Majumdar + Pravat | Fragmented Reality - - Exhibitions

M. Pravat Untitled (I), 2016 Mixed media on paper 29h x 42w in

Aicon Contemporary is pleased to present "Fragmented Reality," an exhibition showcasing the dynamic and thought-provoking work of Sangram Majumdar and M. Pravat. "Fragmented Reality" meditates on the idea that our perception of the world is made up of small aspects of the physical world, experiences, or events that represent a genuine tangible existence rather than one simple whole. It suggests that reality can be observed and understood through various fragments and components that collectively form a larger whole. These disjointed pieces encompass objects, phenomena, emotions, societal structures, and even personal perspectives that come together to create worldviews. The two artists in this show grapple with themes of displacement, memory, disjuncture, and disruptions through their painterly practice.

Sangram Majumdar uses painting to explore the intertwined relationship between the body and place. He brushes, wipes, pours, scumbles, and scrapes to arrive at a space that sheds light upon a fragmented reality. These realities reflect Majumdar's approach of intertwining traditions, transcending the geopolitical binaries of the "west" and "east," and thereby resisting easy categorization. Disjunct and isolated cultural symbols exist within a complex whole, creating layers of information and perspective. In his paintings, subjectivity matters, and identities are constantly being remade.

Pravat's work begins with the examination of architectural forms or plans - some iconic, and some imagined - which are then deconstructed and built up again, in a visual manifestation of the process undergone by our personal memories of environments and events as they shift, blur, and break down over time. As this process progresses in our thoughts and memories, the physical structures and spaces from which they are born are themselves undergoing an inevitable process of decay, disruption, and often ultimately destruction. Pravat's work aspires to capture the different sites at which this process of preservation and disintegration takes place.

Sangram Majumdar Stepstone 1, 2020 Oil on linen 21h x 27w in

Majumdar + Pravat | Fragmented Reality - - Exhibitions - Aicon Contemporary

Sangram Majumdar (b. 1976, Kolkata, India) has an MFA from Indiana University and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Majumdar has had multiple solo shows across the United States. His accolades include a Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant, Mellon Faculty Fellowship in Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts Grant in Painting, a Purchase Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a MacDowell Fellowship, a residency at Yaddo, and a Marie Walsh Sharpe Space Program Grant. He is an Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Washington. The artist lives and works in Seattle, Washington.

M. Pravat (b. 1972, Kolkata, India) completed his Bachelor's degree in painting in 2002 and his Master's in 2004, both from the Faculty of Fine Arts at M.S. University, Baroda. His art practice examines architectural forms and materials through a fractured lens. Over the years, his works have been presented in solo and group exhibitions, biennales, and art fairs across the world. He is a member of the Layout collective along with artists Navid Tschopp, Susanta Mondal, and architect S. Boka. Their projects have been exhibited in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2012, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, 2013, INSERT, 2014, the Colombo Biennale, 2014, and in non-institutional sites in Delhi and Zurich. He was a recipient of the Pro Helvetia artist residency in Switzerland.