Subodh GUPTA

Arario Gallery is pleased to have a large scale solo presentation of Subodh Gupta in both Cheonan and Seoul gallery for the first time in Korea. Serving as a mid career mini retrospective, this exhibition introduces some of the leading strains in Subodh Gupta’s oeuvre with his most recent series of sculpture, painting and monumental installation.

Gupta (46) is not only India’s most well known artist, he has directed attention to some of the cultural concerns in South Asia. In a highly reductive language he combines formalism with a wry, incisive understanding of symbols and forms used in contemporary India. Village to city migration, the charged and unpredictable encounter with globalism and cultural hybridity are significant concepts in his work. As a sculptor, Gupta’s use of material is always strategic and deeply expressive of a conceptual context.

The present exhibition combines some leading and well recognized strains in Subodh Gupta’s work. It also introduces newer elements and materials, indicating the artist’s dynamic engagement with aspects of human existence. Gupta’s preoccupations with the everyday take on an interesting turn: monolithic buckets and tiffin boxes that rise above the ground draw attention to third world economies and everyday acts of survival. His iconic sculpture on the submerged Indian taxi titled Everything is Inside, and an entire city constructed of shining stainless steel tiffin boxes is counterbalanced by his recent forays into marble. One of Gupta’s seminal works, The Way Home which coalesces aspects of Indian domestic and political life will also be on view. For the first time he will be exhibiting a set of paintings which bring together the artists’ sweeping embrace of the still life, 17th century Dutch painting, photo realism, and objects of the everyday.

Living and working in New Delhi, Subodh is a founder member of the artists’ collective Khoj. Some of his work with Khoj in performance and sculptural installation marked a critical point in Indian art in the 1990s. Gupta went on to completely rework the notion of the found object to create monumental pieces known for their conceptual and formal daring. Working with a lo-tech material like stainless steel, Gupta has combined issues around social class, the home and the world in his work.

Subodh Gupta was born in 1964, Khagual. Bihar, the seat of Buddhist learning. He studied at the College of Art, Patna (1983 – 1988) before moving to New Delhi where he currently lives and works. Trained as a painter, he went on to experiment with a variety of media. His work has stood out in major international biennials and has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions across Asia, Europe and America. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Faith Matters’, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev (2010); ‘Et tu, Duchamp?’, Kunsthalle Wien project space Karlsplatz, Vienna, Austria (2010); ‘Aam Aadmni (Common Man)’, Hauser & Wirth, London (2009); ‘Line of Control’, Arario Gallery, Beijing (2008). Recent major group exhibitions include The Garage (GCCC Moscow)’s 'A Certain State of the World?', works from the Pinault Collection (2010); The 6th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (2009); 'Altermodern: Tate Triennial 09'; 'Indian Highway', Serpentine Gallery, London (2008), currently on show at Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo and touring to other venues.