Nature Morte

Ad Infinitum

20 Feb - 20 Mar 2010

© Shilpa Chavan
Headonism V, 2009
C-type color prints
Size: 24"x36" (61x91cms)
Edition: 5
AD INFINITUM

including works by:
Shilpa Chavan, Alice Cicolini, Hitesh Natalwala, Aditya Pande and Samaraendra Raj Singh

Opening Saturday, February 20th.
Exhibition continues to Saturday, March 20th.

On display at Nature Morte will be a group show entitled "ad infinitum" (which in Latin means "without limits"). The exhibition explores the inter-relationships between works of diverse mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation. It also willfully crosses boundaries between art, design, craft and fashion while exploring a collaborative exhibition design that intentionally mixes artists' works together and erodes the perceived distinctions between individual artistic languages.

Shilpa Chavan (born 1974, aka Little Shilpa, based in Mumbai) is a stylist and designer who works with a wide variety of materials to create images and accessories with a subversive wit. She recycles found objects and discarded materials into extravagant millenary and wearable art. In India, she has collaborated with the fashion designers Manish Arora, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Tarun Tahiliani, Varun Bahl and Malini Ramani and in 2009 she was invited by the celebrated milliner Stephen Jones to participate in the Headonistic Festival in London.

Alice Cicolini (born 1973, based in London) creates contemporary jewelry using the traditional techniques and materials of Jaipur. Her works reference the sacred architectural forms of India as well as the cultural patterns of the ancient Silk Route. Combining carved ebony, precious gem stones, gold and the multi-colored Jaipuri enamel, these miniature sculptures to display on the body defy pre-existing definitions of standard jewelry forms.

Hitesh Natalwala (born 1964, based in Perth) crafts self-portraits of his own hybridized identity using a complex process of collage. He starts with images culled from pop culture sources (album covers, movie posters) and inserts himself as the central protagonist, performing as a diverse array of characters linked to the role models of his formative years. His works comment on stereotypes associated with the Indian diaspora while not exactly being paintings, photos or drawings.

Aditya Pande (born 1976, based in New Delhi) synthesizes computer-based drawings with collage, painting, and photography. A group of new works realized at a recent Khoj Residency explore the after-life of an abstract installation via its documentation by video. In addition, the artist's works of cartoon-like characters inhabiting shape-shifting spaces of saturated colors will also be on view. Pande's calligraphic wall-drawings will also be an integral component in the exhibition design.

Samaraendra Raj Singh (born 1967, based in New Delhi) fuses art historical imagery with decorative arts motifs from a wide variety of cultures and portraiture of contemporary subjects. His paintings employ metallic foil grounds to approximate jeweled surfaces. Dizzying in their complexity and references, Singh's works equate traditional Asian arts with more contemporary visual trends such as Psychedelia and Op Art.
 

Tags: Aditya Pande