ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
SMRITI DIXIT
Born 1971
B.F.A. in M. S. University, Baroda (1993-94)
Diploma in Bangiya Sangeet Parishad (1986-87)
Junior and Senior Diploma in Classical Vocal (1984-85)
Smriti Dixit is a uniquely talented artist who creates abstract mixed media artworks which include the traditional art of sewing. She acknowledges the long standing craft of sewing, undertaken by many Indian women, and simultaneously modernizes and individualizes it by incorporating uniquely created textures and patterns into her contemporary abstract color works. What is unusual and noteworthy of Dixit's artworks is that unlike many artists' geometric abstract color works, hers retain a very strong organic component. This is due to the fact that even when she repeats a pattern or texture, each individual piece is slightly different. The human element in her work is visible in the way in which each material is handled. For example, she often tears the fabric included in her artworks only to stitch it back together, sometimes recreating the form, other times reinventing it. This embodies her work with a strong concept of rebirth, recycling and renewal. It is also interesting to note that unlike many contemporary artworks which have sleek clean glossy finishes, Dixit embraces the human process of production and creation. Her process of stitching, tangling and draping fabric is the central element of these beautiful textured mixed media pieces.
Select Solo Exhibitions
2005 Triveni Gallery, New Delhi
2004 Art Musings, Mumbai
2001 Triveni Gallery, New Delhi
Apparoa Gallery, Mumbai
1998 Apparao Gallery, Mumbai
1996 Grindlays Bank, Chennai
1996 Apparao Gallery, Chennai
1992 M.P. Kala Parishad, Bhopal
Select Group Exhibitons
2006 Absolute Abstract Exhibition, Ati Art Gallery, New Delhi
Roop Adhyatma, Bodhi Art, Singapore
Basant Show, Bodhi Art, Delhi
Abstract Expressions, Bodhi Art, New Delhi
Confluence 2006, Aicon Gallery, New York
2005 Abstract Visions, Galerie Müller & Plate, Munich, Germany
Show curated by Punam sarih, Bangalore
Polka Gallery, New Delhi
2004 Exhibition of Paintings, Art Musings, Mumbai
Tao Gallery, Mumbai
2003 Performative Textures, Indian Habitat Centre Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi
Solitude, curated by Alka Pande, Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi
Texture curated by Alka Pande, New Delhi
Cultural Ties, curated by Apparao Gallery, Mumbai
2002 Tomorrow's Blue-Chip, The Park Hotel, Chennai
Tribute to Picasso, The Guild, Mumbai
2001 Anandi, curated by Ratanottama Sen Gupta, in Ravindra Bhavan (Delhi), Birla Academy
(Kolkatta) and N.G.M.A. (Mumbai)
2000 Art & Images, N.G.M.A. Mumbai, curated by Ms. Saryu Doshi
Ravindra Bhavan, New Delhi
1999 Alliance Francaise De, Bhopal
1998 Fifty yeaRs of independence, New Delhi – curated By Mr. Palliniappan
Direction, Apparoa Gallary, New York
SAJAL SARKAR
Born 1963, Kolkata, India
Post Diploma in Graphics from M.S. University, Baroda, 1995
B.F.A. in Painting from Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata, 1989
The artist lives and works in Baroda, India
Select Solo Exhibitions
2007 Open Ended, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto
2006 Gallery Katayun, Kolkata
2005 Art World, Chennai
1999 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, sponsored by RPG Enterpriese
1998 Crimson Art Gallery, Bangalore
1997 Gallery Katayun, Kolkata
Gallery Leela, Mumbai
1996 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, sponsored by RPG Enterpriese
1994 Gallery Leela, Mumbai
1991 ANZ Grindlays Bank, Kolkata
Selected Group Exhibitions
2007 Winter Show, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto
Modern to Contemporary, Gallery Kolkata, Kolkata
2006 Confluence 2006, Aicon Gallery, New York
2003 Paradigm Of References, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
Homage To Bhupen Khakhar, M.E.C. Art Gallery, New Delhi
1993 Young Baroda at Art Today, New Delhi
1991-92 Bajaj Art Gallery, Mumbai
1990 Contemporary Indian Art
1989-91-93Y.B. Chavan Centre, Mumbai
1989-1891 Gallery Katayun, Kolkata
1989 TATA Centre, Kolkata
Awards, Participations
1987 International Airport Authority of India, Kolkata
1993 Certificate of Merit from Government of West Bengal
1994 Mumbai Art Society
1990 & 95 ALFACS Scholarship
1995 Gold Medal from M.S. University Baroda
1995-97 Junior fellow ship from Ministry of Human resource development
Department of Culture, Government of India
1996-97 Bendre Hussein scholarship
1996, 2005 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, Canada
Collections
National Gallery of Modern Art
International Airport Authority of India
Madhavan Nair Art Foundation, Kerala
M.E.C. Art Gallery, New Delhi
Marwah Studios Noida
Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata
Hudco, New Delhi
AKBAR PADAMSEE
Born 1928, Bombay Maharashtra
Diploma in Fine Arts, Sir J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai (1945-49)
Born in Bombay Maharashtra in1928, Padamsee left for Paris in 1951 and lived and worked there until his return in 1967. He was associated with the Progressive Artists Group. Padamsee's work ranges from the figure to non-figuration ... an artist difficult to bracket. In fact for Padamsee, it not the bracketing which is of consequence, for his main pre-occupation is with the form, volume , space, time, & colour. He is very conscious of every mark that he makes; the process of creation is one of contemplation and articulation of thoughts and ideas.
Select Solo Exhibitions
2008 Sensitive Surfaces, Galerie Helene Lamarque, Paris
2006 Photographs, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai
2005 Gallery Threshold and the French Embassy in India, Delhi
2004 Retrospective of Watercolors, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1997 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1994 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1993 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1992 Art Heritage, New Delhi
1986 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1980 Retrospective of works organized by Art Heritage Delhi and Mumbai
1975 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1974 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1972 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1967 Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal
1960 Painting in Grey, Gallery '59, Mumbai
1957 Galerie Ventadour, France
1952 Galerie Saint Placide, Paris 1953,55 Venice Biennale, Italy
Select Group Exhibitions
2006 CIMA Gallery, Kolkata
2005 Threshold Art Gallery, New Delhi
Contemporary Indian Art, Nehru Center, London
2004 Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
2003-04 Critical Boundaries - A retrospective and the release of a book documenting his works on
Paper, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
2001-02 Saffronart and Pundole Art Gallery in New York
1993 Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore & Madras
1992 Sanskriti Art Gallery, Kolkata
1991 National Exposition of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
1987 Festival of India, Moscow, USSR
Awards and Fellowships
2004 Lalit Kala Ratna, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1998 Bank of India Excellence Award
1997 98 Kalidas Samman
1969-70 Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship
1967 Artist - in - Residence, Stout State University, Wisconsin
1965 .D. Rockefeller III. Fund Fellowship, U.S.A
Collections
Ministry of Cultural and Scientific Affairs, New Delhi.
National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.
Jehangir Nicholson Museum Mumbai.
Art Heritage, New Delhi. Deutsche Bank, Mumbai.
Glenbarra Art Museum Hemeji.
Pheroza and Jamshyd Godrej Collection.
Ajay Lakhanpal Collection, Mumbai.
Solang Padmsee Family Collection, Paris.
Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai.
Ursula Volmer-Hoffmann Collection, Germany.
KRISHNA REDDY
Born 1925, Andhra Pradesh
Diploma(Fine Arts),VBU (1942-7)
Slade School of Fine Arts, London (1951-2)
Academie Grande Chaumiere, Paris (1952-5)
Academic di Belle Arti de Brera, Milan (1956-7)
Krishna Reddy has pioneered and mastered the color viscosity process, in which a metal plate is etched with acid or prepared with machine driven tools to form several layers. Intaglio color is applied by hand and excess ink, especially from the upper layers, is wiped off. The remaining colors are prepared with linseed oil. Each color has a different viscosity so as to repel each other on the plate. These colors are then rolled on the plate, with the help of rollers of different degrees of softness, the hardest reaching the lowest layers. Each print appears as an individual multicolored image.
An outstanding innovator and experimenter, Reddy sees the plate as a sculpted surface and intaglio printing as a three-dimensional process. By varying ink viscosity and roller density, he has achieved colors of extraordinary complexity on the plate. Reddy's discovery of the principle of color viscosity has greatly simplified technical processes while at the same time increasing the expressiveness and intensity of the image.
The artist lives and works in Paris and United States of America.
Selected Group Exhibitions
1993 Five Retrospective, USA, Mexico, Canada, Bangalore
1990 Clown, Juggler, Kenkeleba Gallery, Japan
1984-5 Retrospective, Bronx Museum of Arts, NY
1981-2 Retrospective, BAAC
1979 Prints by Sculptor', Roy G. Biv Gallery, NY
1977 Gallery Weintraub, NY
SOHAN QADRI
Sohan Qadri was born in Punjab in 1932 and is currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is considered a modern Tantric painter whose work owes as much to Western experimentation as to Eastern tradition.
Through his synthesis of the spiritual values of Buddhism and the rigorous simplicity of Scandinavian aesthetics, Qadri creates spiritually powerful compositions. The minimalist purity of his art can transport a viewer beyond the realm of the thinking mid to the transcendental state of meditation. The conscious mind, which judges, analyzes, and plans, recedes into the background and all that matters is the spiritual and aesthetic beauty of the experience.
Color is the key element in Qadri's work. He suffuses the paper with pure colors and then submits it to chance, allowing the textures to emerge in their own rhythms as the paper dries. While the end result feels distinctly Indian, it brings to mind the art of American painter, Mark Rothko, known for his famous fields of color. The use of dye, which fades and seeps through the paper, creates an effect similar to that of an Indian fabric or handicraft.
Qadri often uses vibrant colors such as deep reds, peacock blues, and rich yellow, to create strong color energies that impress the viewer with the sheer power of their vibrant calm. Apart from bold hues, he also uses a lot of white and black to convey the key Buddhist idea of emptiness. Here emptiness does not have any negative connotations associated with nothingness, rather it illustrates the concept that all things have no inherent unchangeable essence and that they are just part of the ebb and flow of the universe. This idea is also depicted by the perforations he creates in his paintings that look like circles of emptiness.
Sohan Qadri has held over 40 one-man shows in important galleries in New Delhi, Bombay, London, Zurich, Vienna, Brussels, Munich, Basel, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Los Angeles, and New York.