Emami Art Presents
The Politics of Paper Curated by Ushmita Sahu
Kolkata 18th February 2022 : Emami Art hosts “The Politics of Paper” curated by Ushmita Sahu an exhibition that talks about engagements and explorations of Paper as a support, a material, a concept, a process, and/or other intellectual engagements from an individual, formal, historical, socio-cultural, political perspectives to name a few. The exhibition which started from 12th February will continue till 29th March 2022, from 11:00 am – 6:00 pm on the ground floor at Emami Art (except on Mondays).
The exhibition establishes a visual context of the expanding boundaries of language and approach through several works by some renowned artists such as Adip Dutta, Anju Dodiya, Atul Dodiya, Chandra Bhattacharjee, Jagannath Panda, Jayashree Chakravarty, Mithu Sen, N S Harsha, Prasanta Sahu and TV Santhosh. The crux of the show highlights Paper’s intrinsic relationship with our history, culture and politics for several millennia. It also highlights the ideas of accretion and transformation, thus turning the focus on material as social practice, where aptitudes, traditions, social spaces etc. feed a range of strategies and ideological assumptions. For each artist within the show, Paper embodies ideas of accretion and transformation that predicates a uniqueness of language and approach. By trying to connect diverse approaches the exhibition becomes a site of collaborations with multiple entry and exit ways.
“The exhibition, the politics of paper, is a prominent highlight on our gallery calendar this year. It brings together the most influential contemporary artists working in India today, revealing the diversity of their practices. It is interesting to see how remarkably the artists have used the paper, exploring its endless possibilities as a medium, material and concept. It is an excellent opportunity for the city’s art lovers to see, face-to-face, the brilliant works, which, I am sure, will provoke them to rethink the paper as a powerful medium of art” says Richa Agarwal, CEO Emami Art.
“The Politics of Paper studies paper as a medium that bears a message in itself. Several eminent artists have tried to prove this through their artworks and installations which gives rise to a new approach of studying the importance of paper. Through this exhibition, we aim to transform the meaning of paper from an object to a medium and establish its connection with history, culture and politics on a larger scale. I have always had a close affinity to paper – In my own (former!) practice as an artist, the paper was my medium of choice. Paper is intimate, it allows for the immediacy of mark-making and it also encourages the acceptance of ‘mistakes’. It is fragile and delicate but can last for eons. It is also woven into the very fabric of human history and has proven itself to be an extremely versatile artistic vehicle. says Ushmita Sahu, Head Curator, Emami Art.
In addition to this there will be collateral events which will include presentations by the artists and engagement with students of art colleges from the state. A seven-day workshop will be designed around the exploration of paper which will also include some of the senior artists and selected young upcoming artists from the region.
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
Artist Details
Anju Dodiya
(Mumbai, 1964) is an Indian contemporary artist. She studied painting at Sir J.J. College of Art, Bombay, graduating in 1986 and has been the subject of sixty solo shows in India and abroad. Her significant solo shows include Tower of Slowness at Galerie Templon (Brussels, 2021); Breathing on Mirrors at Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai, 2020); The Air is a Mill of Hooks at Bikaner House (New Delhi, 2018); How to be Brave (in Pictures) at Galerie Daniel Templon (Paris, 2016); and Imagine Immortals at Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi, 2014); among others. Her site-specific Installation, Throne of Frost, took place at Lukshmi Villas Palace (Baroda, 2007).
Her work has been featured in many important group exhibitions like Every Soiled Page at Ishara Art Foundation (Dubai, 2020); Visions from India at CMOA (Ohio, 2017); Bhupen's Contemporaries at Grosvenor Vadehra (London, 2016); No Parsi is an Island at NGMA (New Delhi, 2016); Possibilities for a non-Alienated Life at the 4th edition of Kochi Muziris Biennale (Kochi, 2015); The Eye and the Mind: New Intervention in Indian Art at Guangdong Museum of Art (Shanghai and Beijing, 2015) and Aesthetic Bind I Subject of Death at Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai, 2013).
She won the Zee Astitva Award in 2007 and Indo-American Society's Young Achiever's Award in 2001. In addition, she was nominated for the Sotheby's Prize for Contemporary Art in 1998 and 2000.
Anju Dodiya lives and works in Mumbai, India.
Atul Dodiya
(Mumbai, 1959) is an Indian contemporary artist. He studied at Sir J. J. College of Art, Mumbai and École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, between 1978 and 1992, and has been the subject of over thirty-two solo shows in India and abroad. They include his mid-career retrospective Bombay: Labyrinth/Laboratory at Japan Foundation Asia Centre (Tokyo, 2001); Atul Dodiya. E.T. y los otros at Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid, 2002); Atul Dodiya at Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati (U.S., 2013); a large survey show, Experiments with Truth: Works 1981-2013 at National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi, 2013); Mahatma and the Masters at Galerie Daniel Templon (Brussels, 2015); Atul Dodiya | Girlfriends: French, German, Italian, Egyptian, Santiniketan, Ghatkopar at Vadehra Art Gallery (Mumbai, 2017); among many others.
He has participated in the first Yokohama Triennale (2001); 51st and 58th Venice Biennale (2005, 2019); Documenta 12 (2007); 7th Asia Pacific Triennale (2012); 1st Kochi Muziris Biennale (2012); and many other global curated events and group exhibitions at major galleries in India and abroad.
Atul Dodiya won many prestigious awards and fellowships like the Sotheby's Prize and Raza foundation's Raza Award in 1999 and 2009. In addition, he was the recipient of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, Italy (1999) and French Government Scholarship (1992).
Atul Dodiya lives and works in Mumbai, India.
Jayashree Chakravarty
(Kolkata, 1956) studied painting at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan and M.S. University, Baroda, graduating in 1980 and spent a year in France as an artist-in-residence at École de' Art, Aix-en-Provence, between 1993 and 1995. She has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including Unfolding: The Route Map of Experience at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) (New Delhi, 2021); Wired Ecology at Akar Prakar (New Delhi, 2019); Earth as Haven: Under the Canopy of Love at KNMA (New Delhi, 2019) and Musée National des Arts Asiatiques (Guimet, France, 2017-18); Unfolding Kuchinan at Akar Prakar (Kolkata, 2016); If you will Stay Close to Nature at Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi, 2014); Where the Sand Meets the Sky at Bodhi Art Gallery (New York, 2007); and many others.
Her work has also been featured in important group exhibitions like Abstracting Nature at KNMA (New Delhi, 2021); Carrying Roots Around at IIC (New Delhi, 2017); Tapis Moghal, Safar Nama at Indian Museum (Kolkata, 2014); Enduring Legacy: Show of Five Artists from Bengal at Galerie Neumeister (Munich, 2011) and Here and Now: Young Voices from India at Grosvenor Vadehra (London, 2007).
Jayashree Chakravarty won several prestigious awards and scholarships, including the Honourable Mention Award, Asian Art Biennial Bangladesh (Dhaka, 1997) and French Government Scholarship (1991).
She lives and works in Kolkata, India.
Jagannath Panda
(Bhubaneshwar, 1970) is one of the most prominent contemporary Indian painters and sculptors. He studied fine arts at B.K. College of Art and Crafts, Bhubaneshwar and M.S. University, Baroda, graduating in 1994. He further obtained a Master's Degree in sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2002. He has exhibited his work widely in major solo gallery shows in Where City Meets Sea at Aicon Gallery (New York, 2020); Flycatcher and The Rest at Palette Art Gallery (New Delhi, 2019); Crystal Cities at Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi, 2017); The Trance Narratives, Halcyon Gallery (London, 2015); Metropolis of Mirage, Nature Morte (New Delhi and Berlin, 2011); and several others.
His work has been featured in many significant group exhibitions in the major galleries in India and abroad, and he has participated in Art Dubai (2012); Art HK, Hong Kong International Art Fair (2011); the International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC), Paris (2008); Art Basel, Basel and Miami (2008) and the Armory Show, New York (2008).
Jagannath Panda won the Centre Prize, CIIC, London (2002), AIFACS Award, New Delhi (1996), National Akademi Award, New Delhi (1995), Alice Boner Memorial Award (1991) and many other prestigious awards and fellowships.
A founder of the Utsha Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jagannath Panda lives and works in Gurgaon, India.
T.V. Santhosh
(Kerala, 1968) is a well-known contemporary artist from India. He studied fine art at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan and M.S. University, Baroda. He has been the subject of several major solo gallery shows, including Common Wall at Grosvenor Vadehra (London, 2014); The Land at Nature Morte (Berlin, 2011); Burning Flags at Aicon Gallery (London, 2010); Living with a Wound at Grosvenor Vadehra (London, 2009); and many others.
His work has been featured in major museums and art institutions across the world, in WAR ZONE – Indian Contemporary Art at Das Kunstmuseum (Austria, 2012); Critical Mass: Contemporary Art from India at Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Israel, 2012); In Transition: New Art from India at Surrey Museum of Art (Canada, 2011). In addition, he has participated in Art Basel (Honk Kong, 2013); Dhaka Art Summit (Dhaka, 2014); in Forming in the Pupil of an Eye at Kochi-Muziris Biennale (Kochi, 2016); The Great Game at Venice Biennale (Venice, 2015); Making History at Colombo Art Biennale (Colombo, 2014); Rewriting Worlds at the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2011) and several other art biennales in India and abroad.
He won the Kerala Lalit Kala Academy's prestigious Padmini Award (2010), Kerala Lalit Kala Academy State Award (1997) and Inlakh Foundation Award, to name only a few.
T.V. Santhosh lives and works in Mumbai, India
Chandra Bhattacharjee
(West Bengal, 1961) is an eminent Indian painter. He graduated with painting from the Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship, Kolkata, in 1986 and has since exhibited his work widely in India and abroad. He has been the subject of more than a dozen solo shows "Night Forest" at Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi; at The Gallery in Cork Street, London, UK; Gallery Threshold, New Delhi; Gallery 88, Kolkata; Art Heritage, New Delhi; Sumukha Art Gallery, Bengaluru; among others. He has also participated in many group exhibitions in India's major cities and London, Munich, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bali.
Besides being a painter, Chandra Bhattacharjee is a skilled photographer. He won Taj Gaurav Award in 2008 and Gold Medal from Rabindra Bharati University for excellence in fine arts in 1986.
Chandra Bhattacharjee lives and works in Kolkata, India
Prasanta Sahu
(Odisha, 1968) is an Indian contemporary artist. He studied painting at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan and M.S. University, Baroda, graduating in 2000 and teaching at Visva Bharati, his alma mater, since 2001. He has been the subject of the solo shows Suburban Shadows at Emami Art (Kolkata, 2020) and Blueprint of a City at Kalakriti Art Gallery (Hyderabad, Kolkata).
He has participated in many important group exhibitions in museums, art institutions and art galleries. They include Hub India – Maximum Minimum at Artissima (Torino, Italy, 2021); Disruptive Confluence at Museo Civico d'Arte Antica (Torino, Italy,2021); Multitudes and Assemblages at Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di (Torino, Italy, 2021); Art: Bengal Now at Dhoomimal Art Gallery (New Delhi, 2020); Anthology of Anecdotes at Ganges Art Gallery (Kolkata, 2019); Kurshi at Sarjan Art Gallery (Baroda, 2019); Blue India at Art Asia Art Fair (South Korea, 2018); Constellations at Bihar Museum (Patna, 2018); Postcards at Busan International Art Fair (South Korea, 2017); and many others.
Prasanta Sahu has been invited as visiting faculty by several universities in India and abroad.
He lives and works in Santiniketan, India.
NS Harsha
(Mysore, 1969) is a versatile contemporary Indian artist. He studied at M.S. University, Baroda, graduating in 1995. His major solo exhibitions include Recent Life at Gallery Chemould (Mumbai, 2020); Gathering Delights at Centre for Heritage, Art and Textile (CHAT) (Hong Kong, 2019); NS Harsha at Victoria Miro (London, 2019); Charming Journey at Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2017); Sprouts, Reach in to Reach out, Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, 2015–16); and many others.
He has participated in Sidney Biennale (Sidney, 2018); Kochi Muziris Biennale (Kochi, 2014); Dojima Biennale (Osaka, 2013); The Yokohama Triennial (Japan, 2011); and many other art biennales, fairs and events. In addition, his work was part of the exhibition Indian Highway that toured to London, Norway, Denmark and Rome.
NS Harsha won the Artes Mundi Prize (2008) and DAAD Scholarship (2012).
He lives and works in Mysore, India.
Mithu Sen
(West Bengal, 1971) is one of the finest contemporary Indian painters, also widely recognised her performance art. She studied painting at Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, graduating in 1995. She also did a one-year postgraduate program at Glasgow School of Art, UK, in 2001. She has been the subject of the solo shows: A ° V O I D, at Galerie Krinzinger (Vienna, 2014); Border Unseen at Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum (Michigan, 2014); Cannibal Lullaby at Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Brussels, 2013); In House Adoption at Galerie Steph (Singapore, 2012); In Transit at Espace Louis Vuitton (Taipei, 2011); Nothing Lost in Translation at Nature Morte (Berlin, 2010); Black Candy, Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai, 2010); and several others in India and abroad.
Her work has been featured in many significant group exhibitions, including On I Site I Entry Now at Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai, 2021); Interpositions: Replaying the Inventory Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) (New Delhi, 2017); Rituals and Reasons: Invoking the Sensual in Art at Apparao Art Galleries (Chennai, 2014); Spell of Spill at Palette Art Gallery (New Delhi, 2013); Peak Shift Effect, Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi, 2013);' The Conscious Stream at Nature Morte (New Delhi, 2012); and many others.
Mithu Sen has shown her work in the major art fairs and biennales and participated in art residencies worldwide. She won the prestigious Skoda Art Prize in 2011, YFLO (FICCI) Young Achievers Award in 2008 and UNESCO Ashburg Scholarship in 2005.
Mithu Sen lives and works in New Delhi, India.
Adip Dutta
(Kolkata, 1970) is an eminent Indian contemporary artist. He studied sculpture at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, graduating in 2000. His major solo shows include Darkling Ground at Experimenter (Kolkata, 2017); Of Cages, Trappings & Pain at Selma Feriani Gallery (London, 2013); and In Pain I Redeem Love at Art Dubai (2012).
His work has been featured in many important group exhibitions, including Nestled: Adip Dutta & Meera Mukherjee at Experimenter (Kolkata, 2019); Shadow Lines: Experiments with Light, Line and Liminality curated at Shrine Empire (Delhi, 2019); Searching for Stars Amongst the Crescents at Experimenter (Kolkata, 2019); Wish to Let You Fall Out of My Hands (Chapter II) at Experimenter (Kolkata, 2018) and Art Dubai (2018); War or Peace at Gallery Kolkata (Kolkata, 2014); Urban Narratives at Espace Louis Vuitton (Tokyo, 2013); and many others.
Adip Dutta was the recipient of the Charles Wallace Scholarship, U.K.
He lives and works in Kolkata, India.
