Blood and Spit

513 WEST 20TH STREET NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10011

TEL: 212.645.1701 FAX: 212.645.8316

JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY

T.V. SANTHOSH

Blood and Spit

At

Jack Shainman Gallery, NY

In collaboration with The Guild, Mumbai

October 14 – November 14, 2009

Opening reception: Wednesday, October 14, 6-8 pm

Blood and Spit

Spitting

At the face of the enemy

Is the poor man’s war.

Weapons of blindness

Always miss their target,

The enemy who is not an enemy,

But a burning pile of curses

Of innocents and the powerless.

One day you realize with a sinking heart,

The land you are born

Is someone else’s motherland.

Those desolate homes still smell treachery.

Treachery of blood stained propaganda.

Smell of blood

Makes you forget who is your brother.

You build a relationship on

Never ending cycles of revenge.

Sometimes even the history is an excuse.

For some, nostalgia is pain.

For others,

Hatred the barometer of patriotism.

Even the kites don’t fly above indoctrination.

Learning to live a life of a scapegoat

For the value of life is less important

Than borders and ill-fated temples.

Brother,

Was more beautiful this kingdom,

When God too failed as mediator?

T. V. Santhosh

Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Blood and Spit, T .V. Santhosh’s inaugural exhibition at the gallery mounted in collaboration with The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai. The exhibition opens October 14th and will run through November 14th, 2009.

Here Santhosh presents five large-scale figurative paintings in vibrant hues, his limited palette including electric green, neon yellow and shocking orange. Eight watercolors in gray offer a subdued counterpoint to the bold paintings, their figures enveloped in an impressionistic wash. While the work is conceptually based, Santhosh’s use of deeply saturated color and fluid edges bring the viewer to an elevated state of mind and adds an unnerving quality to the paintings. The tightness of the frame and forcibly close vantage point harkens back to the film noir genre bringing the viewer to a reflective state. His images depict chaos and paranoia relating to current media coverage of contemporary events. His exploration demonstrates a reality on the verge of explosion as if time had been stopped. Simultaneously, the work is profoundly humane and cerebral. Although his imagery is extremely current, they have become universal as we live with an oversaturation of imagery and rapid exchanges of ideas. People of all contexts and backgrounds can relate to their pictorial approach.

By entering the world of T. V. Santhosh, we become accomplices to the drama and violence we have just experienced. We are left with a snapshot of a greater story both immediate and timeless, a witness to his conscience. Born in Kerala, T.V.Santhosh earned his B.F.A. from Kalabhavan, Santiniketan and his M.F.A. in Sculpture, from M.S.U, Baroda. A major presence in the Indian and international art scenes over the last decade Santhosh has exhibited his work at numerous international art galleries and museums. Prominent museum shows include ‘India Xianzai’ Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China, 2009; 'Passage to India, Parts I and II New Indian Art from the Frank Cohen Collection', at Initial Access, Wolverhampton, UK, 2008 and 2009; ‘Aftershock, Sainsbury Centre, Contemporary Art Norwich, England, 2007; and ’Continuity and Transformation’ promoted by Provincia di Milano, Italy, 2007.

A book featuring works by T.V. Santhosh from 2007 – 2009 and essays by Shaheen Merali, Brigitte Ulmer,Alexander Keefe and Santhosh S. is available.

Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm. For additional information and photographic material please contact the gallery at info@jackshainman.com.

WWW.JACKSHAINMAN.COM WWW.GUILDINDIA.COM

KIAF 09

Limited Security / Security Ltd.

Amitesh Shrivastava and Bhuvanesh Gowda

Limited Security / Security Ltd.

4 – 25 September, 2009

PREVIEW – Friday, September 4, 6.30 to 8.30 pm

The Guild Art Gallery is pleased to present ‘Limited Security / Security Ltd.’ recent works of Amitesh Shrivastava and Bhuvanesh Gowda at The Guild previewing on September 4, 2009.

“Security has become an obsessive notion to worry about not only for the nations but also for the individuals. The more the world dissolves its borders using technological means, the more the borders are conceptually strengthened by the preoccupation with security issues. While security measures re-draw the map of our social spaces, they facilitate a change in the philosophical and cultural attitudes too. It could go deep into the negotiation of personal fears to the negotiation of socio-cultural mechanisms in the individual lives.

‘Limited Security/Security Ltd.’ looks into the aspects of how the notion of security moves from the socio-political spheres to philosophical and cultural realms... Also it attempts to focus on the notion of ‘insecure viewing’ or to put it in other words, how certain works of art try to push the viewer out of the comfort zones of viewing. The realm of aesthetic enjoyment, which is secured by the physical conditions of a gallery or a museum space, is sometimes threatened when the works of art in question themselves are intended to rupture the secure notions of viewing.” – Johny ML.

Bhuvanesh Gowda obtained his BFA from CAVA, Mysore and MFA from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.. Formally speaking, Bhuvanesh’s works are minimal sculptures. Affected by acrophobia (vertigo), Bhuvanesh makes an attempt to overcome his insecurities with heights by visiting high altitude places in the Himalayas.. His personal experiences transform into minimal sculptures, that he generally uses to destabilize the ‘security of viewing’.

Amitesh Shrivastava obtained his BFA from Khairagarh University and MFA from MSU, Baroda. Amitesh’s works intensely debate the socio-cultural and philosophical notions of security in his painterly works. Qualified as quasi expressionistic works, Amitesh deliberately chooses an action oriented style to develop his pictorial surfaces. An artist who is an avid researcher on social hierarchies, he visualizes a human drama which is related to both the agrarian and technological economy.

The Guild
02/32, Kamal Mansion, 2nd floor
Arthur Bunder Road,Colaba Mumbai 400005
+ 91 22 2288 0116 / 0195
admn office
+91 22 2287 5839 /6211 fax + 91 22 2287 6210
www.guildindia.com
www.theguildny.com

www.guildindia.com

The Guild at India Art Summit 09

Booth B 12

The Guild Art Gallery is delighted to present

Balaji Ponna Remen Chopra

Prajakta Potnis Sathyanand Mohan

Pooja Iranna

Curated Section by Gayatri Sinha

Riyas Komu T.V. Santhosh

Sculpture Park

Iranna G.R.

Video Lounge

Navjot Altaf

At India Art Summit 09, New Delhi

Date: 19 – 22 August 2009

Balaji Ponna:

Born 1980

Ponna obtained his Masters in Graphics from Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan. His first solo titled ‘Black Smoke’ was held at Bose Pacia, Kolkata in collaboration with The Guild. He has exhibited in Art Basel 09 and has also participated in "Contemporary Exoticism" curated by Marco Meneguzzo at Studio La Citta, Verona. His works have been currently selected for the France print Biennale 2009. Balaji’s new sculpture is another take on the contemporary issues that remain apparent but sometimes neglected. With an overt formal reference to Gilbert & George’s 'Singing Sculpture’, Balaji addresses the issue of class and brings in the question of popular into the discourse of elite Indian art practices.

Prajakta Potnis

Born 1980

Prajakta Potnis received her graduate and postgraduate degree from Sir J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai and is a recipient of several awards and scholarships. In 2008, Potnis had two major solo shows including “membranes and margins” in Seoul, Korea and then ‘Porous Walls’ at The Guild, Mumbai. She is a growing name in the Indian and International art scene. “Walls perform as a significant analogy in her works. They are a metaphor of the chosen human territories through which a city designates order and planning and at the same time an organic substance like a visceral membrane. Through and within these walls Potnis creates notations of the fragility and disregard observed in everyday situations.” – Nancy Adjania

Remen Chopra

Born 1980

Remen Chopra completed her B.F.A and M.F.A in Fine Art from the College of Art, New Delhi and she continued her education program and residency at the School of Visual Arts New York. She was a participant in the Rotterdam Art fair 09 presented by Willem Baars Foundation. The centrality of her work deals with freeing oneself from the contradictions and holds of the post modern society, where, virtues start to lose meaning, and the dark valleys of self hood grip man, where violence, anxiety and antagonism take over and the virtues of self correction, become linked to the fanaticism of religion, and the words peace, family and security become strangers in one’s own world.

Sathyanand Mohan

Born 1975

Born in Kerala, Sathyanand Mohan has obtained his BFA in Painting from College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum and MFA from Faculty of Fine Arts, Ms University Baroda. His recent solo show ‘Reliquary’ was held at The Guild, Mumbai. Sathyanand’s works may perhaps be called private metaphors wherein he tries to evoke various aspects of the self. Play and irony are generally employed in his paintings to draw attention to the language and its materiality. His current work ‘Mumbai- Shots’ explores various aspects of the city and how it has a magnetic field attracting people from across the country in lure of opportunity. Here Sathyanand employs a cinematic visual language stirred with adventure and inspiration from the pervasive influence of cinema in Mumbai.

Riyas Komu

Born 1971

Riyas Komu was a participant in the 52nd Venice Biennale 2007 curated by Robert Storr. Other prominent museum shows include Milan Museum show, curated by Daniella Polizolli and 'India Contemporary', GEM, Museum of Contemporary Art, Hague. Komu graduated with Painting as his specialization and has since than extended himself to sculpture, photography and video installations. Komu says that his work draws from the public domain. His subjects are charged with significance bringing about a disturbance depicting an element of political disquiet. For Riyas, art is a medium for social comment on the situations the world is facing today. “Take Away is a work that provokes the agenda of capitalism (in order to occupy the world of a renewed material reality) which a dominant country surreptitiously unleashes to exploit aspirational labour and imprison it in an intangible enclosure that makes them proudly compromise their dignity and freedom.” - Riyas Komu

T.V.Santhosh

Born 1968

Born in Kerala, T.V.Santhosh obtained a B.F.A in painting from Shantiniketan and Masters in Sculpture from MS University, Baroda. Santhosh has had several successful shows with many international art galleries and museums. His recent sculptural installation from ‘Passage to India’ is in the Frank Cohen collection at Initial Access. Some of his prominent museum shows are ‘Aftershock’ at Contemporary Art Norwich at Sainsbury Centre, England in 2007 and ’Continuity and Transformation’ Museum show promoted by Provincia di Milano, Italy. “Santhosh’s art is attentive to the specific idioms of contemporary global conflict, to the diabolical pact between knowledge and terror and the skewed antagonism between puissant globality and weakened locality. T.V.Santhosh’s sophistication lies in the use of aesthetics of digitally transmitted news, replacing explicitness with ambiguity and evoking a remarkable hypersensitivity in his viewers.” – Ranjit Hoskote.

G.R. Iranna

Born 1970

Sculture Park: ‘Still Saddled’

Born 1970 in Karnataka, Iranna obtained B.F.A. from the College of Visual Arts in Gulbarga and M.F.A. from Delhi College of Art. Iranna is a recipient of National Academy award in 1997 and the M.F.Hussain and Ram Kumar award. G.R Iranna has been nominated from India for the ABPF Signature Art Prize 08, Singapore. His works are philosophical reflections, revolving around the interactions and explorations of a man’s inner world with the existential issues of today. Through his present sculpture he comments on human civilizational growth and its intrinsic follies consisting of aggression and ideological indoctrinations, violently inflicted upon human beings in the name of territorial growth. Iranna’s intention is to capture the trauma of human kind.

Navjot Altaf

Video Lounge: ‘Water Weaving’

Navjot studied Fine and Applied Arts from Sir J. J. School of Arts, Mumbai. She is one of our earliest video artists. Navjot’s work has always been a part of wider concerns on social and educational issues, through which she has sought alternative art practices and communication outside the gallery space. She has been associated with varied fields, being an Artist, a Researcher, an Anthropologist, a Social Worker and a Political Activist. Since 1991-92 Navjot has been engaged with interactive / co-operative/collaborative projects with Indian and international visual artists, classical vocalists, documentary filmmakers, crafts persons and technicians. Her recent works titled ‘Lacuna in Testimony’ will be on display at the Frost Museum in October 09.The sparkling abstract film in this exhibition is crafts-based: weaving is its theme. The film is based on a legend told to Ms. Altaf by a Bastar weaver named Sukhman, who is in the film.

THE GUILD’S RESIDENCY EXHIBITION

JULY 24 – AUGUST 4, 2009

10.00 AM – 6.30 PM

We are pleased to present The Guild’s Residency Exhibition featuring the artists from the first batch (17- 23 June 09). The Residency provided a platform to artists and writers to interact with each other and create room for exchange of newer ideas.

The exhibition is an attempt to present the works produced during the week long residency. It shares the views and ideas of the artists/ writers which took place in form of presentations and discussions on various issues pertinent to visual art and the art world.

The exhibition features works of Balaji Ponna, Hemali Bhuta, Himanshu S., Kedar Dhondu, Om Soorya, Remen Chopra, Shreyas Karle and Ved Gupta and Writers - Mohd. Ahmad Sabih and Shubhalakshmi Shukla.

Balaji Ponna’s works are “textual” and it is here that Balaji’s earlier engagement with the popular sign boards and vehicle paintings come to the fore. Balaji’s use of specific visual devices, grids, frames, photography, text, repetitive compositions and attempts at subversion can be read as the post modern tools of visual articulations. Hemali Bhuta’s installations come across as occurrences, seemingly independent of the artist’s presence as they grow, breathe, move, and shed. She does mostly site-specific works and installations. Documenting and archiving seem to become curious nodes of enquiry into Hemali’s works as she is constantly dealing with the dilemma about how to show her work. Himanshu S has no predilection towards any medium. He even doubts his role in being an artist. With activities that range from children’s workshops, teaching, activism, painting other artists’ paintings, and selling little booklets, Himanshu’s main anxiety seems to return again and again to the institution of art. Kedar Dhondu often uses the language of miniatures for expressions in his works but his underlying themes deal with the core of violence. He brilliantly juxtaposes the beautiful watercolour medium in his work. He uses animals and their expected behavior as metaphors for human behavior ranging from aggressiveness and violence to fear, sensitivity and concern. He invites viewers to involve themselves empathetically, identifiying their own personal experiences.

Om Soorya’s works are surreal dream-like landscapes that question what is real and what is perceived. They look like ‘hung’ cities, a site of exploding activities, a crucible of profit production, a field of contesting ideologies, a program of multi tasking capabilities, but ‘hung’ for a while. Remen Chopra works mostly on paper. But she employs various media, and her images are arrived at through mediation, twice, thrice, and many times over, of techniques similar to the process carbon copy. Her aim is to present work as if it’s some kind of theatre where one can maybe see all the props, characters, and the mise-en-scene, to not so much see what all is visible, but in how they are barely visible.Shreyas Karle plays various roles in his every work. Working on community-based art, collaborative projects, and a range of new media, the one common aspect in all his works is his insistence on conducting ‘research’.Little dwarves of corporate giants and ministers, caricatures, metaphors and proverbs distorted, this is what Ved Gupta’s fiberglass painted sculptures come across as at first glance. His work principally concentrates on social hierarchies, class in particular, and the common man. - Excerpts from Mohd. Ahmad Sabih’s Essay.

Balaji Ponna received his B.F.A in Graphics from Andhra University with Gold medal and M.F.A in Graphics from Visva - Bharati University, Santiniketan. Balaji Ponna has participated in various group shows over the last couple of years including’ The July Show’ at The Guild and Art Basel 09. Recently the artist had a solo show at Bose Pacia, Kolkata in collaboration with The Guild, Mumbai.

Hemali Bhuta, completed her M.V.A. (Post Diploma, Painting) at M.S.U., Baroda. She is a recipient of the Senior Scholarship from Lalit Kala Akademi for the year 2004-05.

She has participated in various group shows like a photography exhibition titled “Visuals of a post-visual world” curated by Gitanjali Dang in 2008 “.

Himanshu S. has been involved in teaching, and has participated in a number of group shows. He has had two solo shows at The Guild namely ‘An Interval between Two Non-occurrences’ and ‘this is himanshu s. maybe’.

Kedar Dhondu has been in participating in various group shows and camps. In 2008: The July Show at The Guild, Mumbai .He is the recipient of "Kava4”, Kashi Award For Visual Art. Kedar D has also partcipated in a print-making at a workshop in Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal,

Om Soorya obtained a BFA in painting from College of Fine Arts, Kerela University, Thiruvananthapuram and a MFA in painting from the University of Hyderabad. Om Soorya’s solo shows include 2007: Random Mirrors in the City of Villagers at THE GUILD ART USA INC, New York, 2007. He received the Emerging Artist Award in 2007 given by Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA).Om was a part of the Prohelvetia Residency program at Zurich in 2009.

Remen Chopra completed her B.F.A and M.F.A in Fine Art from the College of Art, New Delhi. She has participated in various group shows and residency programs including a residency program at School of Visual Art New York.

Shreyas Karle obtained his M.V.A in visual arts at the M.S.University, Baroda in the discipline of painting in 2008. He is the recipient of the Bodhi art award 2008. Shreyas has participated in various shows, site specific workshops.

Ved Gupta graduated from Faculty of Fine Arts 2004, Baroda (B.F.A, M.F.A Sculptures). He has earned many awards and participated in various shows and also in the Al Bastika Art Fair Dubai, U.A.E. He is the recipient of the Kashi Award for Visual Art, Kochi, Kerala .

Mohd.Ahmad Sabih did Bachelors in Visual Arts, specializing in Art History from the M.S. University of Baroda, following which he completed the interdisciplinary M.A. programme at the School of Arts & Aesthetics (SAA), JNU in 2009. Sabih has been involved in doing research and archiving with art-critics, artists, and auction-houses, and his area of interest is in investigating the infrastructure and institution of Art in the country.

Shubhalakshmi Shukla completed her Masters in Visual Arts specialising in Art History from M.S. University in 1997. She has curated shows and also has a teaching experience at various schools of Art. Shubhalakshmi has a number of publications accredited to her including ‘Body and Transcendence : Two Women Artists, An essay on the paintings of Nasreen Mohamedi and Anita Dube’ in the book Towards New Art History: Studies in Indian Art and ‘Indexing Spaces and Images’, in the art journal Lalit Kala Contemporary.

POOJA IRANNA

Of Human Endeavor:

The Super Exposed City and the New Possibilities of Space

6 – 22 August, 2009

PREVIEW – Friday, 6 August, 7 to 9 pm

Conversation between Pooja Iranna and Deeksha Nath– 7 to 7.30 pm

The Guild Art Gallery is pleased to present ‘Of Human Endeavor: The Super Exposed City and the New Possibilities of Space’, solo show of recent works by Pooja Iranna at The Guild previewing on 6th August 09.

Born in 1969 in New Delhi, Pooja Iranna received her BFA and MFA in Painting from the College of Art in New Delhi. Some of her prominent shows include ‘Metamorphic Mathematics’ at The Guild, Mumbai; Trends & Trivia at The Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong; Walk the Line at Avanthay Contemporary, Zurich; ‘India Revealed’, curated by Antonio Manfred at Cam Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, Naples, Italy; Korea-India Contemporary Art Exchange Exhibition, Seoul, Korea and Emerging India’, by art Alive at the Henry Moore Gallery, London. Her works are in private collections in India, New York, Bangkok, and Hong Kong.

“Pooja’s art has made slight visual shifts every few years since she began working after graduating from the College of Art, New Delhi in 1995 but she has remained true to her inspirational precedents – built urban structures, how they order and articulate space and the response of the human body and the human psyche to these spaces. The particular brand of her visual language has existed in the blurred boundaries between painting, photography, mixed media collages and sculptures and between architecture, urban spatiality and abstraction.

When looking at the photographic works we are aware firstly of the soaring access, of spatiality articulated as a spectacle. This free movement is aided but also ordered by the architectural elements, creating frames which are patterned by grids, reducing the magnificence to the manageable. What they are present day high-rises, headquarters of Multinational Corporations, Banks or World Agencies, shiny glass clad buildings that belong to no-place and can be seen in every-place. But what they have become in Pooja’s works are radical architecture, emptying space of time and event thus creating a shock of absolute fragmentation and dislocation.

These spatial imaginations can not be dissociated from the material corpus of the city. The artist takes pleasure in multiplying architectural perspectives in order to mislead the spectator. This architecture may cause anxiety due to its potentially limitless character, yet it is the limitlessness of the constructed that also frees it, and us, from the shackles of confinement and thus urban imprisonment. The ever-expanding boundaries of the built space become our new frontiers, our anxious landscapes.”

(Excerpt from Catalogue Essay by Deeksha Nath)

The Guild
02/32, Kamal Mansion, 2nd floor, Arthur Bunder Road,Colaba Mumbai 400005
+ 91 22 2288 0116 / 0195, admn office : +91 22 2287 5839 /6211 fax + 91 22 2287 6210
www.guildindia.com, www.theguildny.com , Time: 10.00 am - 6.30 pm