Emami Art, one of India’s leading contemporary art galleries based in Kolkata is hosting its first physical exhibition post the lockdown ‘Fluid Boundaries’, which will be showcasing works of art across different genres. Curated by art historian and critic Nanak Ganguly, the show features the artworks of Snehasish Maity, Debasis Barui, Tapas Biswas, Bholanath Rudra and Suman Dey. In this exhibition the works of these cutting-edge artists will confront the traditional experiences of light and sound and how the same is re-ordered and returned in an innovative role reflecting the choice of subject the artist has made.
With human existence being marked by an obscure sense of survival, surviving on the borderlines of the present, ‘Fluid Boundaries’ addresses similar concerns. With each new step retreating into old solutions and being discarded, it would be impossible to stop, as one has to create the text in spite of the odds, as is seen in the sculpture/installations of Tapas Biswas or in the paintings of Suman Dey. A recurrent issue today is the plight of the individual in a highly technological world as in the works of Bholanath Rudra or Snehasish Maity. However, the works of ‘Fluid Boundaries’ are ultimately optimistic despite bristling with images of hope, aggression, human relations, confrontation and displacement. There is a sense, achieved through ironic focus, that beyond lies something more hopeful. However, first it is necessary to overturn what we have and create the neutral space from which new things shall grow by creating un/usual interactions between visual art, architecture and the materials of everyday popular and media cultures as we get to view in Debashis Barui’s installations. It will also be all about physical, metaphoric and psychological connotations that are almost always intertwined and represented in socio-linguistic patterns.
“We are happy topresent ‘Fluid Boundaries’, our first physical exhibition post the lockdown period. Last few months have been difficult for all of us and the present situation has intensified our self-growth and I am very excited to see what all the artists have come up with during this pandemic. The artworks of this exhibition will be all about physical, metaphoric and psychological implications that are always entangled and represented in socio-linguistic patterns and I am sure viewings of these vast range of paintings, sculptures and installations at Emami Art will result in fresh discoveries.said Ms Richa Agarwal, CEO, Emami Art.
The exhibition is scheduled to start on 6th November, 2020 and shall be displayed till 15th December, 2020. The exhibition can also be viewed on Emami Art’s website www.emamiart.com
About The Artists:
Bholanath Rudra – A watercolourist and contemporary artist based in Kolkata. He studied painting at Rabindra Bharati University, graduating in 2013. He is a member of the Society of Contemporary Artists, Kolkata, which he joined in 2019. Widely exhibited, Bholanath’s notable work is concerned with modernity’s assaults on nature and climate. Using different hues of colour, layer after layer, in his paintings to explore the soft, luminous and transparent quality of the watercolour medium, he represents humanity’s deep existential crisis arising from the destruction of nature and ecological balance by the rapid spread of modern urban civilization. He has participated in the solo shows States of Mind at Society of Contemporary Artists, Kolkata, 2018 and Mechanical Libido at Academy of Fine Art, Kolkata,2013. He was felicitated with many awards, including the State Gallery of Art Award, Telangana Government (2019), Birla Academy Annual Exhibition Award (2018), Rajya Charukala Parshad Annual Award (2017), National Exhibition Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, Karnataka (2017) and All India Watercolour Exhibition Award, AIFACS (2017). Represented by Emami Art, his works were shown in the India Art Fair, New Delhi (2020). Bholanath Rudra lives and works in Kolkata.
Suman Dey – A young contemporary artist based in Kolkata. Largely self-taught, he works in the language of abstract art, distilling the visible form to an abstract motif. His work, which usually tells no story, shows his intense contemplation and careful formal exercises. Composition and Form are two recent series of paintings that show his complex handling of the non-representation language of art oscillating between the purity of form and emotions and memories of the world. Suman Dey has exhibited widely in India. He participated in the solo shows at Taj Bengal, Kolkata (2011, 2014); ECA Art Walk, Kolkata (2011) and Chemould Art Gallery, Kolkata (2008). His works have also been shown in many duet and group exhibitions in Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (2009, 2015, 2017); Shilpi Art Gallery (2008); in the Birla Annual Exhibition at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata (2018, 2016); in the Annual Exhibition at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (2017), in the All India Exhibition at Emami Art (2016, 2017) and in the Annual exhibition organized by the Rajya Charukala Parisad (2016); among others. He was awarded the Certificate of Merit for his work in the All Indian Exhibition at Emami Art, 2017. Suman lives and works in Kolkata, India.
Snehasish Maity – Born in Durgapur, West Bengal, Maity’s works center on the urban experience in India, and hence his own identity, the excavated chronicles of its composite culture. His practice is essentially bound up with practicalities of making. Maity regards his works as ‘objects’, as independent objects in their world and the term poetic which has frequently been applied to his painted space is received less than rapture. His tone is humorous, affectionate-his mode on canvas; an uninhibited freedom of subterfuge and play, the energy, dynamism, absorption and spontaneity reveal strands of social semiotic of what talks about and the means and style of expression it employs to do so.
His solo/group shows include CIMA” Award Show, Kolkata, 2016. A Group Show organized by Emami Chisel Art Gallery, Kolkata. 2015 “Net Work” A site specific installation in Kolkata, 2014 “Dialogue” A site specific installation show in Chander Haat Kolkata. “Urban Narratives” Curated by Nanak Ganguly, presented and commissioned by “ESPACE” LOUIS VUITTON’’, Tokyo, 2013; 2011 “Harvest” a major group show organized by Arushi Arts, New Delhi and others; 2008 “Beyond Boundaries’ organized by,Visual Art, UK and Arushi Arts, New Delhi in London; ‘Sixth Sense’ organized by Arushi Arts, Travancore Palace, New Delhi. Singapore Art Fair, Arushi Arts; 2007 The Contemporary Indian Art Show organized by Arushi Arts, Nehru Centre, London.
His works are collection of National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, CEAT India Ltd. And RPG Ltd, Canadian Scientists Society, Portland and Art Museum U.S.A, Osaka Museum, Japan. Many Private Collections in India, Germany, Japan, U.S.A and Singapore.
The artist resides and works in Kolkata.
Debasis Barui – Born in Kolkata, Debasis Barui is the analyst of his own identity. Barui’s aspirations is to make a meditated simulacrum of the politics of desire but to approach as near to the reality of that desire as possible, to be in a complex and full way, realistic not to be restricted by any debased modernism. An installation artist like him has always seen his practice as an attempt to make changes in the perception of the social and cultural future through their interaction with the audience. His intention is to create an artwork that will instigate in the audience perceptions, understandings of their own creative potential; the logic of the process whereby the fixity of art object is challenged is seen in the increasing degree to which exchange value takes precedence over the use value.
He has exhibited widely in numerous exhibitions namely: Birla Academy of Art and Culture, 1997; Jehangir Art Gallery. 1998); Aryan Art Gallery, 2004; Gallerie 88, 2006; Aakriti Art Gallery 2006, 2007,Anant Art Gallery, Kolkata, 2008; Emami Chisel Art, 2009, 2010, 2014; All India Art Exhibition, 2002,CIMA Awards Show, 2015; CIMA, Gem Cinema Project, Kolkata, 2017 and several others. His works are in collection of private collections in India. The artist resides and works in Kolkata.
NANAK GANGULY
Nanak Ganguly is an independent curator and critic based in Kolkata. He has written extensively for The Statesman, Asian Age, Deccan Chronicle, and others. He was appointed the Commissioner of VIIIth Pan Asia- Pacific Art Biennale by Lalit Kala Akademi in 1997. He has curated shows in New York, Tokyo, Singapore, New Delhi, Bombay, London, Kolkata, Hyderabad (CCMB) that include an exhibition titled ‘Urban Narratives’ at Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo (2013) and Charles D’Oyly’s Calcutta, Early Nineteenth Century at Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata. (2014). He has been on the selection committees of various international projects including SITU –I, ELV, Paris, Munich and Tokyo.
He has few books to his credit including Somnath Hore (ed.) published by Lalit Kala Akademi and contributed in Akbar Padamsee, Work in Language (Marg Publications).