Contemporary Art and Artists

Public Art Project on Global Warming started from bhubaneswar orissa India

Ashok Art Gallery launches its most awaited Public Art Project on Global Warming As said, the major cause of global warming is the emission of green house gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide etc into the atmosphere. Gasoline Causing Global WarmingThe major source of carbon dioxide is the power plants. These power plants emit large amounts of carbon dioxide produced from burning of fossil fuels for the purpose of electricity generation. About twenty percent of carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere comes from burning of gasoline in the engines of the vehicles. This is true for most of the developed countries. Buildings, both commercial and residential represent a larger source of global warming pollution than cars and trucks.Building of these structures require a lot of fuel to be burnt which emits a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Methane is more than 20 times as effectual as CO2 at entrapping heat in the atmosphere. Methane is obtained from resources such as rice paddies, bovine flatulence, bacteria in bogs and fossil fuel manufacture. When fields are flooded, anaerobic situation build up and the organic matter in the soil decays, releasing methane to the atmosphere. The main sources of nitrous oxide include nylon and nitric acid production, cars with catalytic converters, the use of fertilizers in agriculture and the burning of organic matter. Another cause of global warming is deforestation that is caused by cutting and burning of forests for the purpose of residence and industrialization.
SABDA-RUPA, the seven dimensionsan exhibition of Drawings, Paintings, Digitals and Installations by artists of Ashok Art Gallery, Delhi and seven members of Coffie House Creative Corner, Old Bus Stand, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India on 3rd May 2009 at mostly crowded Old Bus Stand Area, Bhubaneswar curatted by Ashok Nayak and artists participated baladev moharatha(chitradev), kantakishore moharana, manas moharana, somanath raut, smruti sai mishra and six members of CHCC including its secretary Suresh Balabantaray who are professional writers but expressed their feelings in form of paintings drawings and digitals. Coffee House Creative Corner was initiated with the slogan " all creativity rolled in to one ". It is not only the literary creations but the visual creations and the preforming creations has intermingled here to cater the readers and viewers. This time seven members are participating in Ashok Art Gallery, Delhi's Public Art Project, " SABDA-RUPA the seven dimentions, it is an open air public art exhibition on global warming and all the artists are expressing their feeling on its cause, effect and prevention. This exhibition is planning to be held at most crowded old bus stand area of capital city Bhubaneswar, Orissa India. It is a noble effort jointly by Ashok Art Gallery, Delhi and Coffee House Creative Corner, Old Bus Stand, Bhubaneswar, Orissa to aware public and serve the globe, Mr. Balabantaray said.
This Public Art project has some intresting displays like Kanta Kishore's Fibre made cow eating clothes symbolised the unatural behaviour which tends to the cause of global warming , Manas Moharana's reverse umbrella downed by a fress youthful plant which has given message as prevention of global warming causing by deforestations, while Smruti Sai Mishra's installation of tolls used for making buildings with garbage indicates the rapid urbanization which has a major role in global warming and most intrestingly Somanath Raut's a prime head placed on top of gathered chairs shows how we are running behind comfort without thinking about society. This show was innugurated by senior most oriya jurnalist Mr. Dandapani Mishra where senior artist Asim Basu and eminent writer Das Benhur were guest of honour.

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists. Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi

Tradition Transition, An International Art Exhibition in India

Orissa is a land of multiple cultures ranging from folk to tradition to music and dance forms and many more. The visual art has been strong at the traditional level while modern contemporary art is striving for a place in cultural space. The fact that Orissa has two recognized art colleges with valuable exponents but due to the misplaced understanding at the local level, the entire environment is affected. The contemporary artists have taken their stand to propagate artistic issues since long, at least for last fifty years. But the expositions are limited to the artists rather than getting closer to the social community. The problem seems to be lying with the communicating values. The state non-cooperation and their limitations to foresee the present and future of the arts have taken disseminating position. Blame game is a strong culture that persists in the sphere by choice or otherwise. While taking stock of the matter, it seems as if one is addressing the politics in art. That is very much by chance, while the fact is no one would like to project a negative perspective of the communication, at least in a time when information technology has taken over the virtual space of interaction and art has become a substantial part of it. Well the artists have been trying to cap issues that are very much relevant and social. The present artists have somehow tried to create a positive feeling by coming together on singular platform to present their art with concern.

Art unfolds and the artists are approaching new avenues to interact. This time its the turn of many young and dynamic artists pulled together to exhibit in the Rashtriya Lalit Kala Kendra, Bhubaneswar. The group show was organized by the Ashok Art gallery (an International art gallery) operating from New Delhi promoting the art and artists. This is for the first time the young and budding artists and people of Orissa are privileged to view few international artists like Ruth Olivar Millan (USA) Thea Walstra (The Nederlands) Amna Ilyas (Pakistan). The show was scheduled between 27th February and 5th March 2009. Many artists those including the Orissan Master Chandrasekhar Rao, Baladev Moharatha, young reputed artists like Jagannath Panda Pratul Dash, Ramakanta Samantaray, Adwaita Gadanayak, Sitikanta Pattnaik, Pradosh Swain, Subash Pujhari, Manas Ranjan Jena and several others. Among the national artists are Dharmendra Rathore, Hukumlal Verma, Ramesh Tardal , Vinod Manwani, Indu Tripathy, Sanjoy Bose those have placed themselves in the global platform also joined the show.

For last couple of months the art scene of Orissa seems to have upgraded its activities to keep pace with the time and need. City’s art calendar has seldom been so active.Several exhibitions, Film Shows, camps and symposiums have been organised up to update the young artists with the latest global developments. This exposition truly reflected the global ideology while representing the local. This can mean one thing. Bhubaneswar is fast growing as a metropolis, said Minati Singh of TOI. The signs are quite clear and the trend of the art market has been growing over the past few year. A good number of artists and art aficionado have got into a habit of visiting art galleries have also come up to hold exhibitions in the city with an aim to popularizes love for art and create an art market. The rationale behind these exhibitions is to bring the potential of these local artists under one roof, alongside some of the noted artists of the state. This exhibition will help market the works of these small-time artists. Speaking about the camps, Ashok Nayak from New-Delhi based Ashok Art Gallery says, “earlier art camps were organized only by Lalit Kala Akademi. Since the AKademi has its own limitation, other organisations have started top take initiative to place the artists under one roof through camps and other similar events”.

The gallery organized this international exhibition of more than a hundred art works by eighty four artists comprising of paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and installations here on Friday at the Lalit Kala Akademi. “There is demand for genuine artworks and the buyers are choosing to invest in art. They are searching for fresh venues to explore the right art and therefore, we must organize regular art shows, camps and exhibitions so that chances are created for the better selection,” Mr. Nayak said. In this exhibition, he added, “we brought artists both renowned and aspiring, from all over the world so that the creative gap is lessened. Most of these have dealt with issues of major political and social concerns. Adding to the flavor of the exhibition the corporate houses have offered their patronage to the event. “Patronage is essential to the growth of art. Now the time has come when the government should invest in the growth of public art and earmark some fund for it. A growing city like Bhubaneswar has all essential facilities for it. The corporate houses and other private sector should join hand to make the difference feel to the citizens of this city”, said Ashok. Kanta Kishore Moharana, another artist said,” I am not worried about selling my sculptures. I want people to just come and have look at my creations so that they get a feel of them. The new trend has come up these days to combine sculptures with other from of art in a single item. So I tried to mingle them with my sculpture.”

“Art has never known boundaries. It just captures viewer’s attention through colours, images and expressions, each work saying something different and important. The mystique nature of contemporary art comes alive in the work of Nederland based artist Thea Walstra’s brush work on canvas showing a looped bright light in vermillion shades as in Sajal Patra’s acrylic work where a woman stands in front of a locked door. Pratul Dash’s water cololur on paper brilliantly brings out a scene of crowd while Tapan Dash has used dry pastel on paper to produce a thought provoking face. Sculptor Biswaranjan Kar has shown his efficiency in painting, again based on his continuing work on Olive Ridley turtles”, a city based Art Critic Namita Panda said.

Exhibited at the international art exhibition of painting, drawing, sculptures, photographs, and installations these paintings stood alongside almost a hundred more of similar brilliance artists like Amna Ilyas from Pakistan, Ruth Olivar Millan, Adwaita Gadnayak, Gauranga Bariki, Sitikanta Patnaik, Jagannath Panda, Pratul Dash, Tapan Dash, Gadadhar Ojha and growing ones like Pratap Jena, Ajay Mohanty, Somanath Raut, Manas Moharana, Subash Pujhari and Kanta Kishore Moharana.

The art tradition in Orissa is so very strong that artists adapt the visual elements with subtle changes to suit contemporary makeover. In the case of Ajay Mohanty, one could easily consider these remains. They have emerged with subtle aesthetic layers with focus on the compositional patter. Stylistically different though but the gestures and colour have strong reference points. The only deviation perhaps is that of the space treatment and that make it visual strong and appealing. The present form of Anup has travelled long beyond Bihania and the transformation has remarkably shown up. The synchronization of the butterfly, the mystery and the illusory impact of the veil underlines the invisible face with intelligent symbolic. Gadadhar Ojha's Sans Titre holds the clue to the textural adventure and the space arrangement. The marble images refer to the Indian concept of bindu and vistara, a concept that deal with the centre and the periphery. The coordination that necessarily speak of the relationship in interface: the globe and the India, the local and global and its likes. Hukumlal Verma's image is a simple play of colours and its definition in overlapping pattern.

Indian contemporary art has now started evolving new paradigms and several artists have been relocating themselves in the present context. The boundaries of the mediums are intelligently merged and meaningfully redefined to engage in artistic creativity. Emotion and expression are charged with intellectual input into and outside the civilisational aspect. Jagannath Panda is such an artist who has overcome the restraint of time and space with the medium. Environment and human relationship gets attached to the expressive medium. The overlapping planes represent timeless narrative with the man calculating the journey through its triangular device locating its existence. It seems to be an endless calculation in the background. The triangle shows the past , present and future coinciding to the three angles and the human race to achieve all in one go, finally failing to synchronise the ends. The compartment below derives the sky and its relational value to the upper segment. Pratul has sensitively arranged a human-scape with photo-dynamic. The composition seem to have a sense of social congregation. He might be nostalgic with the terror strikes in Mumbai and initiates the unique oneness of the subcontinent. Tapan continues to draw with his mask(y) faces with layers of personality hidden within one self. This reality has surfaced with the racial competition to win over the world, every one individual trying to over do the other and justify the presence. This could also hint at a psychological value of human existence. Pradosh Swain has semantically drawn the earth through the bird image; upper part of the image beautifully interprets the sky with the runway at the background merging to the vistas, while the lower part reflects the dry land beginning to beg its fate looking at the past (which might have just saved its life). It is a sensitively created piece referring to the misbalance caused by human to nature.

Ruth is different and direct, creating a equilibrium between form and affection, of desire and achievement. The simple expression of the child and the mother is derived from life and diligently put forward on the canvas. And Shekh Hifzul is narrative in his form and composition, decorating the image with subtle rendering of designs and trying out mythical representation with a wing (?). In this couple, male has the wings of desire and freedom remaining at the upper band while the female share its presence delicately supporting the figure. Thea Walstra speaks about the laser interactive rays those radiate to unite and spread around like dvani (sound), glowing into the cosmic sphere merging into the air and bringing back the sound to the ears, with the same transparency and layers.

There has been huge footfall and the viewership has widened to family people and youngsters too now. In fact many of the displayed works were bought as well. The weeklong exhibition that concluded on 5th March 2009 also included a work by the immortal art guru Chandrasekhar Rao and present master Baladev Moharatha. Though too huge for a viewer to absorb all the creations properly, almost every form of the art was present at Lalit Kala Akademi Regional Centre. One could easily find his interest as a number of subjects like environment, nature, society, beauty, spirituality, culture, and many more were included in various media like metal, wood, marble, fibre, rock in sculpture and pastel, acrylic, mixed media, water colour, graphic in paintings. This exhibition is a venture projecting the insider and the outsider to and from the subcontinent and more so in Orissa it would definitely make sense as they all bring different vocabulary on one platform. Ashok Art Gallery has done this in Delhi before and now presenting this to the Orissa audience, and hopefully they will cater to the creative desire of the young state art forum. What we need is reasonable spirit and appreciation of the art situation today, because we live in the present and need to keep pace with time. More such exhibitions will expose us to the global happenings. This first exhibition of its kind will definitely work as a catalyst for future.

Dr Pradosh Mishra (Art Historian)
Associate Proffesor, BHU

International Art Exhibition in India, Drawings Paintings Sculptures Prints Photographs and Installations

This exhibition is an international art exhibition including art works from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India. Exhibition will show more than 100 works of 84 artists.

Adwaita Gadanayak,Ajay Mohanty,Amna Ilyas(Pakistan),Anjan Sahoo,Anup Kumar Chand,Anusuya Chakroborty,Aparnna Ray,Arun Kumar Jena,Ashok Nayak,Baladev Moharatha,Biswaranjan Kar,Chatrapati Biswal,Dayal Saw,Debashish Chakroborty,Debasish Mishra,Deepak Harichandan,Dharmendra Rathore,Dillip Kumar Tripathy,Dr. Sanjay Acharya,Gadadhar Ojha,Gajendra Padhi,Gajendra Prasad Sahu,Gautam Sahu,Gopal Samantray,Helen Brahma,Hukumlal Verma,Indu Tripathy,Jagannath Panda,Jagatret Dash,Jayant Das,Jiten Sahu,Kalyan Barik,Kanta Kishore Moharana,Kashinath Jena,Kirti Kishore Moharana,Lalata Kishore Pradhan,M. Sovan Kumar,Manas Maharana,Manas Pattnaik,Manoj Mohanty,Meenaketan Pattnaik,Niroj Satpathy,Nityanada Ojha,P. Bujinga Rao,Prabir Dalai,Pradeep Nayak,Pradosh Swain,Prajesh Mohapatra,Pratap Jena,Pratul Dash,Pritam Priyalochan,Purna Behera,Rakesh Ratan Nath,Ramahari Jena,Ramakanta Samantray,Ramesh Terdal,Ranjan Moharana,Ruth Oliver Millan(USA),Sajal Patra,Sangita Mohapatra,Sangram Moharana,Sanjay Bose,Sanjay Pattnaik,Santosh Routray,Satyabhama Majhi,Satyabrata Das,Satyajit Das,Seikh Hifzul,Siba Prasad Patri,Siba Prasad Sahu,Sitikant Pattnaik(tutu),Smrutisai Mishra,Somanath rout,Subra Chand,Subrat Mullick,Sujit Mallik,Sunil Bindhani,Tapan Dash,Tapan Moharana,Thea Walstra(Nederlands),Trakant Parida,Veejayant Dash,Vinod Manwani

Special Preview will be on 26th at Orissa Modern Art Gallery from 2 PM to 8 PM

The exhibition will be inaugurated by the Oriya Film Legend,Painter, actor, producer, writer, educationist Sarat Pujari on 27th February, 2009 at 6.30pm.

It would be an honour to have you on this occasion as your august presence will be a token of encouragement and love for me and will immensely enhance the dignity of the function. Look forward to receive you

Ashok Art Gallery

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists. Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.

Art News and Exhibition Reviews : Ashok Art Gallery, The Tree Family, an Orissan traditional forms and conventional drawing by Gajendra Prasad Sahu.

Gajaendra Prasad Sahu's Solo show has innaugurated by Dr. Subash Ch Pani at IHC Senior Artists like Kashinath Jena shared his valuable thoughts with all young artists present at opening, This exhibition will continue at Ashok Art Gallery
An Exhibition of recent drawing and painting was organised at Open Palm Court Gallery by Ashok Art Gallery from 14th -16th feb 2009, gathered by many artists and art lovers, Gajendra Prasad's work gets heavily appriceations from both side.

Orissa has been a store house of ideas and images consistently transformed through the history. Artists of Orissa, while keeping the value of its tradition, have tried to keep pace with the need of time. Thus it is obvious to find a blend in the art forms of today. Several contemporary artists from Orissa are practising in coordination with the creativity and tradition, Gajendra Sahu is one of them.

Gajendra Sahu is essentially a graphic artist who is at present engaged in painting, thereby breaking the norms of the painter-printer convention. I still remember few drawings by him in the same pattern, and that reminds me of his association with these forms which are designated and stylistic. It is necessary to highlight the stylistic advantages that are visible in his painting for example the graded yet bold lines, the formal precision and the colour application which has a greater relevance to printing effect.

The compositions are interesting not because of their presence but for their appearance, with a contrast compartmental background seemingly synchronising the visual feast. The second factor it emphasises is the man-nature relationship. The relationship might just be as natural as normally seen in an Orissan environment. The nature is more decorative and conceivably symbolic. The situation has ceased to accommodate the viewer for interaction or is it initiating a rendezvous! The figures seem to reflect an amalgamation of the Orissan traditional forms and conventional drawing.

The subject treatment is much nearer to the mood of the artist. The human faces are nurtured in different condition; pale, melancholic sometimes or may be lost in the urban chaos, or searching a niche for their survival. Being within the nature, they are in a state of discomfort. This brings us to one larger understanding of within and without, containment and exploring, fullness and empty etc. These are subjective view points, entailing the third person to engage in evaluation. This is the state of Orissan art in Orissa, having enormous heritage and cultural potency to encourage any creative discipline, but looking forward to a strange acceptance, forgetting that purity has no language, but expression.


Dr. Pradosh Kumar Mishra
Associate Professor
Department of History of Art
Banaras Hindu University

Exhibition Of Drawing and Painting organised by Ashok Art Gallery Delhi India

Ashok Art Gallery Presents
The Tree & Family
An Exhibition of recent Paintings and Drawings,
a Solo Show of renound Artist Gajendra Prasad Sahu
from 14th to 16th Feb, 2009
at Open Palm Court Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road,New Delhi, India

Dr Subash Pani, Secretary, Planning Commission, Govt. of India, New Delhi has kindly consented to Innaugurate the Exhibition.
Sri Injeti. Srinivas, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Govt. of India, New Delhi will be the Chief Guest.

You all are cordially invited
Exibition will open on 14th Feb 6 PM and it will be on view till 16th Feb
10 AM to 8PM Daily.

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world’s most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists. Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.