Women of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow – Group exhibition

Art Konsult Gallery, New Delhi.

Thursday 19^th April, 6:30pm onwards

Art Konsult is proud to present the exhibition ‘Women of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ featuring works of contemporary artists which bring to the forefront the ever evolving portrayal of the female form in Art. Since time immemorial the figure of the woman has been aesthetically represented, largely from the ‘male gaze’ yet aesthetics, for much of history, was the beginning and the end of representation. In the year 2018, after waves of socio-political movements which are continuing to shift the gender representation in the media, Art and wider society, we see this shift continually reflected in Art. We present a cross section of artists who are reclaiming and reshaping the representation of not only the human form, but the individual as a multi-faceted entity. We are in a time of flux, in terms of concepts, ideas and medium. This is most definitely a selection of the artists who are a part of this shifting landscape in the Art scene, and will most certainly take it further in years to come.

We proudly feature the work of artists; Aditi Raman, Nayanaa Kanodia, Bikash Poddar, Dhiraj Choudhury, Damyanti Sharma, Farhad Hussain, Kanchan Chander, Moutushi Chakraborty, Nabanita Guha, Niren Sen Gupta, Sanjay Das, Shampa Sircar Dar, Sheersha Mukherjee, Sudip Roy, Vinita Dasgupta.

Aditi Raman

Aditi Raman was born in Bihar and studied in Lucknow college of Arts and Crafts, and later at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan for her MA in 2015 with a specialization in Textile. The concept of ‘women’ is the starting point for her creations, as well as the larger umbrella of being a woman. Aditi’s work deals with the different sociological and psycho-analysis of womanhood, which comes with different reference points of time and space.

The objects she uses to execute the work are an intrinsic part of the work; cotton, dyes, threads, jute, beads, and other objects which are socially identified as feminine objects.

“The process of my works includes different processes of Audio – Video Documentation, Portraits of people, Text (sometimes quotes from my favorite books or my automatic writings). Also the real objects collected from different localities became part of my works as it reveals the collective memory and connect me and my works to the larger world.”

Nayanaa Kanodia

Nayanaa Kanodia can be considered to be a pioneer of the genre of L’Art Naif in India, having had numerous shows in India and overseas including Musee International D’Naif Art in Paris and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Her work is characterized by a whimsical air, where she utilizes flat, bright, polished surfaces and the extraordinary plethora of intricately worked details and patters. She has portrayed India’s culture, past and present, as no artist has done before on such a huge timeframe.

Nayanaa says “My paintings intend to make you feel that you are watching a snapshot of life at maximum preposterousness , exuberant and bursting with energy, idiosyncrasy  and absurdity .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.”

Moutushi Chakraborty

Moutushi is a Kolkata-based artist and alumnus of Kalabhavan in Santiniketan, the Faculty of Fine Arts M.S.University in Baroda (Gold Medalist) and Wimbledon School of Art in London. She has received the Lalit Kala Akademi Award, the Commonwealth Foundation Fellowship and the Charles Wallace India Trust Award for Visual-Arts and is currently teaching in the School of Fine Arts at Amity University Kolkata.

Like a cocooned silkworm the essence of Femininity reveals itself from within the precincts of a mortal existence, sheathed in intricate layers of memory, a source of sustenance as well as deliverance. The Feminine body acts as a discursive entity in the work of artist Moutushi Chakraborty reveling in an intrepid celebration of feminine grit, beauty and sensuality.

In her Devi series, the artist refers to the esoteric form of Chinnamasta (the mythological Hindu goddess who decapitates herself and offers it as a final act of faith and sacrifice). The artist depicts the headless body of Chinnamasta, bedecked in garlands, arrested in dance posture and a metaphor of defiant power and emancipation.

The Fem-Suits on the other hand are metaphoric symbols of protective feminine garbs that mock the pseudo custodianship of a faulty patriarchal society that believes in abjuring as opposed to abstinence. Employing a language of dark humor, the artist comments on the social stature of women who are considered nothing more than mere machines, generating pleasure and progeny irrespective of personal aspirations. Do the women of yesterday, today and tomorrow really have freedom of choice?

Sheersha Mukherjee

Sheersha Mukherjee is a Kolkata based artist and alumni of Kala Bhawan, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, and Jadavpur University. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and residencies across the country.

In her series of digital prints titles ‘Dangerous Voices’, ‘Speech: An Act?’ and ‘Homeland II’ she explores powerful and topical socio-political concepts ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in ‘Homeland II’ where she delves into themes of displacement. In her digital media print series she presents her thoughts of democracy, dictatorship, dictators and democratically elected leaders – the lines between each are not as clear as we might think. She poses the questions: What are the various tools of democracy and could these very tools be used against it? How do leaders prepare their public speeches? Are they really speeches or merely an enactment?

Bikash Poddar

Bikash Poddar was born in 1958, in Kaliyaganj, North Bengal, he studied at the College of Art And Craft, Koltaka, and after 5 years achieved his diploma in Applied Art with a gold medal. He began painting full time, following the success of his shows of watercolour paintings held in Delhi, Mumbai and other metropolitan cities.

Bikash’s watercolour works through predominantly nature-scapes, features human figures engaged in conversation. It is almost like the calm before the storm and the dialogue between the figures then could be nothing but the precariousness of life, caught in and between situations. The artist is now based in Delhi.

Sanjay Das

India’s rich cultural diversity and its many unique customs and traditions have been a major source of inspiration for the photographer. It has always been his endeavor to bring forth the untold stories that this country has to offer and showcasing them to the world at large. The objective is to create imagery that tells a story – in color, in texture, in light and in shadow and form a unique blend, which is spiritually as well as mentally rewarding. Sanjay’s works are a merger of theoretical and conceptual assertions with experiences, interests or fascination which finally forms the image and its meaning. An advertising professional turned Fine Art Photographer; Sanjay completed his qualification from College of Art, New Delhi. Photography developed as a passion in his early college days and ever since his involvement with photography has spanned more than two decades. Sanjay have been a part of many national and international shows. Sanjay Das was born on 4^th July, 1969 in New Delhi, the photographer lives and works in New Delhi, India.

Shampa Sircar Das

Shampa Sircar Das did her B.F.A. (Painting) in 1993 from College of Art, New Delhi followed by M.F.A (Painting) from Jamia  Millia Islamia in 1995.

The rich Indian cultural heritage and Indian Philosophy inspire Shampa's works. The works are resplendent in symbols that are embedded in a common cultural matrix. The canvas becomes a large area of space, a void, where forms are constantly resonating, emerging out, expanding and then dissolving into it. Transience and a sense of movement in these paintings touch the viewer with the play between form and emptiness. Replete with cosmic energies and symbolisms floating all over her canvasses her works are a study in the power of the spirit within the domain of human and earthly ancestry.

There is a reference to the technological hybridization and virtual space in Shampa's works. We can definitely think of them in terms of states of being and how we relate to other beings and things in our world, including animals, Flora, Fauna and our environment. The elements echo each other. Each is repeated in a different manner, it's reworked; it takes on a different identity. One's a reflection of the other, there's an accent. Be it the lotus or the swan or the elephant or the little flowers each element is an inchoate echo it also implies a variation on the original form, which appeared pretty early on in Shampa's works. So repetition or echoing of form is a ritualistic method that also amplifies the atmosphere or sacred ambient of the paintings.

Shampa states: “I have always been very interested in making repetition a virtue like the many prayers we chant during a ritual. But I'm also very interested in things that are repeated in different subtle and unsubtle ways. You see it in one manifestation, and then it manifests itself again in a different way. There is something that's universal and something that's particular about repeating a prayer in any religion I think it's a process that defines an act that embraces us”.

Sudip Roy

Sudeep Roy was born in Baharampur, West Bengal and studied at the government college of Art & Craft, Kolkata. From early on in his career he was known to attract the attention of buyers with his stylistic distinction in watercolour paintings, and expressionist drawings. Sudeep has produced a number of distinct series of works over the course of his career including the ‘Charulata’ series.

The Charulata series were a series that were born out of the story by Rabindranath Tagore, but one that went beyond because the modern day woman is one who doesn’t care about the stranger who rings the bell or knocks at her door. She is depicted as the graceful feminine being that throws her ‘pallu’ in careless grace and stands with vegetable stained hands at the doorway. The Charulata is a woman signified by Sudip as someone who is secretive and shy-'lajja' as the adjective described by the artist, in their being but deeply attractive for their sinuous curves and their loosely folded saris draped in dream like intensities-bringing back the verve and stylized grace of Satyajit Ray’s film of the same name. Sudip added an elegant twist to his Charulata series with the addition of the mirror that echoed the classic studies of Hemen Majumdar

Vinita Dasgupta

Vinita Dasgupta is a Delhi based artist, originally born in Kolkata, she transferred to Delhi to complete her Bachelors of Fine Art at the college of Art in 2005.

Vinita Dasgupta strives, in all of her work over time, to blend personal histories, cultural mythologies and an idiosyncratic process of creation to render works which conjure such multifold dimensions. As has been already documented, she blends arduous processes to transform and then realize her visions.

One must ask why such a potentially original artist continues to deploy and interpret such overused imagery. It is part of her journey to fuse her vision, history and endeavor. A blend of tactile working which requires more than two months fosters almost organic growth. Each retelling of a fable or tale throughout the ages garners more foliage or richness, more garb which enfolds in life.

Stories and mythologies impart energy to all of us, withstanding the passage of time, ever being reinterpreted and communicating fundamental elements that are ever relevant and inspiring.

Dhiraj Choudhury

Veteran painter Dhiraj Choudhury was born in 1936 in undivided Bengal (now Bangladesh). He was a student of Government College, Darjeeling, and it was here that he was encouraged to follow his dreams to become an artist and was later admitted to the College of Arts & Crafts, Kolkata and Delhi Polytechnic (College of Art).

He was associated with the ‘Calcutta Painters’ and with the ‘Society of Contemporary Artists’ in Calcutta. Dhiraj Choudhury has founded ‘Quartet Artist’ and ‘Line’, a group devoted to drawing.

Dhiraj Choudhury has more than eighty exhibitions, among which sixteen are international, which is sufficient enough to understand his popularity as a painter. UK, USA, France, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore are the countries where his foreign shows were arranged. In 1979 an exhibition in Geneva with Miro and Dali added a feather to his cap. Dhiraj Choudhury has participated in many National and International Exhibitions and received many awards including National Award on 1995.On the same year he had Exhibitions of his major works at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Calcutta and All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society at New Delhi.

Kanchan Chander

Kanchan Chander is a Delhi based artist born in 1957, New Delhi. She received her formal training in painting and print making from the Kunsthochschule, Berlin, the College of Art, Delhi, Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris and the Art School at Santiago in Chile. The various scholarships she received from the French Government and a British Council Grant early on in her career enabled her to imbibe international trends in her oeuvre while remaining deeply in touch with Indian aesthetic and form.

The figures in her body of work are sensuous and tangible, living and breathing deeply entrenched in the meditations of the soul and emerging from within. She succeeds in creating a delicate balance between the surface and core.

In the course of her career she has had over 54 solo and group exhibitions in India, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and Australia, and has received various awards for her works.

Niren Sen Gupta

Niren Sen Gupta was born in January 1940 in Bengal. He was the former Principal of College of Art, New Delhi. He has taught for over 30 years at graduate & post-graduate levels in various art institutions. He is a graduate in science from the Calcutta University and also a graduate in Arts from Govt. College of Art & Crafts, Calcutta. Sen Gupta is also Founder member of 'Gallery 26' in Kolkata, besides being member of Calcutta painters and Executive member of Academy of Visual Media, New Delhi.
For him, art is an expression of inner language. His communion with happenings around him evolves and reflects in his works. He finds lasting beauty in the serenity of the total surrender of the monks of the Ramakrishna Mission, a mission that signifies sacrifices and service to mankind. His works are aesthetic expressions of his inner reflections infused with serenity, sacrifice, service and beauty. He has several solo and
prestigious group exhibitions to his credit.

Farhad Hussain.

Farhad Hussain was born in Jamshedpur, Jharkand in 1975 and completed his BFA in Painting from Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan in 2003. This was followed by his MFA in Painting from MS University, Baroda in 2005. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally in Singapore and Hong Kong in 2006.

Farhad’s bases his works on the realities of human relationships and their subtle complexities. While his earlier works were less complex the seed of his current work was sown then. Farhad adds, “In my earlier works, I used to work on images that came from my day to day visual experience. But these images were always present with a touch of humour and sarcasm.” 

Farhad’s paintings dwell on the human figure. His works are narrative with each figure interrelated to the other. Though, on a quick glance, one may feel awestruck by their presence, each figure is an integral part of the work. Each having a personality, which nurtures the narrative 
In terms of structure and concepts these recent works deal with more thought provocative intricacies. The underlying sublimity of humor and irony betray the true experience of the artist. Vibrant colours and bright backdrops are a trademark of the artist. These bright colours remain flat with minute textile patterning for detailing in all his paintings. 

He currently lives and works in Delhi, and was awarded the ‘Most Promising Artist’ award by India Habitat Center in 2006.

Nabanita Guha

Nabanita Guha’s Bengali heritage is a direct link to the conception of the figures. In a surreal landscape human beings wander with animals and mythological creatures. She weaves them into her canvas with paint and a fine thread running through. With this intimacy the process of creation manipulates the materials in a way that pays tribute to both the real and the imagined aspects of her life. 

Her language of art is allegoric treatment of painful reality and contemporary social issues. Metaphors for male female encounter in real space make it relevant for all times. Her use of mythology, miniature painting tradition and popular culture includes visuals from the Indian comic books. It brings to light feminist and queer narratives. Ideas are interwoven with socio-economic-political reality in contemporary urban life. For her keen observation of life around her Nabanita received recognition for her sensitive portrayal of the woman’s inner self. 

Damyanti Sharma

Damyanti Sharma was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, where she lived and studied for most of her early life. She graduated from Delhi College of Art in 1991 and began her career as an artist illustrating childrens school books and story books for various publishers.

She has curated and conceptualized many shows over the course of her career, many of which were collaborations with NGO’s and she has also conducted workshops with underprivileged children from disadvantaged communities.

Damayanti’s process involves exploring, experimenting with and experiencing angst which she feels. Through her work she aims to project the ugliness which she perceives in human societies, believing that an artist is a chronicler of his/her times, including the politics, events and pressures on mankind.