New Show of Devajyoti Ray

After a long hiatus, Devajyoti Ray held an exhibition of his recent works at Mumbai’s Jehangir Art Gallery. The exhibition curiously titled “A Colourful Arena …..in the midst of heat” was presented by upcoming New Delhi based gallery called Sudharts. As the name suggests, the exhibition was a riot of colours as is the hallmark of Ray’s works. But the title suggesting “in the midst of heat” had been quite ironic, now that Mumbai is washed everyday by tumultous showers.  

The exhibition had a total of 29 paintings, depicting as usual scenes from everyday life. But the colour treatment in Ray’s original style of Pseudorealism had achieved an even higher dimension this time. As like always the exhibition had attracted a huge number of visitors, mostly students of art colleges.  Pseudorealism is an original genre in Indian art which has in recent past created a lot of interest among the Europeans.

Ray had earlier held exhibitions in Europe and USA and his exhibitions in Arizona had also been particularly very successful. He can also boast of his painting on Che Guevara which has been displayed at the prestigious Cuban Museum of Fine Arts at Havana, the only one from India. 

This year too most of the buyers of Ray’s works had been from European countries of Norway, Germany and France. The amalgamation of bright flat colours, a feature of most of contemporary European Art and the use of purely Indian subjects is probably what these buyers like the most. Outside regular art auctions of Indian art organised by Indian art houses, Ray is probably one of those few artists who commands some respect among European buyers and can cause sale of art works on their own.  

What is Ray upto next. ”Well an exhibition in Dubai” says Ray. “People of Dubai are showing interest in my work. I am planning for a show at Dubai sometime during the next half of the year” We wish him all the success once again.

Art Fair In Kolkata

Kolkata was abuzz with the news of an Art Fair organised by a conglomeration of art galleries, bookstores, and art colleges. The fair was organised in a newly-built Avani Signature building on Park Street which is being provided by the Avani group. The 3-day fest was spread out over around 24,000 sq ft of space on the ground and first floor of the building between April 25 and April 27.

This is one more sign of Kolkata raising its head in the field of art. Two years back the website named indianmasterpainters.com had started an annual award ceremony where the best artist of the year was awarded a with a golden brush. Birla Academy of Art and Culture organises similar shows every year. Nonetheless, all these had always remained mostly local evcents. So there was a lot of expexctation from this fair and people had thronged in huge numbers. Huge murals adorned the outside wall of the building and it was a true treat to the eyes.

However the selction of artists and art-genres was very poor. It had the regular Kolkata artists like Jogen Chowdhury, Suvaprasanna (who are also fest committee members), Ganesh Haloi, Paritosh Sen, Wasim Kapoor, Dhiraj Chowdhury, Rabin Mondal, Prakash Karmakar, Isha Mohammad, B R Panesar and Suhas Roy. These artists showcased their regular works, mostly painting and sculpture. There was a conspicuous absence of installations, and other types of modern day arts.

Neither was there any presence of some of Kolkata’s best modern day artists like Sanjay Bhattacharya, Devajyoti Ray, Paresh Maity, Chittrobhanu Majumdar, Subba Ghosh or Kaushik Mukherjee. Is it because these artists are not staying in Kolkata any more?

These avant garde artists are less known in Kolkata and more elsewhere. They are attracting international attention and recent auctions show their immense popularity in the international art market. However they have never showed together. This fair could have been an opportunity to showcase their works on a single platform.

May be future fairs would be organised on a larger scale.

Artes Mundi Award for NS Harsha

NS Harsha stays away from the limelight of the art world. Much less known compared to his contemporaries like Devajyoti Ray, Chintan Upadhyay or Bose Krishnamachari, Harsha is a reclusive artist who is identified with the new breed of urban contemporaries only through his style which bears closer resemblance to the newer post-liberalization artists than the elders in the Indian art world.

Harsha’s work spans from painting to installation to community projects—and are often narratives of mass activity. He uses the tradition of miniature paintings with popular and everyday images of comics and folk art.

The artist’s entry into the world of art was rather strange. He had joined art school not by choice but rather by circumstances. But while doing his masters in fine arts at MS University, Baroda he came in touch with such celebrated veterans like Bhupen Khakhar, Gulammohammed Sheikh and Nilima Sheikh, who left a lasting impression on him. Like Bhupen Khakhar, harsha too brings story telling in his art. But in terms of style, he is closer to contemporaries like Shibu Natesan and Subodh Gupta. Like these contemporaries, he also uses installations in large numbers.

This year is particularly specialk for Harsha as he wins this time the prestigious Artes Mundi Award and then his painting titled ” Mass Marriage” attracted a phenomenal bid of $6.4 million at an auction organised by Christie’s at Honkong. Harsha is probably the only artist from Karnataka to have reached this height in recent years. Those who have missed his previous exhibitions can catch him up at his solo exhibition at Maison Hermès in Tokyo in June. Also on the cards is a show at Mumbai’s Sakshi Gallery and a couple of group shows in Spain and Tokyo.