Art Events : Kolkata
July – August 2010

'This is Unreal'
Raqs Media Collective, Susanta Mandal, Yamini Nayar

Experimenter Gallery. 23 July to 4 September.

Featuring works of the above artists the exhibition examines the duality if identities in the modern world. The artists are deeply linked with creating conflicting identities within the realm of their practice. The Raqs Media Collective was founded in 1992 in Delhi by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. These three artists jointly constructed a 3.22 min video titled 'I did not hear from the measure of anacaustic reason' and a series of photographic images with text titled 'Skirmish'. Yamini Nayar displayed three photographic images. Susanta Mandal constructed a kinetic sculpture featuring a shadow image of the process of boiling of water.


'The Art of Land & Land in Art (part I)'
Gallery 88. 24 July to 14 August.

The exhibition featured landscape based paintings and sculptures, a total of 80 art works by 40 artists from Jamini Roy, Hemendranath Majumder and Meera Mukherjee to young artists like Sanjay Bhattacharya and Jyotirmoy De. It could highlight on the evolution of landscape painting of our country during the modern period.



'Voice of Freedom'
Curated by Jogen Chowdhury at Galerie La Mere. 28 July to 10 August.

A group show of paintings by 26 artists on the above theme. Participating artists are Atanu Mukherjee, Biswajit Saha, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Chandrima Das, Chandrima Roy, Deepak Rajbhar, Eleena Banik, Jayanta Mondal, Jhimli Sen, Mahula Ghosh, Mahmud Husain, Mrinmoy Debbarma, Pratyusha Mukherjee, Pushpal Sarkar, Ramu Das, Rishav Gandhar Narzary, Rudra Dev sen, Sajal Kaity, Sanatan Saha, Sanhita Banerjee, Santanu Maity, Saurav Jana, Seikh Sahajahan, Sekhar Baran Karmakar, Shrabani Roy, Tanup Nath.


'In Search of the Exquisite: Contemporary Miniature Art From Pakistan'
Ganges Art Gallery. 14 July to 5 August.

The exhibition showcased miniature paintings of seven modern artists from Pakistan. The artists were Amna Hashmi, Farah Jabeen, Shoaib Mahmood, Waseem Ahmed, Hajrah Yousaf Khan, Hiba schahbaz and Ahsan Jamal. Their paintings depicted traditional miniature forms in a modern mould.


'Sharpnel'
Photography, painting installation and video by Veer Munshi

At Birla Academy of Art and Culture. 7 to 22 August.

Curated by Ranjit Haskote the exhibition documented in three parts the present political and social unrest and an atmosphere of violence through which Kashmir is being devastated since a long time. The first part is titled 'Pandit Houses'. It showcased through exquisite photographs printed on archival paper the deserted houses of the valley where the scholars once lived but now have been obliged to leave their homeland due to growing communal violence. The second part was termed 'Chamber'. It was a painting installation. A four-walled chamber was built within the gallery, which was decorated with acrylic paintings with various fragmented images of symbols of violence focusing not only on Kashmir but also on the worldwide terrorism. The third part was a video running for about five minutes showing a journey through an arid snowy terrain that ended with the inscription 'Leaves like hands of flame'.


'Transcending Popular'
Paintings of PR Narvekar at Aakriti Art Gallery. 4 to 28 August.

The exhibition showcased more than 25 paintings in oil on canvas by the Mumbai based artist PR Navekar, who was born in 1950 and arrived at his creativity during 1970-s. His works constructed with sophisticated rendering of simplified structures of the folk and popular art has an aroma of tranquility, serenity and harmonious sonority. These are minimal in construction of form, use minimum chromatic device. The duality of light and dark, joy and pathos, elevates his characters from the level of reality towards an ideal transcendental beauty.


'Picturing America'
Birla Academy. 13 to 25 August.

Presented by the U.S. consulate General, Kolkata and Birla Academy of Art and Culture the exhibition showcased the artistic heritage of the US and offers unique insights into the character, ideals and aspirations of the country. The exhibition comprised 40-framed reproductions of significant art including paintings, fine crafts, sculpture, photography and architecture. The images span several centuries and featured artists ranging from early American Indian artisans to painters Mary Cassatt and Thomas Hart Benton and photographers Walker Evans and Dorothy Lange to architects Frank Lloyed Wright and Willium Van Alen.


'Ganga  21'
Kevin Pearsh at ICCR, Rabindranath Tagore Centre 9 to 21 August.

Indian Council of Cultural Relations presented the landscape paintings of the France-based Australian artist Kevin Pearsh, which he created during his journey along the Ganges from the high Himalayas to the Gulf of Bengal. With his creative brush he captured the diverse nature of natural beauty and impressions of life in naturalistic- impressionistic formal delineation.