A LOST FUTURE SHEZAD DAWOOD/THE OTOLITH GROUP/MATTI BRAUN

Source The Rubin Museum
In the Otolith Group’s transtemporal consideration of modernity in urban India, the narrator questions, “Why do Indian artists produce so little science fiction?” The reply: “Satyajit Ray’s film The Alien would have rendered this question void. It is this emptiness that allows a nostalgia for a lost future.” The three-part exhibition A Lost Future challenges existing histories and speculative futures across cultures and in Bengal—a culturally rich region divided between present-day India and Bangladesh. The three contemporary artists featured in the exhibition—Shezad Dawood, the Otolith Group, and Matti Braun—engage an evocative range of mediums that spans virtual reality to an immersive lake along with painting, film, sculpture, and photography. Through rich storytelling, A Lost Future explores themes of virtuality, modernity, and world-making in ways that are universal as well as interconnected and specific to this region.
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This new exhibition sees waste through a different lens

Source Vogue India by Heidi Volpe
What is old is new, what has been discarded is rescued and reassembled, resurfacing as something beautiful, something with message and purpose: A new exhibit at the TARQ gallery focuses on one of the most pertinent issues for our planet—waste—and forces us to look at it through a different lens. Seven Indian artists who specialise in waste as raw material were selected by curator and art historian Birgid Uccia, who poses the question “Is waste a resource or a problem?”, through the showcase, Waste Land, which is part of the biennial public diplomacy campaign “70 Years of Swiss-Indian Friendship: Connecting Minds – Inspiring the Future” of the Consulate General of Switzerland in Mumbai.
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A Martigny, l’art indien déploie ses racines

Source Le Temps par Jill Gasparina
Plutôt qu’Inde, cette exposition, organisée au Manoir de Martigny, aurait pu s’intituler Indes, car elle présente des œuvres issues de deux pays qui semblent encore, à beaucoup d’égards, vivre en parallèle l’un de l’autre. D’un côté, le monde indien rural, qui constitue l’origine de la majorité des artistes de l’exposition, issus de communautés tribales. De l’autre, l’Inde urbaine, représentée par deux jeunes artistes formés en école d’art. «L’Inde, comme l’art contemporain, est plurielle», explique le commissaire d’exposition Hervé Perdriolle dans le catalogue. Et il est, de fait, un ardent défenseur de l’idée de pluralité artistique.
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What is labour? An exhibition in Kolkata engages with the complex question

Source Scroll In by Devarsi Ghosh
The other giant painting-mural by Pachpute, Death of Dharma, is inspired by Dharma Patil, an 84-year-old farmer who committed suicide in January by consuming poison outside the Maharashtra secretariat. Death of Dharma is a companion piece to his Sea of Fists, which draws inspiration from the march of 25,000-odd farmers from Nashik to Mumbai in March to demand a waiver of loans and electricity bills. Sea of Fists is currently being exhibited at the Yinchuan Biennale in China.
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Amit Dutta: The reticent revolutionary

Source The Hindu by Udayan Vajpeyi
Dutta’s explorations are basically in two directions. He explores the history of cinema itself in his films (as in his diploma film ksh-tra-jna) and second, he explores other artistic traditions and the lifestyles around them. He thus succeeds in posing questions to both cinema and the art form he explores. Dutta asks: “Can we think of spaces like the school in Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game, which elevates students from immediate reality and helps them see nature and culture as a single interlocked ecosystem? Can we reconnect with nature and our own roots in an organic way? Can we imagine film schools that embrace the best of human tradition in all fields of knowledge?”
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Madhubani painters want better deal for their work

Source VillageSquare.in by Jigyasa Mishra
But things changed with the time passed by. The upper castes also started making Godna and the depressed castes showed their interest in painting mythological figures. They were no more made to strictly adhere to their confined art forms, and thus, the Madhubani Painting in its globalized form became a strong medium to break caste barriers apart, amongst the artists at least. This is the reason that today no one can judge the caste of an artist by her paintings.
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Rs 26 crore for the painting, Rs 0 for the painter. The Indian art world is riven by a deep divide

Source Scroll In by Georgina Maddox
Ironically though, Mehta did not benefit monetarily from it. Two years later he died of a heart attack, aged 82. The artist will always be known as a gentle soul, who painted for the disenfranchised and the marginalised, with a purity and vigour that was reflected in his simple lifestyle. He lived quietly with his wife Sakina, their son, Yusuf, and daughter, Himani. The art community – especially his gallery in Mumbai, Chemould – supported him with exhibitions and primary sales, but in retrospect, if Mehta had received a royalty from the sales of his work at auctions, it could have certainly helped him afford better healthcare.
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At Deutsche Bank, busy bankers find respite in art

Source Livemint by Shweta Upadhyay
From the lobbies to the corridors and cabins, the Deutsche Bank office at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Mumbai, is packed with art from India and Germany. In the reception area alone, you will find a sculpture by G. Ravinder Reddy and paintings by Chittrovanu Mazumdar, Krishen Khanna and Arpana Caur. Bernhard Steinruecke, a former CEO of the bank, who spearheaded the Indian collection in 1994, says over the phone from Mumbai: “We wanted to show our support for artists, who are a creative force in society. Our focus was on young artists and contemporary art in India and Germany, to cover what is happening in the art scene at that point in time.”
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JHAVERI CONTEMPORARY MOVES TO LARGER MUMBAI SPACE

Source Artforum
Jhaveri Contemporary has announced that after eight years in the Malabar Hill neighborhood of Mumbai, the gallery is relocating. It will move to a new larger home in the city’s historic area of Colaba. The new space, which is situated on the third floor of a nineteenth-century mansion on Mereweather Road, will triple the gallery’s footprint. Comprising two exhibition spaces, the new gallery boasts thirteen-foot ceilings, concrete walls, exposed beams, and large windows that let in an abundance of natural light. The gallery will also have two balconies with views of the Gateway of India and the Arabian Sea. A group exhibition that explores the gallery’s journey from its opening in 2010 until now will inaugurate the space.
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Explore 70 years of Indian handmade textiles at Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur

Source Architectural Digest by Avantika Bhuyan
An exquisite narrative on textiles seems to be unfurling at The Museum Galleries, ensconced within the Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur. A beautiful water lily design, block-printed on cotton, by Anokhi, Jaipur, shares space with an ikat scarf, designed by Abraham & Thakore, which was part of their first collection. In another area, one can see a screen-printed panel from the late 1970s-early 1980s, inspired by the Pichwais of Rajasthan and designed for the Calico Museum of Textiles in Ahmedabad. Especially striking is an embroidered tent, by designer Aneeth Arora, which was commissioned by the Devi Art Foundation.
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Indians shine at Cannes Lion 2018

Source PrintWeek India
Indian agencies Creativeland Asia, Grey India and MacCann India bagged bronze on the day-two of the festival. Cannes Lion is an international festival for arts, communications and advertising industry which is ongoing from 18 June and will conclude on 22 June. Creativeland Asia bagged a Bronze Lions for its "Madhubani" "Pattachitra" and "Warli" campaign for Mercedes Benz India.
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Chemould shows young collectors the ‘modus operandi’ to buy affordable art

Source Architectural Digest by Uma Nair
Come September, Chemould Gallery in Mumbai will turn 55 years old. Shireen Gandhy, the czarina of the contemporary art world in India, has a yen for art that’s beyond the pale of convention. Ever since she joined her parents, Kekoo Gandhy and Khorshed Gandhy, in 1988, she has kept her finger on the pulse of Indian contemporary art, as she spends time discovering, developing sensibilities, and inspiring younger and emerging artists to go forth and conquer the most important art spaces across the world. Gandhy now embarks on a seminal exhibition at Chemould Prescott Road, titled, Modus Operandi, set to open on July 12. The show explores methods, modes, and process across media with an uncanny congregation of more than 25 of the best names in Indian art today, showcasing works that are targeted at young and not-so-young, but inexperienced collectors who are looking to buy the greats of contemporary Indian art at affordable prices.
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Gond art legend Jangarh Singh Shyam killed himself in Japan on this day, July 3, 2001. Why?

Source Scroll In
On July 3, 2001, renowned contemporary artist of the Pardhan Gond community Jangarh Singh Shyam committed suicide at the Mithila Museum in Niigata, Japan. He was just 39. Born on the small green hill of Patangarh, Jangarh was famously “discovered” in 1981 by artist J Swaminathan and his scouts from Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal. Mentored by Swaminathan who had a reputation as a “primitivist”, Jangarh exhibited widely and came to be regarded as a major artistic force by stalwarts like MF Husain. Since his passing, many books and documentaries have been made on Jangarh. Experimental filmmaker Amit Dutta recently published Invisible Webs: An Art Historical Inquiry into the Life and Death of Jangarh Singh Shyam. Last year, art historian Aurogeeta Das curated the collection Jangarh Singh Shyam: The Enchanted Forest, which featured Jangarh’s artworks from the Crites Collection.
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