2021. More recently she was part of the Judges Panel for Interior Perspectives and Rendering Critique presentation at Box Hill College, Kuwait and she was also interviewed by Khaleejesque magazine for their Issue no. 40 for her Experiments with Print. She has worked at Kuwait University as a Teaching Assistant for Printmaking. Her works mainly features natural objects, and an attempt to express her emotions and memories attached to these. One might say that her visual language and approach towards painting and print-making are organic and sensitive, though her work has always been experimental, and she tries to achieve something new each time, with each work. She explores printmaking in more depth through her work. Zarrin-Fatima lives and works in Kuwait. Zarrin Fatima Shamsi | Untitled- I Zarrin Fatima Shamsi | Untitled- 2 Cyanotype printing on paper Cyanotype printing on paper 16 x 21 Inches 16 x 21 Inches 2021 2021 Zarrin Fatima Shamsi | Untitled- 3 Zarrin Fatima Shamsi | Untitled- 4 Cyanotype printing on paper Cyanotype printing on paper 21 x 16 Inches 21 x 16 Inches 2021 2021 Zarrin Fatima Shamsi | Untitled- 5 Cyanotype printing on paper 16 x 21 Inches 2021 Arvind Sundar Arvind Sundar, (b.1993/ Coimbatore/ India) attained his Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2018. He has had a solo show at 840 Gallery, the University of Cincinnati, Ohio in 2017-18. He has also been a part of several groups shows at Benton House, Chicago, Illinois, 2016, Waiting Room Gallery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2016, Carnegie Art Center, Covington, Kentucky, 2017, Myers and Reed Gallery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2017, Wavepool Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2017, Anytime Department Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2017, Thunder-sky Inc Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2018 among several others. He has received a distinguished Merit Scholarship at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2015, University Grant Scholarship at the University of Cincinnati, 2016, the Wolfstein Fellowship, 2017, an award at the Avon Duct Tape Festival, Ohio, 2017 amongst many other medals and awards. Arvind’s work navigates the geometry of the grid by contesting its apparent neutrality. He employs the materiality of paint and screen printing, and engages the grid as a performative site. Through push-pull negotiations between drawn lines and color-fields, Arvind undoes the notion of the picture plane, offering renewed indexes of spatial reference. The word Tantra means both “union of forms” and “system”. These drawings are systems created using lines and forms. The collaged cut paper acts as pockets of colour fields providing contrast. The lines act as a conduit that connects those small pockets. Circuit boards and maps were the primary inspirations for these drawings. Arvind lives and works in Chennai, India Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 5 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 4 Collage, Graphite On Paper Collage, Graphite On Paper 11 x 8 Inches 11 x 8 Inches 2020 2020 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 7 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 11 Collage, Graphite On Paper Collage, Graphite On Paper 11 x 8 Inches 11 x 8 Inches 2020 2020 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 13 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 14 Collage, Graphite On Paper Collage, Graphite On Paper 11 x 8 Inches 11 x 8 Inches 2020 2020 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 17 Arvind Sundar | Tantric Field- 18 Collage, Graphite On Paper Collage, Graphite On Paper 11 x 8 Inches 11 x 8 Inches 2020 2020 Anni Kumari Anni Kumari (b.1983/ Jamshedpur/ Jharkhand/ India) studied B.A Hons. in Political Science at Miranda House, Delhi University and pursued a B.F.A and M.F.A in Painting from the College of Art, Delhi in 2013. Her works have been exhibited in solo and group shows in India, including Algorithms at Anant Art +Apparao Galleries, 2021, Spiralling into the absurd, Anant Art Gallery, 2021, Shifting Positions, India Art Fair, Art District XIII,2020, Mirrored Questions, Art District XIII, 2019,Again & yet again, OED Gallery, Kochi, 2017. Additionally, she is a visiting professor at Ashoka University and has been a grantee at Artreach India, Lalit Kala Akademi, Sahapedia-UNESCO, Ministry of Culture, GOI, and the University Grants Commission. She has been an artist- in-residence at the Piramal Art Foundation, Thane, Maharashtra, 2016. Anni uses repetitive pattern making, to explore the complexities of contemporary human relationships and their constant transmutation. In her works, rhythmic patterns based on mathematical algorithms, ideas, and concepts like the Prime Numbers and the Fibonacci series, become symbols of complex interdependent structures and passages. By reclaiming her practice as a craft, she critiques the distinction between what is regarded as high art and craft, and the way value is ascribed to labour. Anni Kumari lives and works in Delhi, India. Anni Kumari | Intersections Spray Paints, Photo Transfer, Acrylic and Oil on Canvas 36 Inches diameter 2021 Anni Kumari | Some equations have multiple identities-VI Anni Kumari | Some equations have multiple identities-VIII Acrylic On Canvas Acrylic On Canvas 48 x 36 Inches 48 x 36 Inches 2021 2021 Anni Kumari | Convergence-1 , 2, 3 Acrylic, Oil On Canvas 12 Inches diameter 2021 Subir Hati Charmi Gada Shah Room 2 Vikrant Bhise Sharbendu De Subir Hati Subir Hati (1970./ Kolkata/ West Bengal/India) received his B.F.A from Govt. College of Art, Department Of Sculpture, Kolkata, West Bengal in 1996 and M.F.A from Banaras Hindu University, Department Of Sculpture, Banaras, U.P. in 2004. He has been part of many group shows like Memories Arrested in Space, Akara Art Mumbai 2021, A Walk Across Grids, Akara Art, Mumbai, 2020, India Art Summit, Delhi, Gallery Art District 13, 2020, India Art Summit, Delhi, Gallery Art District 13, 2019, Steel Sculpture Project with Jindal Steel, Artdinox, 2018, Visvaroopa – Curated by Johny ML. , Fly Ash- The Phoenix Redefined, Art District 13, New Delhi, 2017, MIRROR IMAGE – Curated by Prof. Sunanda K Sanyal, Prof. Of Art History and; Critical Studies, The Art Institute Of Boston At Wellesley University, Massachusetts, USA, Society Of Contemporary Artist Gallery, Kolkata, 2011, Birla Academy Of Art and Culture, 2018, India Art Summit, Delhi, Gallery Art District 13, 2018, Quest Of Mind – Curated by Veer Munshi, Neuhaus Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2015, UTTAR-PURBA curated by Dr.Archana Roy, Emami Chisel Art Gallery, Kolkata, 2011. He is the winner of the GLENFIDDICH Residency Program.