"Zebra Among Horses" a solo show of recent works by Brooklyn-based artist Chitra Ganesh at Gallery Espace, 16 Community Centre, New Friends Colony > 27th September to 15th November 2013

Time : 
30th September : 5:00 pm - Opening, the artist will walk viewers through the show as she speaks about the works being presented.
27th September to 15th November : 11:00 am - 7:00 pm (Sundays Closed) - Exhibition on View

Entry : Free

Place : Gallery Espace, 16 Community Centre, New Friends Colony, New Delhi - 110025
Venue Info : galleryespace.com | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Lajpat Nagar(Violet Line)'

Event Description : Gallery Espace presents a solo show of recent works titled 'Zebra Among Horses' by Brooklyn-based artist Chitra Ganesh.
In this first-ever solo show in Delhi, the artist shows digital collages in archival lightjet prints, mixed media drawings on paper, a collage on board, a site-specific mural-based installation and a text-based wall piece composed in-situ the gallery space - the artist’s first site specific installation in India.

Brooklyn-based Chitra Ganesh (b. 1975) has a vibrant, multi-faceted practice that draws on a variety of media. Whether she is working with digital collage, painting, installation, photography or video, drawing remains at the core of her practice. At a time when images are digitally rendered and mass produced, she is particularly sensitive to the presence of the hand in her process, one which invariably draws as much on digital technologies as it emphasizes physical, manual ones. Her Lightjet prints (like Zebra Among Horses and Atlas, 2013, amongst the ones being featured in this exhibition) for instance, are composed through a digital process of fusing scans of her own pen and ink drawings, written texts, appropriated imagery from Amar Chitra Katha comics, and drawings made directly onto a digital tablet.

Drawing on strategies of collage, appropriation and surrealist texts, Chitra’s works constantly seek to push at boundaries, often piercing through and emerging out of the surface to spill right out of their frames.

Says Renu Modi, Director, Gallery Espace: "Chitra’s vibrant, multi-faceted practice that draws on a variety of media is what got me interested to follow her practice more closely. I have also been representing women artists from different generations over the past 25 years and understanding their trajectory is an ongoing and a rewarding process. Whether she is working with digital collage, painting, installation, photography or video, drawing remains at the core of her practice. Again, Espace has maintained archives,studied and hosted seminal exhibitions on studying the ‘line’ and its definition in today’s era of technology based artworks. Continuing with the tradition of having artists work within the Gallery premises and convert it into a temporary studio space (Manjunath Kamath  in 2010,  Neha Thakkar in 2012 , Kalam Patua January ’13) opens an avenue for multiple dialogues. Chitra is currently working in the Gallery and has converted the basement into her studio space. Next week she starts a wall drawing in-situ. We are looking forward to opening discourses on ephemeral art, techniques and ownership while we view Chitra at work. People are welcome to walk in and see, take notes and and have conversations with the artist during her breaks."

Says Chitra Ganesh about her digital collages in archival lightjet prints: “These works are inspired by images from Amar Chitra Kathas, which present religious and cultural narratives based in Hindu mythology and South Asian history to a popular audience. Amar Chitra Kathas are read and distributed widely both on the South Asian subcontinent, as well as the diaspora (Canada, England, US, Australia, and Caribbean), with the explicit intent of educating children about the cultural history of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar). Like collections of Grimm’s fairy tales, Greek myths, vampire stories, or other popular folklore, Amar Chitra Katha comics provide prescriptive models of citizenship, nationalism, religious expression, public behavior, and sexuality. The works were created by integrating fragments of the original comics with pen and ink drawings and rewriting the text. I’d like to create a mythology that poses questions rather than gives clear answers, in which ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are no longer constitutive categories organizing our world experience. Abject imagery and disjunctive narratives interrupt traditional storytelling forms, offering alternate articulations of conflict, desire and power.”

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