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Birla Annual Art Exibition , 2008 |
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BESIDES PARIS |
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Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata was founded in 1967 by Shri B.K. Birla, one of the doyens of Indian Industrialists and his wife Dr. (Smt.) Sarala Birla with the basic intention of promoting the visual and performing arts on the one hand and preserving the artistic and cultural heritage of India on the other. The Academy, one of Kolkata’s outstanding tourist attractions, houses an outstanding museum of Indian art that includes artistic and historical objects spaning a period between 2nd Century B.C. to 21st Century A.D. Most of the collections are historically important, aesthetically pleasing and enjoy certain amount of uniqueness. The Academy also undertakes a number of other activities such as workshops, seminars, lectures and cultural programmes. One of the most important activities of this Academy has been to sponsor regularly important and meaningful national and international art exhibitions having contemporary relevance. The idea has been to help local artists and art lovers to aquaint themselves with the contemporary scenario in the field of art both nationally and internationally. Not only the artists but the art lovers of Kolkata react seriously when such exhibitions are organised in the Academy. The present exhibition entitled ‘Besides Paris’ is such an exhibition in which eighteen Indian artists, settled for years in Paris, are participating with their recent compositions. Artists, all over the world always intend to visit Paris, interact with the artists working there and try to get themselves recognized. The Indian artists participating in the exhibition are now active members of contemporary international movements but in the works of a few artists, one still finds clues of their root and their national identity. It is a rare occasion when art lovers of Kolkata are getting an opportunity to see the different experimentations and expressions of Indian artists working in Paris. I strongly believe that the exhibition has enough potentialities to prove itself interesting, exciting and of course, adequately rewarding.
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| Expected From : |
03-Sep-2010 |
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To : |
03-Oct-2010 |
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View Exhibition |
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The 44th Annual Exhibition |
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The 44th Annual Exhibition of Birla Academy of Art & Culture is beginning on the 9th of January , 2011. The long journey of this Academy has not been smooth and it encountered a number of challenging situations on its way but with the blessing of God, the Academy remained unhesitating and steadfast to its declared resolutions. By organizing countless artistic and cultural activities, the Academy evinced its deep concern for India’s cultural heritage on the one hand and on the other it did a lot to honour the immediate present and extended its unfailing support to the cause of contemporary trends in the field of visual art in India.
In the recent past, the Academy sponsored a number of interesting exhibitions in its galleries including ‘ Astonishment of Being’ curated by Deeksha Nath, ‘Shrapnell’ curated by Ranjit Hoskote, “Besides Paris’ curated by Shaheen Merali and ‘Faces in the Dark’ curated by Parnab Mukherjee. With highly thought provoking ideas and messages, these exhibitions also included new approaches to display, incorporated the art of videography and installations and such other contemporary ideas that are being experimented in the field of art today. The artists and art lovers of Kolkata attended largely these exhibitions with avid interest and appreciated very much the organization of such meaningful exhibitions.
Like previous years, this year, the Academy witnessed a phenomenal responses from the Indian artists fraternity to participate in its 44th Annual Exhibition. About 1100 artists from all over India extended their participation. But due to the paucity of space, the Academy accommodated the works of approximately 450 artists only in its five galleries. This huge exhibition is like a feast that awaits discerning eyes. The exhibition lays bare the latest scenario of Indian art practiced in different parts of India.
We have studied the works of art presented in the galleries and found, with great satisfaction, the average standard has been notably satisfactory and a sizable number attained international standard. We must admit that we enjoyed our visit to the galleries thoroughly and we believe that our viewers will enjoy the exhibition equally and return back with pleasing and rewarding experiences.
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| Expected From : |
08-Jan-2011 |
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To : |
29-Jan-2011 |
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LONELINESS OF AN ACTIVIST |
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BIRLA ACADEMY OF ART & CULTURE
Presents
LONELINESS OF AN ACTIVIST: an art-residency exploration with frames, video art, installation and performance
Curated and performance direction: Parnab Mukherjee
Participating artistes: Badal Sircar, Snakes and Ladders-Bangladesh, Rituraj Sapkota, Click
Rights and Nilayan Dutta, Joshy Joseph, Toofan Rafai, Drishya with Baishampayan Saha,
Nachom Academy-Manipur with N.K Surjeet Singh, Saurav Mandal and Dead See Scrolls.
Exhibition Timings: 3pm to 8 pm ( except Mondays )
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| Expected From : |
09-Feb-2011 |
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To : |
19-Feb-2011 |
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View Exhibition |
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Ganesha Ek – Roop Anek |
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The Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata presents an exhibition of fusion art including paintings on parchment and various other specialities by Sunita Tandon of Lucknow. Indian artists made use of parchment much less than desired as a medium of art expression. The parchment art requires deft handling, sufficient acumen and expertise in handling the techniques involved including embossing, stippling, perforating, cutting and colouring. Sunita’s exhibition includes 45 items and her compositions incorporated ideas from Indian regional art like Madhubani and her inspiration also came from the art & craft of Indonesia and Japan. But her major concern has been to project Lord Ganesha and his peculiar iconographyin this medium. It is hoped that she would receive blessings from Lord Ganesha, the god from whom success proceeds and she would also receive from her audience the due recognition which she rightly deserves.
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| Expected From : |
22-Apr-2011 |
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To : |
29-Apr-2011 |
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One Lens: Two Minds |
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One Lens: Two Minds
What connects photographs of these two minds? In one word: texture. In the black and white photographs taken by Shri B.K.Birla, you can see a gentle, personal and nuanced take on moments that we blink and miss. Aryaman Vikram Birla takes a more wide angle sweep. His mountains, waterfalls, sheep, valleys, high-rises, fire: all are steeped in a sense of angularity. A tilt. A drift. There are some deftly carved out angles hidden which make arcs, parabolas and random curved lines.
The photographs that we share with you are not just constructed moments but an instinctive personal take on the world around us. So as you deconstructed the colour in the black-and white frames and the black-and-white in the colours stills…the pictures talk.
They talk to you.
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| Expected From : |
28-Apr-2011 |
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To : |
29-Apr-2011 |
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ODYSSEY - a journey into time with the collection |
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Name of the event : ODYSSEY- a journey into time with the collection
Date of Inauguration : Monday, January 9, 2012 at 6.30 p.m.
Name of the inaugurator : Professor Rajeev Lochan
Director, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
has kindly consented to be the Chief Guest and inaugurate
the exhibition.
Exhibition will be on view till February 12, 2012 (Closed on January 26, 28 and Mondays)
Exhibition Time : 3 to 8 p.m.
Venue : Birla Academy of Art & Culture |
| Expected From : |
09-Jan-2012 |
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To : |
12-Feb-2012 |
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RADIANCE |
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An exhibition of recent works by Kalpana Shah
Curated by
Dr. Saryu Doshi [Art Historian, Research Scholar & Editor]
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| Expected From : |
18-Apr-2012 |
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To : |
06-May-2012 |
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Distant Thunder |
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| Birla Academy of Art & Culture organised an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by a group of twelve motley artists, young and talented, hailing from different states of India. Award winners in their respective area of specialisations, these promising artists worked on a common theme entitled ‘Distant Thunder’. In recent years, a number of terrible natural calamities and human vandalisms brought into being a number of cultural crises in several spheres including in the field of art. The present exhibition lays bare a graphic description of some such crises that had already inflicted upon and also tried its best to warn us to remain concerned for the serious consequences to follow. Therefore, this exhibition attempts to create an awareness about the challenges the humanity facing today but at the same time, it reveals the deep concern among our young artists to save the earth and for safe keeping of our cultural heritage. The compositions in this exhibition appeared to me sufficiently thought provoking, the techniques adopted have been quite fascinating and aesthetically, the compositions are adequately pleasing and rewarding. |
| Expected From : |
10-Aug-2012 |
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To : |
19-Aug-2012 |
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View Exhibition |
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Distant Thunder |
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| Birla Academy of Art & Culture organised an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by a group of twelve motley artists, young and talented, hailing from different states of India. Award winners in their respective area of specialisations, these promising artists worked on a common theme entitled ‘Distant Thunder’. In recent years, a number of terrible natural calamities and human vandalisms brought into being a number of cultural crises in several spheres including in the field of art. The present exhibition lays bare a graphic description of some such crises that had already inflicted upon and also tried its best to warn us to remain concerned for the serious consequences to follow. Therefore, this exhibition attempts to create an awareness about the challenges the humanity facing today but at the same time, it reveals the deep concern among our young artists to save the earth and for safe keeping of our cultural heritage. The compositions in this exhibition appeared to me sufficiently thought provoking, the techniques adopted have been quite fascinating and aesthetically, the compositions are adequately pleasing and rewarding. |
| Expected From : |
10-Aug-2012 |
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To : |
19-Sep-2012 |
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View Exhibition |
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The Indian Parallax or the Doubling of Happiness |
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The Indian Parallax or the Doubling of Happiness: works in two dimension and sculpture towards
the third image – the abstract reality.
The Indian Parallax or the Doubling of Happiness, acts as a gathering of material rather than a tentative curation, allowing a succinct reading of the work by a small group of artists who traverse between the two dimensionality of painting or photography to dense contemporary statements in sculptures. The value of this exercise is to engage a key contemporary pattern and measure its
success, to understand its place in their oeuvre and to start to contemplate artists’ working methods in a different way, not as a mere coincidence or experiment but as a product of the circumstances that might affect national as well as individual innovations and skill bases.
A further interesting relationship between two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality is, of course, of great importance when we understand the ability to manoeuvre the imaginary and the subjective as consolidated materials, in space and as a concept. The final and potentially unrecorded aspect of the curatorial concern is to further contribute to the continuing relationship of the contemporary to tradition and traditionalism, even when the traditional is regarded as the recent Modern, acting as the unbroken or undisturbed visual culture of India.
Towards abstracting a reality
In reading a recent press release for her exhibition, the Canadian artist, Jenna Crook, described her work as ‘abstract reality’, which I found to be an interesting combination of two of Art’s major, but separate, movements.
She came to use this rubric term from her understanding that, “When people look at an image, they never see just one thing. Instantly, our brain will start to relate and connect that image to a whole mess of other things – things that often seem unrelated – but if there is a slight connection, the mind will find it. Sometimes, the thing that actually connects the two is their complete disconnect. This is how we understand everything; things make sense only in relation to other things, nothing exists solely by itself” – just as some stories are made of fragments from other stories.
This exhibition, The Indian Parallax or the Doubling of Happiness, proposes working through how Crook
describes the way we come to an understanding through an abstract reality; as a process of seeing from what we sometimes recognise as looking from within, a slight connection maybe between two spaces occupied by the same idea. This concept I have found helpful in consolidating the possibilities of formulating a space in which to contemplate contemporary art from India, which remains geographically and culturally imaged, in its concerns and particularities (arguably also in much of its formalisation) but which has a language that transcends boundaries and is successfully applied to destination cultures.
The exhibition starts by a playful reconfiguration that analyses the visual tropes, which play a large part in the construction of contemporary lifestyles in India, evidently remaining central to its religious mediations and further afield, including traces of this preoccupation when found in architectural geometries. Architecture is often bracketed within the traditional, partly due to the fact that the traditional knowledge of architectural heritage.is often viewed as sacred in the public sphere. It is, however, important to relate to the role of design in the production of the contemporary. Architecture and the construction of spaces chronicle the often unheeded.
Here, in the exhibition, it is presented as a framing consolidation between ideas and the attitude, which has often allowed an alternative central space within the making or reading of a contemporary India as a new subjectivity.The flowing walls and low plinths, constructed like a disciplined path and a simplified return, accommodate then sensory response to an unfolding discourse.
Of course, a further clear indicator of traditions’ continuity can be assumed in the use of traditional craftspeople in the assembling of work by some artists, but we should at this point undertake a more complex resolution about the way the work evokes and surmises the ontological relationship to a shared database of images and a sense of the hyphenated-vernacularity of values associated to them as heritage and a historical space.
Arguably this relationship to the traditional can be considered by examining beyond the making, in that much which is represented as subject matter still relies heavily on realism within a political space, predominantly in the secularisation and modernisation of India’s post-independence goals and struggles. The subaltern features heavily within the contemporary’s pointed questions.
This exhibition will collate works that explore these themes though the specific selection of the artist as well as in the way the artists make work in the dual languages of picture-making, 2D and sculptural 3D formulations; |
| Expected From : |
30-Nov-2012 |
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To : |
23-Dec-2012 |
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View Exhibition |
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46th Annual Exhibition 2013 |
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Name of the event : 46th Annual Exhibition 2013
Date of Inauguration : 9th January, 2013 at 6 p.m.
Name of the inaugurator : Heidi Fichtner, Independent Curator and Art Critic
has kindly consented to inaugurate the exhibition
Exhibition will be on view : Till 3rd February, 2013
(closed on 23rd, 26th January and Mondays)
Exhibition Time : 3 to 8 p.m.
Venue : Birla Academy
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| Expected From : |
09-Jan-2013 |
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To : |
03-Feb-2013 |
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View Exhibition |
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