AN ART WEEKEND IN MUMBAI Part I
Mumbai Gallery Weekend kicks off the New Year with a whole host of interesting exhibitions that are on view online and can be viewed in the flesh, by appointment.
As migratory birds fall dead out of the sky, and we are still besieged by the passing away of many of our senior citizens of repute in the art world and across the spectrum, it may be one of the most prominent times to beg the question, what are we left with in this rapidly changing world?
Birth of a New World by Rithika Merchant at TARQ poses this important question. It is part of the Mumbai Gallery Weekend. In this new series of watercolours and collages, Merchant focuses on the ‘contemporary moment’. With the world around us constantly, and rapidly evolving, the artist looks to a more primordial time, where she begins to search for answers in the stars. She proposes to create paths to a new world, similar to what you would see in an observatory.
These works take a holistic view of the universe to try and answer what comes after the Holocene and Anthropocene periods when the earth started changing in a much more rapid and real way. As she examines what we will be left with, Merchant also questions ideas of achieving Utopia for the universe as we explore space.
On the other end of the spectrum a more lighthearted approach, though laced with a strong political subtext, the artwork of India’s most ‘infamous’ street artist, Tyler, graces gallery walls. His ‘untitled’ solo show will open on Thursday, 14th January 2021 as a part of Mumbai Gallery Weekend and will run until Sunday, 7th March 2021.The works will be spread across Method Art Space’s two locations, Kala Ghoda and Bandra. While this will be the third show in the newly opened Bandra space, the Kala Ghoda gallery has been expanded to twice its usual size to accommodate the entire show collection.
Tyler’s pieces, all created on found objects off the street, further his signature stencil art style with characters and situations that humorously reflect on various political, social, gender and caste-based structures. He has boldly expressed his opinions on various matters using the city’s streets as a ‘canvas’.
The Tangible Imaginative, curated by Sanjana Shah, at Tao Art Gallery, is a group exhibition that looks at the experimental nature of art. It is both tangible and intangible, allowing the viewer to physically experience and mentally feel. To understand the art, one must understand its essence, by interacting with every aspect of it minutely. The exhibition features artists like Anwar, Brinda Miller, Jaideep Mehrotra, Michelle Poonawala and Ravi Mandalik, to name a few.
Chatterjee & Lal has hosted a number of exhibitions in an ongoing series titled Simple Tales. The latest instalment is titled Head in the Clouds. Each iteration of the series has brought together works from contemporary and historical contexts across a range of media.
Given the wealth of living traditions in the Indian subcontinent, it is perhaps unsurprising that contemporary artists in the region often respond, explicitly and implicitly, to storytelling in their art practices. The works selected provide entry points to thinking about the relationship between earth and the heavens, and the negotiation of that relationship by artists over different time periods.
Artists featured in the show are Arshi Ahmadzai, Minam Apang, Nikhil Chopra, Anju Dodiya, Amit Dutta, Piyali Ghosh, Kausik Mukhopadhyay and Rashid Rana among others.
Code-switching, the ability to alternate effortlessly between two or more discrete sign systems is a faculty practiced and perfected by all diasporic subjects. As a methodology, code-switching is integral to Jhaveri Contemporary presents Lubna Chowdhary’s artistic practice which has long sought to stake out a conciliatory middle or common ground between various binaries: art and craft, East and West, ornamental excess and minimal restraint, industrial and handmade, architecture and body, and object and image.
Chowdhary’s monumental Metropolis (1991-2017) consists of mesmerizing display of more than a thousand small, handcrafted and lushly glazed clay sculptures that together scramble and synthesize her myriad sources, inspirations and references
Catch the exhibitions online and the gallery collective weekend also has a four-day preview with physical walk throughs, starting on the 14th up till the 17th of January 2021.
Text by Georgina Maddox
Images courtesy all the represented galleries
https://themethod.in/event/tyler-street-art-a-solo-exhibition/
https://www.taoartgallery.com/current
https://jhavericontemporary.com/