The Indo-American Arts Council’s
Erasing Borders 2009: Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora
Opens at the Queens Museum of Art on September 13th, 2009

* Sixth Annual Traveling Community Exhibition curated by Vijay Kumar

Opening Reception:  Sunday, September 13th, 2009, 1pm – 4pm
2:00 pm: A conversation between Mary Birmingham and the Artists 
3:00 pm: Music by Amir Elsaffar and Friends
Exhibition Dates:  Sunday, September 13th – Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Venue:  Queen’s Museum of Art, Flushing Meadows Corona Park Queens, NY 11368 
On View: Wednesday - Sunday: 12:00pm - 6:00 pm

New York, NY- September 9th, 2009: The Indo-American Arts Council, (IAAC) is proud to present the Sixth Annual IAAC Erasing Borders 2009: Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora curated by Vijay Kumar. This community group exhibition explores the themes of cultural dislocation, memory, exile and spiritual inheritances implicit in the word; Diaspora. The exhibition comprising of 27 contemporary artists is a mix of painting, drawing and prints, photographs, C-prints, photomontages and videos; sculpture and installation. After successful exhibitions at Dowd Gallery in Cortland, NY and Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York, NY; the show now travels to the Queen’s Museum of Art with an opening reception on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 from 1pm-4pm. The show will then go to the Gallery at Penn College from November 13th - December 13th.

This traveling exhibition explores and draws from the experiences of artists whose origins can be traced to the Indian subcontinent. Cultural dislocation often produces unexpected and profound results; memory collides with exile, culture engages with adaptation to understand the powerful and often disturbing concepts of change and assimilation. The artists confront issues of sexuality, terror, disease and multiple identities to weave together existence in a globalized context while subject matter is often drawn from the country of origin, many of the aesthetic values and political concerns come from the artists' newfound situations. The result deserves a new "ism", a new journey to an old destination.

"Quite a few of the artists--both abstract and figurative--describe their work (or the impetus behind it) in spiritual terms, and many of the works comment directly on environmental and political issues. Khalil Chishtee's figures are made out of plastic bags. Jagdish Prabhu has 'drawn' his figures in soot (carbon), the much maligned but primal substance… (Whose)...’fluidity and etherealness embody the ephemeral nature of existence.’ Pritika Chowdhry's installation titled "What the Body Remembers" is comprised of sculptures’ that investigate the potential of the… fragmented body to invoke collective narratives of trauma’, says, Vijay Kumar, curator of the exhibition.  

The exhibition features works by Niyeti Chadha Kannal, Nandini Chirimar, Khalil Chishtee, Neil Chowdhury, Pritika Chowdhry, Anjali Deshmukh, Anujan Ezhikode, Indira Freitas Johnson, Asha Ganpat, Ina Kaur, Adil Mansuri, Divya Mehra, Samanta Batra Mehta, Indrani Nayar-Gall, Jagdish Prabhu, Antonio Puri, Alka Raghuram, Gautam Rao, Amin Rehman, Tara Sabharwal, Pallavi Sharma, Mumtaz Hussain, Reeta Gidwani Karmarkar, Haresh Lalvani, Alakananda Mukerji, Veru Narula and Prince Varughese Thomas. 

For the 2009 Exhibition Schedule, catalogue and further information, please visit or contact: Amina Ahmed, IAAC Director of Exhibitions: amina@iaac.us 

Exhibition Dates: Erasing Borders 2009 exhibition calendar:
Dowd Gallery: February 27th – April 25th
Crossing Art: April 29th – May 3rd
Asian Contemporary Art Week: May 10th – May 18th
The Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts: August 6th – August 27th
The Queens Museum of Art: September 13th - October 18th
The Gallery at Penn: November 13th – December 13th

Special thanks to the Consulate General of India, NYSCA, DCA, Dowd Gallery, Crossing Art, Elizabeth Foundation For the Arts, Queens Museum of Art, Pennsylvania College of Technology, India Abroad and Rediff.com, and the Navila Group.

About the Indo-American Arts Council:
The is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production,  exhibition, publication and performance of Indian and cross-cultural art forms in North America.  The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding. Our focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from India to exhibit, perform and produce their works here. For more information, please visit

About the Queens Museum of Art:
The Queens Museum of Art was established in 1972 to provide a vital cultural center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the borough's unique, international population. Today, it is home to the Panorama of the City of New York, a 9,335 square foot scale model of the five boroughs, and features temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art that reflect the cultural diversity of Queens, as well as a collection of Tiffany glass from the Neustadt Museum of Tiffany Art. The Museum provides valuable educational outreach through a number of programs geared toward schoolchildren, teens, families, seniors and individuals with physical and mental disabilities.The Museum's hours are: Wednesday - Sunday: 12:00pm - 6:00 pm. Admission to the Museum is by suggested donation: $5 for adults, $2.50 for seniors, students and children, and free for members and children under 5. For more information, please visit general visitor information, please visit www.queensmuseum.org

Directions:
http://www.queensmuseum.org/about/generalinformation/visitinfodirections

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High resolution pictures are available upon request