Invitation
Bio
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IAAC Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora 2013

 
Alkananda Mukerji
Alakananda Mukerji
 
ARTIST STATEMENT
 
I am Alkananda Mukerji, and I grew up on the River Ganges. I have long since left the narrow streets of Benaras where life is awash in a flood of color and a constant stream of souls. Yet however so far I may find myself from those ancient riverbanks, my memory, my art, and indeed my very being -- these are forever caught up in the notion of endless, sacred flow.

People and faces, the surge of sounds, the unfathomably old commingling with the untarnishedly new -- all the rhythms and rhymes of India: this is the wellspring of who I am. I flow from this source, but I have become the river - changing, evolving, flowing. And what flows from me, my painting, it is often a conversation between the me that was and the me that is becoming. Memories, media, materials - bits of canvas, pieces of the past - anything I can get hold of: this is my art. I am the medium. I am the flow.

The subtle tones of Europe, and the soaring spirit of America: these flow in me too, for in these places I was also educated, alongside rivers with strange-sounding names like the Aliákmonas, the Thames, and the Mississippi. These are part of me now and I am part of them. And I am changed, though my wellspring stays the same. For I am a river, and a river is process. Art is process. Life is process.

I work in watercolor. I always found the free-flowing quality of watercolor interesting and ideal for experimentation. At first I thought this was some personal reaction to my source, to my life in Banaras, where everyone and everything is close, where there does not always seem room enough to grow, and where family and friend, and India itself influence one's decisions. I was foolish. Sometimes we do not see what we have already understood. And sometimes we do not understand what we have already perceived. Watercolor was not an escape. Experimentation does not undo who I was. Watercolor is my Ganges. It is my endless, sacred flow. It is who I was but also who I am and who I am becoming. It is my medium. It is me. I am a river. I am the flow.

And I am flowing. My work that you see here today is where I have arrived after years of work. But a river never simply arrives. I am changing, I am still becoming. And we shall all see where the flow takes me next, or where I take myself, or where I allow myself to be taken, for it is all the same.

My name is Alakananda Mukerji, and I live in Manhattan, between the Hudson and the Harlem. My name is Alakananda Mukerji and I grew up on the Ganges. I am an artist. I am a teacher. I work in watercolor. I am a river.
  
BIO
 

Education:

MFA
SUNY, New Paltz, NY, USA

MFA
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

Ph.D., Art History
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

Higher Studies of Art
Greek Ministry of Education Scholarship, Athens, Greece

SHOWS AND MAJOR EXHIBITIONS

2008- The Hammond Museum in North Salem, NY

2009- Dowd Gallery, Cortland, NY

2008- Guild Art Gallery, New York, USA

2007,2008,2009- Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA

2006- Gallery Mai, Tokyo, Japan

2006- Gallery KiKi, Chiba, Japan

2005- IndiaArt Gallery, Pune, India

2004-Village Art Gallery, Katonah, NY, USA

2003-The Artists’ Guild, Fort Lee, NJ, USA

2002-ABC Gallery, Mount Vernon, NY, USA

2002-Meserve Coale Gallery, Greenwich, CT, USA

2000-The Soho Gallery at 678 Broadway, New York, New York

2000-The Darisuz Gubala Gallery of Madison Avenue, New York

1998-National Exhibition of Lalit Kala Academy, Lucknow, India

1999-Passaic County College, Passaic, NJ, USA

2000-The Gallery of Farleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NJ, USA

1997-Birla Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta, India

1996-All India Fine Arts & Crafts Exhibition, Calcutta, India

1994-National Exhibition of Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, India

1992--Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta, India

 
 
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