ARKEN Museum of Modern Art presents INDIA. ART NOW, an exhibition on view 18th August 2012 – 13th January 2013.
Subodh Gupta, Terminal, 2010 at ARKEN Brass and thread Dimensions variable Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The Indian art scene has developed explosively since the beginning of the 1990s and today constitutes one of the most exciting powerhouses of contemporary art. INDIA : ART NOW is the biggest exhibition in the Danish art museum ARKEN’s history. It is showing 13 of the best artists and artist groups from India in a veritable cornucopia of Indian installation art, sculptures and giant paintings, and many of the works have been produced specifically for ARKEN – one of the biggest contemporary art museums in Denmark.
Saris and trash landscapes, the sounds of the Delhi street vendors and high-tech shadow plays. Several works have been created specifically for the exhibition, and they both encourage and defy all our preconceived notions of Indian art. For the subjects, materials and narratives the artists often take their point of departure in local Indian phenomena, but their works extend far beyond the idea of exotic India into global culture.
Indian art and culture are seeing rapid development at present and are leaving their traces not only in the mega-cities Mumbai and Delhi, where many of the artists live and work. They are also unfolding at the European academies of art, where several of the artists have studied, at galleries in Paris, New York or Berlin, in international publications and at exhibitions all over the world. Now ARKEN has invited some of the best Indian contemporary artists to Ishøj and is offering a sensually rich, experimental, thought-provoking exhibition that provides unique insight into the sparkling Indian art world as it is developing right now.
INDIA : ART NOW is showing 13 artists and artist groups from India. The participating artists are Rina Banerjee, Hemali Bhuta, Atul Dodiya, Sheela Gowda, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, Jitish Kallat, Reena Kallat, Rashmi Kaleka, Bharti Kher, Ravinder Reddy, Vivan Sundaram and the artist duo Thukral & Tagra.
ARKEN is a globally oriented art museum whose constant concern is to challenge and expand the framework for what an art museum can contribute to society. Most recently with the large mist tunnel created by Olafur Eliasson, where the visiting public experienced contemporary art very directly and physically. With INDIA : ART NOW, ARKEN once more turns the focus on contemporary art that surrounds and affects the viewer. www.arken.dk
