Sajal Patra has experienced the nature intimately and successfully moulded the political and societal subjects with their own shifting character.

The trend of contemporary art is changing and several makeover trials are in place where artist reframe his ideas in the format of rediscovering the self. Artistic transformations happen naturally but it might just be enforced in order to achieve certain purpose, while in the later the risk is considerably high. Turning the course of imagery in order to produce effectively throws new challenges before the artist. Often in contemporary, what we have seen is the fresh interpretation of the common subject; the one that we are associated with closely and familiar with the environment very dearly; comes in as a refreshing surprise to many.
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Beyond The Border an exhibition of Sajal Patra showing the work Spiritual Journey is one such painting, which depicts a ‘key’ on the left wall of the ghat that was left by the spiritual guru that symbolises the key of the world. The key here refers to the key of the mundane world that remained with the person till his spiritual journey begins. This conceptually reminds one, of the renaissance painting The Delivery of the Keys by Perugino in the Sistine chapel. The only notable difference was the absence of the human beings in Sajal Patra’s painting and similarity is the significance of the key. This narrative is a symbolic representation of Indian culture achieved through the vitality in a contemporaneous way. Keys seem to have fascinated Sajal in many ways and Mother Key is the other of its kind, symbolising mother to hold the solution to all the problems that surround the family and its affairs. Mother Key is a story that is told with simplicity and subtlety in an explicit manner through visual representation.

Sajal has experienced the nature intimately and successfully moulded the political and societal subjects with their own shifting character in time. Beyond Border is another example that cleverly finds a puppetry arrangement to the Indian border issue. It describes the cultural affinity that India has with its neighbour Pakistan and how politics overplays the issues. This demonstrate how human feelings turned slave through the containment of human values by the leaders (so called). The story is not fresh and it is believed to have been addressed by all medias, but the pathos Beyond Border contain, speaks of the suppressed truth somewhere touching the human life. Mother and Child is a unique combination of calf and trucked mother’s (dairy) milk. This interesting subject directly deals with the trading of milk that has somehow left the calf wondering for her mother. Somewhere down the line it seems while managing he man’s need, man has forgotten the nature of the animals that needs attention too.

Sajal’s journey from Ranchi through Bhubaneswar to Delhi has been equally interesting and it has impressed him with multi-faceted experience and exposure to the environmental conditions and the visual cultures too. His interaction with variety of people through this part of eastern India has intelligently placed in the visual version. Sajal Patra has matured with every trick of the trade and these works reflects his conceptual interpretations wonderfully well. Represented by Ashok Art Gallery , his works have been showcased at all Indian major art festivals and fairs, some of his works has been collected by international art collectors, as per his dedication towards creating Art works and on the value of his supreme artistic skill one can effortlessly say that he will be one the future perspective of contemporary Indian Art for sure. Sajal Patra works and lives in New Delhi, India.
Dr. Pradosh K. Mishra(art historian)
Associate Professor BHU



The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different , became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India Mumbai and India Art Summit New Delhi.

In India we love to talk about our art and cultural heritage, the truth is that very few Indians understand our art and culture

Art aficionado Vickram Sethi talks about his forthcoming Art Expo India 2009, MF Husain and Indian art potential.Vickram believes that there is little left to doubt about the fact that NRIs are big art buyers and often drive up auction prices. Indians living abroad want to possess a part of their heritage which is why they buy Indian art. However, the 30 plus generation has changed many things. They are a highly educated group and control their own finances. They hold a different view of Indian culture. With art being available on the net, now NRIs all over the world have access to Indian art.

So, is art elitist? In India we love to talk about our art and cultural heritage, the truth is that very few Indians understand our art and culture. Unfortunately it’s not taught in school. In the west, a student would have to take art as a major subject in their A levels (equivalent to +2) – like drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, pottery, music, dance, drama, something that the student has to do with his own hands or participate in some creative activity.

So, if art was taught in schools, the masses would respect our artistic traditions, craftsmanship and be sensitive to our culture. Only education can bridge this gap. The art fair, however, will give visitors a chance to listen and interact with experts on a variety of topics and help visitors connect with contemporary art.
The Art Expo India 2009 will be held at Nehru Centre Worli in Mumbai from the 25 to 27 September
Source: Times Of India

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists.
Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.

India Habitat Centre (New Delhi): Ramesh Terdal

From past 13 yrs have been constantly experimenting .today my media are acrylic.when I paint, I try to reproducing my sense of imagination, my experience as well as my emotions in the form of different textures, brush strokes and forms, some times my works have metaphor of society and sometime open to interpretation, said a young and promising Indian artist Ramesh Terdal.

His expressions through creative mediums are the form of an inward journey. It reflects how he conceive his existing potentials and true towards life .Ramesh Terdal started his journey with inward flow of light (journey through life) as his subject of paintings which belongs to every walk of life voilant mind,cruel gunman image,exposing bodys,they made their body as a earning source to exposing body ,black shadows over society,superemo image, power dominated image,how passion inter built with once day to day life, imbalance society. a struggle that is existing within the complexity life.India is a country where life and struggle is not rolling in a parallel way but it is an endless zigzag competition of living. Where lives are continuously struggling with unknown anxiety, fear and heat rate.in this struggle/juggling I am finding hope of smile metaphore of kid,infant,in innocent faces, once he said.

His work, for quite some time, has found inspiration / borrows motifs from the mass media. The black and white photographic images adopt a documentary style of address, presenting a snippet of everyday reality, such as we would be likely to find in a newspaper or magazine clipping. Apart from this stencils, and advertisements, Magazines, photographs.like cut out figures and billboard hoardings. The cutout has become a vehicle for him to transport populations to different localities and diverse societies. It also helps him to look at the social fabric today. After all what is our social structure? What relationships are we building up within our society ?He said, “I do not believe in concrete structures like the state and religion. They are both artificial entities. In reality there are no marked boundaries it is a palimpsest.”

Painting is his passion and journey ,so for,has been quite and eventful. There are things to learn,unlearn and learn every day,as an aspiring art practitioner we have social responsibility on us there is lot to learn things around us; keeping these things in to mind that we have to convey the society about right and wrong i fallow my heart and paint for society.
Ramesh believe that all art reflects on ones own ideal state of beauty and he look at it as a concept of personal transformation. Ramesh’s work has therefore a certain meditative connotation, as it strives to uncover an ideal of harmony and stability that remains however, forever ephemeral.

India Habitat Centre (New Delhi): Ramesh Terdal

Venue: Open Palm Court Gallery India Habitat Centre Lodhi Road, New Delhi

Dates: 23-28 October, 2008, 11 am - 8 pm daily

Website: http://www.ashokartgallery.com/

Details: First time in New Delhi presenting a very talented and promising young artist Ramesh Terdal. Ashok Art Gallery is going to host a show of 18 recent paintings of artist Ramesh Terdal At Open Palm Court Gallery India Habitat Centre.

COME AND JOIN US FOR A DRINK(NA) ON 23RD OCT AT 6 PM

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists.
Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.

Art of Concern:Indian Young Artist Vinod Manwani

A clock with no hands, a rocking horse with scratch marks, a rocking chair – these are the central theme for Sindhi artist Vinod Manwani. Concerns for the environment, the sudden rise of India’s “Nuclear Family”, family values and a more personal story all of which are displayed in all of the paintings.Vinod Manwani is the third child to Mangharam and Gopi Devi Manwani. Born in 1966 at Avantika, Ujjain a holy religious town near the bank of Kshipra river in Central India.

Each item has story to tell. The clock with its missing hands tells us how we need to STOP rushing in our lives. The rocking horse with scratch marks are of a more intimate nature displaying the scas of what he saw on his father’s forehead and his grandmother’s eyes and how they lost everything.

However, his passion for painting came from his trips to the temples of across ujjain with his mother. The brightly painting ceilings and domes of the Gods, Goddesses and other intricacies of workman ship displayed for all to view, to be inspired. When Vinod Manwani sits down to paint these days in his residence cum studio in Malad, two feelings concern him and his canvas. Nostalgia and empathy for metros escalating multiplex culture and more importantly, ‘Tiger Conversation’. These two series can be seen at his studio.

A casual conversation got translated into a series of paintings that keep the kitsch-ness of Bollywood film posters animated in the 18 paintings. “I wanted to make the paintings in a simple manner. I painted whatever I could recall in my memories, just as I saw it,” he explains about his style of painting.An active member of the BNHS, Manwani feels strongly about the declining numbers of the tiger species. “My paintings will perhaps work as references for my children when they grow up. I show a clock without hands to show that the time to save these glorious species is over. We have reached a sad stage where nothing much is happening to preserve tigers,” he says. Manwani also reasons on physical spaces that a congested city like Mumbai lives in. Manwani’s narrative style that makes a comment on the decline of the tigers and the multiplex culture is sure to get viewers to ponder. His works are showing online at Ashok Art Gallery and you can see original on display at India Art Summit 2008

Contemporary Artist Review: Ashok Art Gallery.

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists.Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.

Emerging Young Artist Pratul Dash

When I asked the most debated emerging young artist Pratul Dash about his artistic journey, he replied me with a quote ‘There will be a vital role of an artist to uplift the society’. He said although I live with my family with all responsibility, I always well aware of my real mean of living and Standing between the Heaven and the ground , Wanting to move forward and to stay down. Yes, he was absolutely right with his word, this year he has exhibited his works at several major exhibitions worldwide,and also become a happy father with a very sweet and cute baby girl, besides many exhibitions at India, his works are exhibited at USA and UK thrice this year with a great response. Every time works are just sold out at the first day of opening. His works are filled with fine detail, looks at life through various different levels, his bird, living in the hollows of the scaffolding claims this space as much as his home as any human does. Pratul Dash graduated with a BA & MA in Fine Art and was awarded an art Scholarship. He was also awarded by the Industrial Literature Society, Italy, won the M F Hussain Award, Delhi, Silver Jubilee award Orissa to name a few. His works are amongst many prestigious collections, both private and corporate throughout the world.Once he said,” i am a response, a series of other colors strung together tied by reaction and emotion, memory and experience, resisting or embracing, based on my days on earth....” Pratul works and lives in New Delhi, India.

Contemporary Art Review: Ashok Art Gallery