Mumbai, December 5, 2011: Saffronart, India’s leading auction house, and Volte Gallery in Mumbai will present a solo exhibition of Ranbir Kaleka titled “Fables”. Ranbir Kaleka, an innovative contemporary Indian artist whose work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions all over the world, has achieved significant international saliency during the last decade. The exhibition will be at the Saffronart Gallery at The Oberoi Hotel, from December 16, 2011 to January 5, 2012.
Ranbir Kaleka’s “Fables” will be his first major exhibition in Delhi, since 1995. Ranbir is the only artist to be working in this ‘medium’ which is a segue between images on a canvas that are juxtaposed with video projections. His works collapse the boundaries between a painting with ‘static’ images and that of the video, moving images; he aims at creating a third visual experience. “Playing with the hyper image which I create by melding into one image the ‘physicality’ of the painted image and the ‘aura’ of image made by light, the other possibilities of opening a new space for making meaning through hybridity inherent in the new image,” says Kaleka.
Speaking of this exhibition, Dinesh Vazirani, CEO and Co-Founder of Saffronart said, “It is a great occasion to participate in the Ranbir Kaleka exhibition along with Volte Gallery, as Saffronart has always believed in contributing to the sustainable growth of the Indian art market. We are privileged to have the opportunity to present these unique visual essays by one of India’s most India’s experimental contemporary Indian artists.”
Tushar Jiwarajka, Founder and Director at Volte Gallery said, “Ranbir is a living genius, a sorcerer who takes you to his magical worlds through his phantasmagorical pieces. He is also widely acknowledged as one of the most significant artists of his generation. I am extremely delighted to partner with Saffronart to have Ranbir's solo show after such a long gap in Delhi.”
The exhibition comprises of 5 works, 3 still moving images (video projections on canvas with images) and 2 digital prints on canvas. The artist's practice revolves around producing art in an intermediate space between a painting and running visual (video), and his body of work has been said to ‘create a seemingly living tableau on a canvas and screen’.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated print catalogue, along with a preview in New Delhi. The exhibition will take place between December 16, 2011 and January 5, 2012, at the Saffronart Gallery at The Oberoi Hotel.
About Ranbir Kaleka:
Ranbir Kaleka , born in Patiala, Punjab University in Chandigarh, taught at the Punjabi university and College of Art in New Delhi. He later obtained his Master's degree in painting from the Royal College of Art in London. He has also taught in the college of art in Delhi.
Kaleka’s paintings, both on paper, canvas, in oils as well as more recently, his video projections on canvas, are almost surrealist in their treatment of scenes from everyday life. The lines are suggested, rather than sharply traced, and the colours almost deliberately restrained. Kaleka has also created and exhibited video projection on painting, oils on canvas and installations.
The artist’s work has been widely exhibited in India and abroad. His most recent solo and group shows include Expanded Cinema at the Museum of Modern Art Moscow, The Guangzhou Triennale in Guangdong, China, Chalo India at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, in 2008; a multi-media installation commissioned to the permanent collection of the Spertus Museum, Chicago, in 2007; the Sydney Biennale, 2008; Urban Manners at Hangar Bicocca, Milan, in 2007; New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India at the Chicago Cultural Center in 2007; Horn Please: The Narrative in Contemporary Indian Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Berne, in 2007; Art Video Lounge at Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, in 2006; Hungry God: Indian Contemporary Art at Busan Museum of Modern Art, South Korea in 2006; iCon: India Contemporary at the Venice Biennale, 2005; Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India at the Asia Society, New York, in 2005; Culturgest-Lisbon in 2004; Zoom! Art in Contemporary India, Lisbon, in 2004; and subTerrain: Indian Contemporary Art at the House of World Culture, Berlin, in 2003.
Ranbir Kaleka currently lives and works in New Delhi, and is represented by Volte Gallery, Mumbai.
