2011
Metonymical Subtext
Solo show by Jaideep Mehrotra
Tao Art Gallery is pleased to present "Metonymical Subtext", a solo exhibition of recent works of Jaideep Mehrotra!
Jaideep’s paintings combine an aesthetic relation, between the painted canvas and the textual overlay. from this unique fusing of the two layers emerges an intriguing culmination which is rich in visual portrayal and intense in intellectual ideology The composition of the painted with the printed provides a framework within which the juxtapositioning of the contrasting media correlate on different significant levels.
A pioneer of the digital medium in India as an at form. laideep has continually pushed the conceptual thresholds of his visual language in order to integrate different elements in his works - the historical with the contemporary, the traditional with the modern.
"Metonymical Subtext" is a culmination of 3 years of investigating how perception and meaning are altered by shifting of traditional parameters. The result of which is the present set of works which have been maneuvered away from conforming to the orthodox approaches and perceptions.
One of our finest mid-career artists, Jaideep Mehrotra has been a significant presence in the Indian art world for the past 4 decades. Starting his artistic career at a young age of 13. Jaideep works across mediums like Oil, Acrylic, cast resin sculptures, gidee prints, site specific installations and video art. Included in his 22 solo exhibitions, some prominent ones are "Shadow Play", Singapore 2005" Alchemy of Play", Dubai 2006, Transmogrification of a City", Mumbai 2007 & "Growing Panes in Solitude, New Delhi 2009. He has widely participated in many significant group exhibitions and workshops in India and abroad and his powerful works are part of prestigious art collections around the world.
(Thursday, December 1 to Sunday, December 25)
Parallel
Solo show by Payal Khandwala
For almost four decades, my connection to art has been that of an admirer turned lover turned collector. I never "'invested' in art. Therefore neither can I evaluate it nor criticise it, so I will refrain from manufacturing an endless interpretation of Payal's work.
As her friend, (all good friends automatically become guides and philosophers for each other) I choose to talk about the artist rather than her work. If art is a 'surplus emotion', according to Rabindranath Tagore, then Payal is a prolific artist! If one goes by the 'quantum' of work, then she has been almost unseen in recent years!
Asked why she wasn't painting since the past couple of years, she says, "I was producing a child and isn't that the most creative thing a woman can do? Why do I have to paint in the same period?" Now that Kalpana Shah at Tao has managed to convince her to resume, she takes it so seriously that she commissions me to make her an art studio in Alibag and lives there for months on end with her daughter Mira. So for Payal, artistry is in her own being. She does everything from her strong aesthetic base.
While many architects and interior designers work out of chaotic uninspiring places and many a fashion designer covers his or her own body in clothes completely different from what he or she may design, Payal works, wears, lives her art continuously. In frying to find her spiritual balance belween her polarities she "ying yangs" belween her dynamic figurative drawings and her quiet minimal abstracts. Both express her equally. Since art is a direct communication between the artist and the viewer I can only introduce you to Payal. Through her work she can engage with you in your own dialogue.
(Saturday, November 5 to Saturday, November 26)
Shesh Lekha
A collection of limited edition prints of watercolors by Paresh Maity and calligraphic renderings of poems by Pritish Nandy
(Wednesday, October 26)
Tiger! Tiger!
Solo show by Nabibakhsh Mansoori
Save the tiger!
(Saturday, September 24 to Saturday, October 8)
