With the Kochi Biennale and the upcoming Christie's auction fast approaching, the city is in a whirlwind of art events and activities. Last week's highlights included Delhi-based gallery Nature Morte's exhibition at Famous Studio and Dayanita Singh's new show at the Max Mueller Bhavan. This week, the cities galleries came together and organised one of the best Art Night Thursday's I've attended this year. This week has also been excellent for viewing work by young artists, with the opening of three debut solo shows. My personal highlights included artists like Pallavi Paul at Project 88, Parul Gupta at Lakeeren Gallery and Shambhavi Kaul at Jhaveri Contemporary. It was also great to see new works by young artists like Shine Shivan at Gallery Maskara and Minam Apang at Chatterjee and Lal.
Pallavi Paul at Project 88
Thanks to my ongoing collaboration with White Owl, food is constantly on my mind. Paul demonstrates an interesting way of combining food and art with a series of works made seaweed on paper. The gallery itself is transformed into a labyrinth, each section showcases the artists many different works, from drawings, sculpture, found objects and video work; Paul experiments with a wide range of materials and techniques.
Parul Gupta at Lakeeren Gallery
Drawing on influences like architecture, space, light, geometry and perception, Parul Gupta's creates exquisite minimal drawings that are reminiscent of the late Nasreen Mohamedi. The artist debut solo includes drawings, etchings, photographs and a single video work. Attention to detail and technique is key to the artists work, the carefully constructed pieces imbue a sense of calm and tranquility.
Shambhavi Kaul at Jhaveri Contemporary
Another debut solo to open this week, the experimental film maker Shambhavi Kaul presents three of her videos at Jhaveri Contemporary. The artist takes the viewers through fictive geographies, encounters and landscapes that appear familiar yet resist description.
Shine Shivan at Gallery Maskara
In an innovative new exhibition, Gallery Maskara is converted into Shivan's temporary studio for the next few weeks. The artists will spend the next few weeks working in the gallery space itself adding works to the series of drawings and sketches that are ingeniously suspended from a large wooden construction.
I saw Shivan's work exhibited after a significant amount of time and it was great to see such a considerable amount of work on display. One often encounters Shivan's sculptures, videos and performances making this exhibition of drawings all the more original.
Minam Apang at Chatterjee and Lal
Apang's detailed drawings often take several weeks to produce and the artist often showcases her pieces once every few years. It's always interesting to follow her trajectory as familiar imagery like the 'bat' subtly make their way into her uncanny drawings
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