| IAAC Erasing Borders Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora |
| Description of Exhibition: The Indo-American Arts Council’s 7th Annual Erasing Borders Exhibition of Contemporary Indian art of the Diaspora features work by 25 artists whose origins can be traced to the Indian subcontinent. This group of multinational and intergenerational artists, chosen by Vijay Kumar, reflects a broad range of life experiences and aesthetic values. The artists interpret diverse subject matter—figurative, abstract and conceptual—in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, sculpture and installation. The resulting works often meld Indian and Western ideas about color, form and subject. Twenty million people of Indian origin shifted countries in the 20th and 21st centuries. Implicit in the term Diaspora are the concepts of change and adaptation. Cultural dislocation can produce unexpected and powerful results. Subject matter is often drawn from the country of origin, while many of the artistic decisions and political concerns come from the artists’ newfound situations. Artists of the South Asian Diaspora are working to make themselves heard in an art world that is at once more competitive and more receptive to non-Western art than ever before. This exhibition seeks to transcend the borders that confine and control preconceived definitions of Indian and Western art. The exhibition features work by Jeet Aulakh, Samanta Batra Mehta, Nandini Chirimar, Ruby Chishti, Pritika Chowdhry, Neil Chowdhury, Erum Chughtai, Anujan Ezhikode, Reeta Gidwani- Karmarkar, Nidhi Jalan, Shaurya Kumar, Haresh Lalvani, Obaidullah Mamoon, Chetan Mangat, Urmila Mohan, Avani Patel, Roy-Bari Pinku, Talha Rathore, Rasika Reddy, Satyakam Saha, Sheena Sood, Anjali Srinivasan, Roshani Thakore, and Yetish Yetish. The renowned Indian artist Krishna Reddy will be included as a guest artist to the exhibition. One of the foremost printmakers in the world, Reddy has been the subject of over 200 exhibitions worldwide. His work is in more than 250 international museum and major private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the British Museum, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery and the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; the Albertina Museum, Vienna; and the Art Institute of Chicago. Reddy is Professor Emeritus in Art at New York University. Curators Bio: Vijay Kumar has curated all the annual Erasing Borders exhibitions bar one. Vijay studied art at Triveni Kala Sangam in New Delhi, and at Pratt Graphics Center in NYC. He has showcased his drawings, prints and paintings in the U.S. and abroad. Vijay has worked extensively in printmaking techniques and currently teaches etching at Manhattan Graphics Center in NYC, where he was a founding member. His work is featured in many permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the New York Public Library (all in NYC), the William Benton Museum of Art in Storrs, Connecticut, the National Gallery of Art in New Delhi, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK. In 2002, his work received the highest prize in an exhibition of prints by the Royal Society or Painters and Printmakers in London. Participating Artists’ bios and images of their artwork: Jeet Aulakh Samanta Batra Mehta Nandini Chirimar Ruby Chishti Pritika Chowdhry Neil Chowdhury Erum Chughtai Anujan Ezhikode Reeta Gidwani Karmarkar Nidhi Jalan Shaurya Kumar Haresh Lalvani Obaidullah Mamoon Chetan Mangat Urmila Mohan Avani Patel Pinku Roy-Bari Talha Rathore Satyakam Saha Sheena Sood Anjali Srinivasan Roshani Thakore Yetish Yetish |