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Deepika Sorabjee
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Episodic Encounters: “We read, we travel, we become”
by Deepika Sorabjee
Mario Pfeifer at project 88
April 28th - May 28th
Posted
5/7/13
It is interesting to note that in the title of German artist Mario Pfeifer’s film ‘A Formal Film in Nine Episodes: Prologue and Epilogue’ at Project 88, the place eludes mention. Pfeifer films Mumbai, eschewing the Indo Gothic silhouettes, the sweep of bay, or Marine Drive, that recur in Bollywood films. The margins of urbanization he locates us in could have been in any city in India.
Two other artists showing in the city offer a comparative look at Pfeifer’s responses to location, famil... [more]
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A New Audience for Contemporary Art?
by Deepika Sorabjee
at Mumbai Gallery Weekend
April 5th - April 7th
Posted
4/12/13
Last year, Mumbai Gallery Weekend (hosted by the nine participating galleries, Chatterjee & Lal, Chemould Prescott Road, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Gallery Maskara, The Guild, Lakeeren, Project 88, Sakshi Gallery and Volte Gallery) took art from the art district stronghold of Colaba to the suburbs. Converting a banquet room into a white cube at the Taj Lands End hotel in Bandra, artworks were showcased to a newer audience. Was that audience converted? Did the gamble bring in new buyers o... [more]
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Looking Inward: Indian Abstraction Deconstructed
by Deepika Sorabjee
Mehlli Gobhai, Ranjit Hoskote at Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation
February 25th - September 30th
Posted
3/15/13
Nothing is Absolute: A Journey through Abstraction at the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya, a show of abstraction in Indian art curated by artist Mehlli Gobhai and cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote, is rich with indigenous ideas that existed around modernity and abstraction in a post colonial India.
Twenty-eight paintings from the Jehangir Nicholson Collection are arranged such that, in a quick glance, one can take in a substantial story. A layere... [more]
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At India Art Fair 2013, Mumbai galleries are well represented
by Deepika Sorabjee
at India Art Fair
February 1st - February 3rd
Posted
1/28/13
12/12/12 saw India’s first art biennale open in Kochi. Spectacular artworks in incredible spaces came up amid chaos and uncertainty. Quite unlike the slick efficiency that we associate with the now well established India Art Fair. It’s nice to have both, the chaos of creativity in the inception of a biennale, and the efficiency of private enterprise cementing a successful art fair in its fifth edition this year at the NSIC Exhibition grounds from the 1-3 February, with the VIP opening on 31s... [more]
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The Subbaiah Way
by Deepika Sorabjee
Kiran Subbaiah at Chatterjee & Lal Gallery
December 21st, 2012 - February 9th
Posted
1/27/13
Kiran Subbaiah has oft in the past featured himself in his videos, as he does in his newest solo show, Narcissicon. Over time (and Narcissicon has taken fourteen years), his various avatars could not be contained – choosing a single channel video as a format, his newest work splits the other Subbaiahs – dreams, fantasies, playful stagings merging into a concatenation of droll events that explore the theme of narcissism, but ironically, the work never really takes itself too seriously.
The... [more]
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Infinity starts with a dot.
by Deepika Sorabjee
Waqas Khan at Lakeeren Art Gallery
November 8th, 2012 - December 31st, 2012
Posted
12/21/12
Waqas Khan seems to pick tense political times to show in Mumbai – in 2010 at Gallery Lakeeren, as a court verdict on a contentious demolition of the Babri Masjid (mosque) was to be delivered and this time, as the leader of a Hindu right-wing political party passed away. At both times, Hindu- Muslim communal harmony prevailed. Waqas Khan must bring the Sufi contemplation and meditative ways that inform his practice with him to the city, calming tempers in volatile situations.
Trained in the Miniature Style at th... [more]
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In ‘GHAR’ (Home), Javed Iqbal captures the politics of the land
by Deepika Sorabjee
Javed Iqbal at Studio-X Mumbai
September 13th, 2012 - September 28th, 2012
Posted
12/2/12
Late September saw a week of photography in Mumbai – shows and talks. At the National Centre of Performing Arts, Mumbai photographers Ketaki Sheth and David Desouza, and Magnum photographer Abbas, spoke about their work. Judith Mara Gutman, whose book, Through Indian Eyes, was one of the first that told the story of indigenous Indian photographers, spoke at length, about how pictures were taken, sourced and archived. For photography enthusiasts it was a primer to FOCUS Festival Mumbai that will be held over a fortnight in March 201... [more]
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Life in Lapsed Time.
by Deepika Sorabjee
Prajakta Potnis at The Guild Art Gallery
September 15th, 2012 - October 27th, 2012
Posted
9/25/12
As I rang the bell at The Guild -- this strange Mumbai procedure for a gallery in landlord-owned rented spaces -- it struck me that it was a Monday. Were they shut? Luckily the door opened and the two-story climb up a tourist-infested Colaba building with an erstwhile dubious reputation is worth it. Prajakta Potnis’ world is anything but seedy. I love this profound contrast in senses that Mumbai assaults one with. Compared with any other city, the magnitude of the assault is incomparable and the... [more]
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Engaging Minds
by Deepika Sorabjee
at Lakeeren Art Gallery
July 29th, 2012 - August 29th, 2012
Posted
8/27/12
In 2003, Arshiya Lokhandwala pulled down Gallery Lakeeren’s shutters in Juhu, a suburb of Mumbai and in those days an unlikely place for a contemporary art gallery. She headed off to Goldsmith for an M.A. in Curating. She then went further, to Ithaca, NY to obtain her Ph.D in History of Art from Cornell University. Returning to Mumbai six years later, she re-opened her gallery doors, this time in Colaba, amidst a gradually forming art district in South Mumbai.
Always innovative, just being a gal... [more]
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Pipe Dreams and Drawings
by Deepika Sorabjee
Avantika Bawa at Gallery Maskara
August 9th, 2012 - September 13th, 2012
Posted
8/13/12
In an essay, social-cultural anthropologist Arjun Appadurai described the frenzy of building works in post-war Iraq as “weapons of mass construction.” This could well describe the current situation in India. Artist Avantika Bawa uses the arsenal of evidence present in construction sites in Mumbai and Delhi, and brings the frenzy into the gallery. In her minimal gestures within the gallery, the frenzy is organised; soaring to Gallery Maskara’s warehouse heights or just skimming the poured c... [more]
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