Invitation
Bio
Artwork
 
 

IAAC Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora 2014

 
Rahul Mehra
Rahul-Mehra
 

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Advertising in the Indian context means different things to different people. Icons of industry and business have product placement a necessity. But some have transcended in such a wide manner from one generation to the next that they almost seem an essential part of our daily lives.

My early work in advertising and copy writing with LINTAS and Mudra Communications in New Delhi brought me in sync with some of these seemingly everlasting images. We live and breathe the messages they impart and look at them through our inner mind with such regularity that it has left an unshakeable imprint on our psyche.

Yes, products do evolve and so does the variety of images we befriend, but the process with each is the similar. Each has a compelling story within a story to tell. We as consumers take our tentative steps towards them with a desire to own, but it is they who end up owning us.


  
BIO
Rahul was born in New Delhi and educated in Zambia, India, the UK and the US. Art has always been his passion since early years and Rahul is enamored by the vibrancy of colors and pigments that abound from the Indian subcontinent. The reds and vermilions juxtaposed between the ochre and the yellow with the blue, his works are deeply connected to themes found in Indian mythology and the social milieu of the subcontinent. His interest lies in Contemporary Indian Modern Art with themes from the wide canvas of Indian mythology, history and also the art of storytelling through classical dance forms of the subcontinent and also through modern media of advertising and communication.

He has experimented with various mediums along the way, and besides the color, background stories and events also play a dominant role in his work. Rahul's influences are later period works of S.H. Raza, Manjit Bawa and Jatin Das who were prominent fixtures in the New Delhi Art scene where he grew up. Meeting with them while studying at Delhi University Rahul was connected to their path breaking symbolic and figurative work, which inspired him to create his own method sub texted with a ligne claire style. His paintings are in private collections in the US and India. He currently lives in New York working on his compilations.
 
Exhibitions
  • Chapman Gallery, Iona College, NY
  • Erasing Borders Indo American Arts Council, New York
  • Crossing Art, Queens, New York
  • Talk on Contemporary Indian Modern Art, School for the Arts, Bronx, New York
  • School for the Arts, Bronx, New York
  • Art6, Richmond, Virginia
  • Rye Arts Center, Rye, New York
  • Avalon, Bronxville, New York
  • Hindu Collage, Delhi University, Delhi
 
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