GALLERY ESPACE presents ‘LO REAL MARAVILLOSO:MARVELOUS REALITY'

Come December and Delhi will witness an art event so grand in scale and extraordinary in concept that it's bound to redefine the scope of visual arts. Blurring the defining lines between real and unreal, Gallery Espace chooses famous German art critic Franz Roh's depiction of reality in art as the theme for its 20th anniversary celebration event titled Lo Real Maravilloso: Marvelous Reality to be held at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi from December 9-18, 2009.

Hosted by Renu Modi (Director, Gallery Espace), curated by Sunil Mehra & show designed by Mark Prime, Lo Real Maravilloso: Marvelous Reality is rooted in the theme of magic realism and draws inspiration from sources as diverse as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Laura Esquivel, Salman Rushdie, Joanne Harrism, Mikhail Bulgakov, Milan Kundera and Louis de Bernieres and includes in its gamut video art, painting, photography, site-specific installations and sculpture.

Thirty-six artists from all over the world - including painters, sculptors, video artists and photographers - set out to discover a magical world in which the real and the imagined, the mythical and the metaphorical, fact and fantasy merge seamlessly together. In the process, they create an extraordinary "Other World", that Louis Carroll once evoked so beautifully in - "And what did they draw?" said Alice.

"Treacle... All manner of things- everything that begins with an M -... such as mousetraps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness...."

The exhibition include works by Amit Ambalal, Anandajit Ray, Anila Rubiku, Bandeep Singh, Baptist Coelho, Barbara Ellmerer, Bharti Kher, Bhupen Khakhar, Chintan Upadhyay, Desmond Lazaro, Dhruvi Acharya, Ebenezer Sunder Singh, Gargi Raina, Gigi Scaria, Iranna GR, Ishan Tankha, Jagannath Panda, Lavanya Mani, Louise Gardiner, Manjunath Kamath, Maxine Henryson, Michael Müller, Nikhil Chopra, Parvaneh Etemadi, Pushpamala N, Ranbir Kaleka, Rina Banerjee, S. D. Hari Prasad Achari, Sheba Chhachhi, Shilpa Gupta, Sohrab Hura, Sonia Mehra Chawla, Sutapa Biswas, Tanmoy Samanta, Tara Sabharwal and Waswo X. Waswo.

Renu Modi, Director, Gallery Espace says: "Since the time the gallery started in 1989, our USP has always been to put together highly specialized, medium based shows. Time and again, Espace has cut across boundaries by exhibiting works of different nationalities, genders and cultures. Espace has always treaded the unconventional path and introduced to the Indian art market new genres like sculptures and drawings when they were relatively unknown mediums. It is apt, therefore, that Magic Realism is the theme of our 20th anniversary show and I am excited to show such a wide array of disciplines all under one roof."

According to curator Sunil Mehra: "There seemed no room left for romance and imagination, for myth, memory and metaphor in art. Somewhere in the process of chasing concepts and making art that conforms to current fashionable cultural theorists' constructs, we are losing out the critical ingredient of art, which is Magic, which is the untrammeled mind that inhabits multiple universes at the same time."

Brief Summary on the participating artists' works:-

• AMIT AMBALAL (INDIA) - His paintings Pan India, Chandra Chor and Cheat Chor are influenced by his recent trips to South East Asia- particularly Bali.

• ANILA RUBIKU (ITALY) - Her installation Houses of the rising sun consist of 30 small house sculptures that celebrates domestic life while her paintings Daily Life, Being Afraid and Wishing the telephone rings are based on the mundane rituals of daily life.

• BANDEEP SINGH (INDIA) - His photographs range from documentary photography, conceptual landscape and nature studies to portraiture and eroticism. The photographs Mythical Bull, The Pot Bearer, Untitled 10 & Untitled 15 are deeply influenced by his cultural leanings and deep interest in mysticism, Sufi poetry and music.

• BARBARA ELLMERER (ZURICH) - Her oil paintings Boy girl, Irene, Indian Bride and Tabea under the title Rainbow Vision series is about the hypnopompic (the state of consciousness leading out of sleep).

• BHARTI KHER (INDIA) - Her sculpture Warrior with cloak and shield portrays the domestic space that can be viewed as a place fraught with negotiations of emotions and placement.

• DESMOND LAZARO (INDIA) - His paintings Promenade I, II & III have been created in traditional pichhvai (a traditional technique of Indian miniature painting).

• DHRUVI ACHARYA (INDIA) - The paintings Mumbai City, Attack II, Crowd II, Elephanta II, Hump, Loadbearer, Morphosis I & II focuses on the current world environment - on pollution, violence and discord.

• EBENEZER SUNDER SINGH (INDIA) - His photograph Narshimha Avatar depicts the slaying of the demon king Hiranyakashipu by Vishnu.

• LOUISE GARDINER (UK) - For her seven embroidery works, she has created figurative and floral artwork using a combination of rhythmic drawing, intense and intricate free machine stitches, paints, appliqué and inks.

• MAXINE HENRYSON (USA) - Her photographs Table Set, Early Morning Light, Ghetto's Gate, Dancer against cave wall, Two People, Monk Emerging and Marlene Dumas Exhibit use simple and archetypal characters like clotheslines, women, children, temples, gardens, vessels, bedspreads etc.

• MICHAEL MÜLLER (BERLIN AND J&K, INDIA) - He will be displaying three paper works titled Hellsehen Selbstaufnahme von Rangoon (Fortune teller), Science Fiction (Sakura) and Nordziege.

• NIKHIL CHOPRA (INDIA) - The character in his two photographs under the titled Untitled - From the series Yog Raj Chitrakar: Memory Drawing II and a video film titled Sir Raja III is loosely based on the artist's grandfather, Yog Raj Chopra, a landscape painter.

• PARVANEH ETEMADI (IRAN) - Her nine collages under the title Untitled are loosely based on late Manjit Bawa's artworks.

• PUSHPAMALA N (INDIA) - Her photographs The Pond, Flight and The Cloud Battle under Apaharana (Abduction) series is about a Rakshasa (demon) abducting a princess. The drama takes place in mist and billowing cloud in a far away time and the magical pond reflects the pensive heroine.

• RANBIR KALEKA (INDIA) - His sculpture suggests multiple metaphors like self-reflexivity, the ancient Ouroboros symbol of Serpent swallowing its own tail, the failure of systems etc.

• SHILPA GUPTA (INDIA) - Her interactive video projection Shadow 2 has been created using interactive video, websites, objects, photographs, sound and public performances to probe and examine themes as desire, religion, and notions of security on the street and on the imagined border.

• SOHRAB HURA (INDIA) - His collage of twenty three photographs titled Oasis is about his visit to the red light area of Siem Reap, Cambodia.

• SUTAPA BISWAS (UK) - Her film Birdsong is based on a conversation between her son and herself, who at eighteen months had expressed his desire to have a horse living in their living room! Her paintings include Night Sky-Dark Sky and Storm.

• TARA SABHARWAL (INDIA) - Her ten paintings in watercolour on paper stem from the time/reality flux as well as the collective unconscious where dreams, memory, imagination, myth and culture overlap and co-exist. Her paintings include Pleasures of rootlessness, pause; Pleasures of rootlessness, balance; Behind the scene; Treehouse, barsati; Changeling; Childhood home with roots; Choices; Night beast; Mythical; Mountain snake; Red hair and Birdwaters

• WASWO X. WASWO (INDIA) - Under the title All I Want, he shows video and hand-painted black and white digital photographs.

Some other works which will be on display are Stye by Anandajit Ray; Re (Wind) by Baptist Coelho; He watered the banyan tree on his head which became fruit bearing after four years, After Mohanlal, His brother also has black teeth, In a small village of Kheda a farmer bought a papaya 7ft x 10ft to a competition. He won the first prize, Jiwanlal decided to misbehave by throwing utensils in the kitchen, My heart bleeds as I chant her name day & night and When she smiled real pearls came out of her mouth. When he spoke black stones came out of his mouth by late Bhupen Khakhar are all from private collections; Catastrophic Collabra by Chintan Upadhyay; Water & Question and answers by Gargi Raina; Political Realism by Gigi Scaria; Performing Art I & II by GR Iranna; Superhero Junkyard & Superhero Junkyard 2 by Ishan Tankha; Democracy in the Neighborhood - I (Private Collection) and The Invisible Man 1 by Jagannath Panda; Second hand car goes to heaven and How come he is here by Manjunath Kamath; In the canopy of the stars life was made. Between flora and fauna our DNA was sent. Now Life and Death too shall mate and make haste to split thrice the mice in our DNA that nibbles at life to make death by Rina Banerjee; My Fish by SD Hari Prasad Achari; Some roots grow upwards I, II & III by Sonia Mehra Chawla; The Wings, Vessel, Hello Love, The Ivory Comb, The Red Sofa, Lost Sanctuary, Armour & The Beast by Tanmoy Samanta.

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