Art season going strong in American Northeast

Indian artists have been part of the season's showings in New York and Washington D. C.

RAJ S RANGARAJAN

The Fall art season in New York and Washington D.C. has been active with art galleries displaying contemporary Indian artists. As part of the Phillips Collection in the capital, Tamil Nadu's Alwar Balasubramaniam (born 1971) has on display Sk(in) - a two-part sculptural installation - the first, made of steel that suggests tree branches and occupies the Hunter Courtyard, and the second that extends indoors, to engage the 'skin' of the walls connecting the museum's Goh Annex and Sant Building.

Titled Intersections, the artist's creations complement modern and contemporary art practices while activating spaces that were formerly not typical exhibit areas. In short, Balasubramaniam goes beyond the literal brick-and-mortar confines and occasionally infiltrates into another indulgent space, creating in the bargain new relationships with its own surprises.

Balasubramaniam, who has also studied in Edinburg and Vienna, evokes fragmented body parts, familiar objects or organic forms while exploring the limits of perception. He is pushing the envelope - as it were - almost to the point of abstraction. As seen here, the artist's current oeuvre revolves around the concept of transition and transformation. His sculpture fuses intellectual, emotional, and spiritual concerns rooted reportedly in Hinduism and Buddhism.

Lonely Furrow, an exhibition of new paintings at Talwar Gallery, New York by Patna-born Shambhavi Singh explores the artist's homeland themes and moves effortlessly to the tactile medium of cotton pulp, occasionally using palms and fingers to paint vibrant and delicate works. Focusing on the rural landscape and agriculture, the artist empathizes with the solitary farmer, who is inextricably linked to the earth that feeds him in India.

The work seen here forms a poetic narrative that envelopes in intense, rich blues free-painted blue pulp works that evoke forces of nature as the night sky, turbulent clouds, and the infinite cosmos. Her visual reach extends to growth, harvest and the interconnectedness of nature - a visual treat.

Born in 1966, Shambhavi lives and works in Delhi and her works have been exhibited in India, South Africa, Australia, New York and the Netherlands, and in 2010 was Artist-in-Residence at Singapore.

Back in New York, in Part II of Aicon's Progressives on Paper exhibition, Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002), who revelled in being controversial and at times, outrageous, with his not-very-subtle nudes, continues to be popular. His oil-on-board, Christ on Palm Sunday painted in 1956 is seen here.

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(A New York based independent trend writer, Raj S. Rangarajan reports on the art market and auto shows and reviews films for media based in New York; Toronto, Canada; and India.)

RAJ S RANGARAJAN