What Is Contemporary | FIRST EDITION OF CONTEMPORARY IDIOMS

Art Alive brings this season ‘Contemporary Idioms’ a series that strives to present works that showcase the shifting landscape of contemporary art in India. The series focuses on artists whose practice is about using media and material in non-traditional ways towards conceptual ends. In keeping with the thought, ‘What is Contemporary…’, the First Edition of ‘Contemporary Idioms’, brings you the works of Purvai Rai, Suman Chandra, and Divya Singh coming from three diverse institutions in India.

These artists are exhibiting at a major platform for the first time, whose works define the cusp of the contemporary, with regard to aesthetic, conceptual and political concerns. This year, our focus is on artists who have been instrumenting media and material in non-traditional ways towards conceptual ends. Their works are particularly significant for the close affinity that their process maintains with the subject of their works. From a diverse range of concerns including socio-political, spiritual and personal preoccupations, the artists in the show provide a glimpse into what is contemporary in Indian art today.

Suman Chandra

Suman Chandra did his M.F.A. (Painting) and B.F.A. (Painting) from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University. He is interested in site-specific works. He was chosen from the university to exhibit at the Kochi’s Student Biennale in 2014 & 2016. He is interested in site-specific works. To him coal mines are very interesting landscapes, unlike other landscapes, in mines, the continuous shifting and changing are happening in different layers within the earth and it is caused more by humans than nature. These man-made impressions left behind on this landscape create an ever-changing interplay of positive and negative spaces. He has tried to depict this phenomenon in his works by dividing a given space in black and white.

Purvai Rai

Purvai Rai studied at Srishti Institute of Art, Design, and Technology, Bangalore. She is a graphic designer, textile designer and multimedia artist whose work revolves around stories, memories, and identity; social inclusion is driven practice. She works with natural materials like jute, cotton, and yarn which acts as a medium of storytelling in her artwork, as layers of fibers uncover personal narratives that hoard with the passing of time. She believes that much like a photograph, a piece of fabric also captures the essence of many moments in our life. For her clothing is a significant element that we use to express our personal, cultural, social and historical beliefs. Her work ranges from publication design, fine art, collaging, and textile art. As a graduate student, she has explored different forms of visual arts and continues to do so in all her works.

Divya Singh

Divya Singh did her MFA from Shiv Nadar University, Uttar Pradesh and her BFA from the College of Art, New Delhi. She is a visual artist. Her practice is primarily rooted in painting and explores themes such as isolation, experience and memory. Mediums such as photography, writings, poetry, cinema, and painting are at the center of her language as a practitioner and have featured throughout the course of two years during her MFA as important categories of both work and interest. She is currently working with instant film/Polaroid, paintings and text.