Emami Art
presents
Imaginarium 2.0
(All India open call award and exhibition)
Kolkata 2nd September 2022: Emami Art, one of India’s leading contemporary art galleries based in Kolkata presents Imaginarium 2.0, the annual open call, awards and exhibition for upcoming artistic talent. This time, ten talented young art practitioners have been selected from more than two hundred applicants across the country. The preview of the exhibition is on 2nd September 2022 and the exhibition will be on view till 30th September 2022, both on the fifth floor at Emami Art. Through this exhibition the main objective is to provide a professional platform to the young artists , help them launch or take forward their practices and also to encourage a conversation between different ideas and the rising approaches in visual art. Instead of having a singular focus, the exhibition celebrates the diversity of imaginations, aesthetic sensibilities and critical conjunctions, functioning as parallel points of reference to the socio-temporal expanse.
Along with the exhibition, Imaginarium 2.0 also involves three generous Awards of Excellence to support the artists early in their career: Rs 2 lakhs + One-month residency with Emami Art Dec 2022, Rs 1.50 lakh + Travel and living grant to visit an Art Fair, Arts Festival, or Biennale within India and Rs 1.0 lakh + Solo exhibition with Emami Art in 2022. The final participants selected are: Ali Akbar PN, Sudhir Ambasana, Puja Mondal, Abhishek Chakraborty, Dhaivat Shah, Gyanwant Yadav, Liactuallee, Priti Roy, Priyaranjan Purkait and Subhankar Chakraborty. The participants have been selected by an eminent panel of jury : Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, Managing Trustee and Honorary Director of Mumbai's Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Jaya Asokan, Director of India Art Fair, Inakshi Sobti, CEO of Asia Society India Centre, Jagannath Panda, acclaimed contemporary Indian artist and Veerangana Solanki, Independent Curator and Writer. Through a distinct visual vocabulary developed in mixed media, Ali Akbar PN, the first awardee, explores nuanced spectrums of human relationships. Whether material, linguistic or symbolical, Ali Akbar's works express the duality and juxtaposition of emotions. An architectural designer and digital artist, Sudhir Ambasana , the second place awardee, explores the possibilities of bringing back the human subject in architectural discourses using movement; the work transgresses from the material property of space to the perceptive faculty of human cognition. Third awardee Puja Mondal's artistic practice is a tool for resistance to the intimidation and violence of power politics. Her articulation takes cues from various textual sources, materialised through extensive literary and cultural mining. Abhishek Chakraborty's sculptural works have their root in a comparison between the intrinsic and functional properties of the organic and the inorganic that symbolically depicts the synthesis of opposite forces manifesting in the material reality. His quest charges Dhaivat Shah's practice in
photography for finding a point of equilibrium between the natural and the artificial; oscillating between various pairs of extremes, his works express the attributes of a 'buffer zone'. Gyanwant Yadav's unique process utilises the dynamics between the constructive energy of layering papers and the destructive energy of peeling them off that are translated into imaginary landscapes merging the rural and urban topographies. Liactuallee is motivated to create imagined visual universes that offer a glimpse into optimistic futurist modes of envisioning our collective destinies. They create speculative landscapes navigating the themes of intimacy, identity and ecology. Priti Roy's practice cultivates the emotional traces of displaced memories. Her works often refer to specific objects that evoke voluntary or deliberate memories of the homeland, home culture, and interpersonal relationships from the pre-immigration past. Fabric plays a vital role in Priyaranjan Purkait's works, acting as a subject and metaphor. Purkait explores the nuanced values attached to clothing in its proximity to the human body as the witness to various human situations. Shubhankar Chakraborty's landscapes are filled with incredible details and textures working together to evoke a tactile memory of the space. Executed from a bird's eye perspective, the works reinterpret an actual landscape through an intimate dialogue of lived experiences. The ruminations, experiences and questions reflected by the artworks are emancipatory in nature. From various perspectives, they express the struggle of identity, the interdependence and conflict between mankind and nature, tactile translations of personal and collective memory and attempts to redefine our topographic outlook. Thus, collectively creates a discursive space and establishes new aesthetic routes for the audience to engage with the contemporary creative apparatus. “Imaginarium 2.0 award and exhibition is a platform for young talented art enthusiasts and experts to display their perspectives using a creative canvas. The exhibition has been primarily conceived with a purpose to support artists early in their careers. Imaginarium 2.0 involves three generous awards of excellence and a collection of interesting works which will allow audience to engage with the contemporary artistic apparatus. This will be a good opportunity for art lovers to witness something unique and different in the field of visual arts” says Richa Agarwal, CEO Emami Art.
About the artists:
Ali Akbar PN
Ali Akbar PN was born in 1996 in Kerala. He has a BFA in painting from Govt. College of Fine Arts (Kerala) in 2018 and completed his MVA with the same subject from MSU Baroda in 2020. His works have been previously exhibited in From Where All That Sweat? Curated by Niranjana Surendran, Trivandrum (2022,) The Flying Goat Show Curated by Shyamli Singbal, Goa (2022), Open Studio, Baroda (2021), Untitled III Online Exhibition, Priyasri Art Gallery Mumbai (2020), Nasreen Mohammedi Studio Display, MSU Baroda (2019, 2020), Kala Mela Art Exhibition, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi (2018), amongst others. Ali Akbar lives and works in Baroda.
Sudhir Ambasana
Sudhir Ambasana was born in 1992 in Mumbai. He is an architectural designer and a digital artist. He received his M.A. from Städelschule Architecture Class (SAC), Frankfurt, under the specialization - Architecture and Aesthetic Practice (AAP). He has previously exhibited his works in Dreams.exe, Terrain. Art, New Delhi (2021), Vudemic Short Film Festival, Harkat Studios, Mumbai (2021), Moving Images, Short Film Festival. ArtBuzz Studios, New Delhi (2021), If a Traveler: Imaged Horticulture. Rundgang 2019, Frankfurt, Germany (2020). His recent research projects include – Non-Fungible Speculations, Scale as Such, Scale in the Visual World/Field, Micro-Narratives in Architecture Imaging and Chrono-Photography. Sudhir Ambasana lives and works in Mumbai and Frankfurt.
Puja Mondal
Puja Mondal was born in 1994 in Kolkata. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degree in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU, Baroda, graduating in 2019. Her works have been previously exhibited in Ask the clouds to remember, Group show at Akara Art Gallery, Mumbai (2022), Group show Baroda Annulle at Gallery White, Baroda (2021), Instincts of Resistance - an online solo presentation at Terrain. Art (2021), Group show at Delhi Contemporary art week, by Shrine Empire, New Delhi (2021), Zones of convergence/ Divergence, an online group exhibition at The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai (2020), Untold summer stories, group show at Gallery Exhibit 320, New- Delhi (2019) and many others. She has also received awards and grants like Narendra Gajanan Bhatt Gold Medal, MSU, Baroda (2019), Nasreen Mohamedi Scholarship, Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU, Baroda (2017) and National Award, 57th National Exhibition, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. (2016) Puja Mondal lives and works in Baroda.
Abhishek Chakraborty
Abhishek Chakraborty was born in 1998 in Kolkata. He received his Bachelor's in sculpture from M. S. University, Vadodara (2020) and completed his Master's in the same subject from Kala Bhavana, Visvsa-Bharati Santiniketan (2022). His works have been previously exhibited in the 41st DaeGu International Grand Online Exhibition, South Korea (2021), Bangiya Kala Kendra Online Exhibition (2021) and Prelude, Fine Arts Gallery, Vadodara (2019). He has also received prestigious awards like the Kala Sakshi Scholarship from Kala Sakshi Memorial Trust (2022), Choice Award in 41st DaeGu International Grand Online Exhibition, South Korea (2021) and Jeram Patel Award from the Department of Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University, Vadodara (2021). Abhishek Chakraborty lives and works in Kolkata
Dhaivat Shah
Dhaivat Shah was born in 1997 in Gujrat. He has a Bachelor's in painting from MSU Baroda in 2018 and completed his Master's in fine arts from Shiv Nadar University in 2020. His works have been previously exhibited in Space Studio residency open day exhibition, Baroda (2021), Inmaking, group show (2018), India Art Awards group show at Arte Mondiale Ahmedabad (2016), Wildlife Week Celebration group show at Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery (2016), Wild Photography group show at the Forest Department Vadodara (2015). Dhaivat Shah is a category winner in India's top 100, Canon Wild Clicks, season 6 (2017). Dhaivat Shah lives and works in Vadodara.
Liactuallee Liactuallee was born in 1995 in Sharjah, UAE. They have received their Bachelor's in (Interdisciplinary Visual Art) from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (2016) and completed a Post-graduate Diploma in Aesthetics, Criticism & Theory from Jnanapravaha Institute, Mumbai (2022). Their works have been previously exhibited in Summer Artist Residency, Space Studio, Baroda (2022), Psyche x Mental, Science Gallery Bangalore and Melbourne (2022), Imagined Universes, Volume 5: vibrance| hue| glow, G5A imprint, Mumbai (2021), Optical Asylum, Khar Social Mumbai (2021), FLOWERS! Mural, Bandra Reclamation, Mumbai (2020) and Bizarre Bazaar, YAAM, Berlin, Germany (2019) and many others. Liactualle lives and works in Mumbai.
Gyanwant Yadav
Gyanwant Yadav was born in 1992 in Uttar Pradesh. He received his Bachelor's and Master's in Fine Arts from Delhi College of Art, New Delhi, graduating in 2019. He has previously exhibited his works in Emerging Artist Exhibition, Atal Museum with Art Collective Gurugram (2021), Art 35, 4th edition, Affordable Art Fair, 2020, Nine Fish Art Gallery, Mumbai (2020), Annual Exhibition, College of Art, Delhi (2018,2019). In addition, he was an artist in residence for site-specific practice with FICA in 2019. Gyanwant Yadav lives and works in Delhi.
Priti Roy Priti Roy was born in 1995 in West Bengal. She has completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in painting from Karnataka Chithrakala Parishath, Bangalore University, graduating in 2019. Her works have been previously exhibited in Jahangir Nicholson Art Foundation, Mumbai (2022), Light From the Darkness, Golden Yellow Art Foundation (2020), and Chithrakala Parishath Final Exhibition, Bangalore (2019), among others. She lives and works in Bangalore.
Priyaranjan Purkait Priyaranjan Purkait was born in 1984 in South 24 Parganas. He received his BFA degree from the Indian College of Art & Draftsmanship, Kolkata, and completed his MFA from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata (2013). His works have been previously exhibited in Abir India National exhibition of art (2021), Birla Academy of Art & Culture (2022), Rajya Chrukala Akademy (2019), Gallery Gold (2018), and Cima Award Show (2015), amongst others. He has also received awards and scholarships like Abir India Award (2021), Grand Scholarship, Lalitkala Akademy (2015, 2016) and others. Priyaranjan lives and works in Kolkata.
Subhankar Chakraborty
Subhankar Chakraborty was born in 1997 in Chittaranjan, West bengal. He received his Bachelor's in painting from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata (2018) and completed his Master's from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University (2020). His works have been previously exhibited in the 55th Annual Exhibition, Birla Academy of Art and Culture (2022), Printmakers. 016 (2020), Annual Exhibition of Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (2019), and State Academy Annual Exhibition(2019), among others. He
has also worked as an illustrator on several books with Lyrical Books and received grants and scholarships like Visual Art Scholarship, SMS group Artists (2022), and Khoj International Artist's Association Support Grant (2020). Subhankar Chakraborty lives and works in Kolkata.
About Emami Art: Emami Art, one of the most significant art institutions in the eastern part of India, is a key space for cultural production in the region. The organisation is focused on a future-forward, complex, multi-dimensional approach and steadfast in the advocacy of emerging, mid-career and established artists as well as an engagement with contemporary and historical material. The gallery aims to create dynamic, wide-ranging registers of exhibition-making and viewing. Deeply committed to promoting a regional, national and international agenda through innovative and alternative programming, emphasis on community and socially relevant engagements, institutional partnerships and more via a multi-year vision for the future, Emami Art is resolute to be a catalyst of change, research, innovation and inclusivity. Emami Art, Kolkata Centre for Creativity 777 Anandapur off EM Bypass. www.emamiart.com
