STIRRING QUARTET 2006
IN THE second edition of Stirring Quartet we present the works of Gayatri Gamuz, Alok Bal, Sharmi Chowdhury and Pradeep L Mishra from September 18 to 30, 2006 at Hacienda Art Gallery, Mumbai. Curated by Jasmine Shah Varma, Stirring Quartet continues to showcase artists with distinct visual languages.
The first exhibition of Stirring Quartet was held in November 2005. This year the artists come from different backgrounds and art schools. Spanish artist Gayatri is based in Thiruvanmalai. Her work projects possibilities in a future where there are no trees. She speculates the relationship between humans and wildlife in such a scenario. Alok, who is from Orissa is currently based in Baroda, Gujarat. The concrete blocks of houses in his paintings are inspired by the scene from his 10th floor studio. A nature-loving person, Alok observes the slow and steady replacement of greenary with concrete in sombre toned paintings. Sharmi comes from Bengal and is also based in Baroda currently. Her narrative works are visually playful and provide a sense of drama. She explores the delicate nature of human relationships and the changing nature of gender roles in society. Pradeep, alumnus of the JJ School of Art is based in Mumbai currently. The youngest in the group his work exudes wonder and questions that have no easy answers. The large scale of his works and technique of painting to bring about more than photographic likeness adds to the viewer's sense of wonder.
ALOK BAL
Baroda
Black Landscape
70 x 70 inches
Acrylic and Emulsion on Canvas
"THE paintings in this show are from the series of landscapes. I get a
view of the urban landscape from my studio, which is on the tenth
floor of a corporate office building. Everyday I am witness to the
gradual change in the landscape – the actual nature is being replaced
by second nature, which is manmade. I record on canvas this
transformation. The use of black and greys is symbolic of ignorance."
GAYATRI GAMUZ
Thiruvanmalai
In A Land Without Trees
54 x 54 inches
Oil On Canvas
Behind The Pink, 2006
39.5 x 39.5 inches
Oil on Canvas
"LATELY, when I wonder what to paint, my thoughts turn to a persistent picture: a dreamy world of a land without trees.
Both in the imaginary and in the real “land without trees”, there is still something exceptional about the human that is worthy to think or to imagine about, and this is what I paint.
In my paintings humans appear with a conscience -- they offer themselves for things to turn from this reality to another, and there are particular combinations of elements: eggs, nests, monkeys, black bucks, birds, sheep, elephants, humans, stones, they get together and melt in a high conscience of deep understanding, of an elemental urgent understanding of intentions."
-- Excerpt from the text in the catalogue
About Extinction, 2006
40 x 40 inches
Oil on Canvas
PRADEEP L MISHRA
Mumbai
Untitled, 2006
66 x 72 inches
Oil on Canvas
"THERE are no statements or stories behind this image besides the presence of the painted being. What I paint is “common”, in the present with memories from the past. I am interested in observing how viewers receive, and what they feel on encountering my work."
SHARMI CHOWDHURY
Baroda
The Garden of Earthly Delights!
84 x 54 inches
Oil on Canvas
"I RAISE the curtain once more for my exhausted patriarchs. They share the space, and their identities intersect. Each performance is staged, and being fully aware of the implied spectacle, my characters set out to enact their roles. Their identities are slowly erased, with the shifting sexual dynamics that characterises the queersome change they are all going through. A small patch of pink or a morose grey marks this metamorphoses – it’s a whole new set of human relationship that waits at the corridor.
Everybody has an equal share in my inexplicable allegories."
