By Santanu Ganguly, New Delhi: Nature Morte Berlin is pleased to present a group exhibition of photographic works by Dayanita Singh, Raqs Media Collective, Michael Bühler-Rose, Pushpamala N., Gauri Gill, Zarina Bhimji, Bharat Sikka, and Maurizio Vetrugno. Entitled “Poses and Views,” the show encompasses the vast range of photographic styles and approaches being produced today.
The artists in the exhibition are:
Dayanita Singh
Dayanita Singh is one of India’s most accomplished photographers. Her oeuvre stretches from documentary and portrait photography to book-making and story-telling. Her photographs and books have been presented in exhibitions throughout the world, most recently as a solo show at the Frith Street Gallery in London. In 2009, the Mapfre Foundation in Madrid organized a retrospective of her work, which subsequently travelled to Amsterdam and Bogota and her pictures “File Rooms” were given prominence in the exhibition “Illuminazione,” which formed the centre piece of the 2011 Venice Biennale. She will be one of four artists representing Germany in this year’s Venice Biennale and the Hayward Gallery in London is dedicating a solo show to her in October 2013. Ms. Singh was born in New Delhi in 1960, where she continues to live and work.
Raqs Media Collective
Based in New Delhi, where it was founded in 1992, Raqs Media Collective (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta) have been highly visible on the international art scene for the last decade. They enjoy playing a plurality of roles, often appearing as artists, occasionally as curators, and sometimes as philosophical agent provocateurs. Raqs have had solo shows at both Nature Morte Delhi and Berlin in 2012 and have exhibited their works at Manifesta 2012, at Documenta 11 in 2002 and the Biennales of Venice, Istanbul, Taipei, Liverpool, Sydney and Sao Paulo, amongst others. Their work has been shown at the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Tate Britain (London), Art Unlimited (Basel), Mori Museum (Tokyo), SALT (Istanbul) and at the Hayward and Serpentine Galleries (London), as well as many other international institutions.
Michael Bühler-Rose
Micheal Bühler-Rose has been a student of Vaishnavism (the branch of Hinduism dedicated to the God Vishnu) since the age of 14 and has studied Sanskrit and philosophy for many years in India. He is presently employed as an assistant professor in the Department of Photography of the Rhode Island School of Design. His practices on multiple platforms influence his artistic production and he has described his subjects as “theatrical cultural realities.” Since 2006 his photographs and videos have been shown in many galleries internationally and this spring Michael Bühler-Rose will collaborate with AA Bronson on a show at Nature Morte Berlin as well as be part of the exhibition “The Temptations of AA Bronson” at Witte de With, Rotterdam in the fall of 2013. Michael Bühler-Rose was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1980 and lives predominantly in New York
Pushpamala N.
Performing a wide range of characters sourced from a variety of media, Pushpamala N. continuously uses herself in her photographs to explore themes circling around history, culture and gender. Since her first solo show in 1983 in Bangalore she has had solo exhibitions in galleries in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Paris, New York and Chicago. Her video works have been screened in film festivals all over the world and in 2010 she was awarded a residency to work in Paris and create a series of photographs at the legendary Studio Harcourt for the exhibition “Paris, Mumbai, New Delhi” at the Centre Pompidou (2011). Gallery Zürcher in Paris will host a solo show of the artist's works opening on the 1st of March 2013. Pushpamala N. was born in 1956 in Bangalore and lives and works in both Bangalore and New Delhi.
Gauri Gill
Gauri Gill first became known for her insightful depiction of the Indian Diaspora living in the U.S.A. in the series "The Americans" and has since impressed with a large body of work called "Notes from the Desert", an on-going project documenting the nomadic and migrant rural communities of western Rajasthan. She has held solo exhibition at galleries such as Nature Morte in New Delhi, Green Cardamom, London, Matthieu Foss Gallery, Mumbai, and the Chicago Cultural Centre. Her works have been included in important group exhibitions of photography at institutions such as the Contemporary Art Institute of Southern Australia, Adelaide, The Whitechapel Gallery, London and Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland. Gauri Gill was born in Chandigarh in 1970 and lives and works in New Delhi.
Zarina Bhimji
Photographer and filmmaker Zarina Bhimji was born in Uganda in 1963 to Indian parents and moved to Britain in 1974. Her photographs and films capture human traces in landscape and architecture. In 2007 her series of photographs of Uganda, dealing with the expulsion of Asians from the country by Idi Amin, gained her a Turner prize nomination. Her work was included in Documenta in 2002, she received the ICP’s (International Center for Photography, New York City) Infinity Award in 2003 and in 2012 the first major survey exhibition of her work was held at The Whitechapel Gallery in London. She lives and works in London.
Bharat Sikka
Bharat Sikka, born in India in 1973, completed a BFA degree at Parson’s School of Design in New York in 2002. Starting off as a commercial photographer and then moving into the art world, Bharat Sikka’s work blends studio, street, landscape and portrait photography into an image of the “new” India, an ancient culture slamming up against contemporary realities. Between 2007 and 2012 he has had solo exhibitions at Nature Morte in New Delhi and Berlin, Bose Pacia Kolkata, Otto Zoo in Milan, the National Museum in New Delhi, Project 88 in Mumbai and the Sunaparanta Art Center in Goa.
Maurizio Vetrugno
Maurizio Vetrugno investigates the interstitial spaces between cultural production of various calibers: art, fashion, music, celebrity, publicity and iconography. Vetrugno was born in 1957 in Turin, Italy and currently lives and works in Turin and Bali, Indonesia. He has had solo exhibitions at Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, Fondazione Merz, Turin and Accademia delle Belle Arti, Turin. He was part of group exhibitions held at Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, Palazzo delle Penne, Perugia, PAC, Milan, MART, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, and Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena.
Opening: March 1, 2013, 6–9pm
Exhibition: March 2–April 20, 2013
Nature Morte, Weydingerstraße 6, 10178 Berlin