Seema Kohli is a contemporary Indian painter renown for her work with the face and figure. Seema Kohli was born in the year 1960.
The artist attended college in New Delhi, India at South Delhi Polytech and Delhi University.
Kohli’s work deals with the thoughts and dreams of women.
Below a brief clip about the life of Seema Kohli:
Kohli enjoys working with mixed mediums and many works include gold and silver leaf.
The artist is based out of New Delhi, India.
In this clip we visit the artist’s studio and watch her in action:
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Kohli has a wonderful sense of design and use of color. What is most impressive about her work is what she leaves out. Without spending time on details like the face, the viewer is left to imagine what the character looks like. I find her work very spiritual.
Hari Panicker and Deepti Nair are a young artistic duo from India who are renown for their work with cut paper and lightboxes.
Hari Panicker was born in Mumbai, India in the year 1980. He studied graphic design and illustration in college and has worked in the industry as an album designer. Paniker was also in management for MTV networks of India.
The artist enjoys drawing and creating monsters.
Panicker is inspired by Balinese shadow puppets.
Below we take a closer look at one of the duo’s signature lightboxes:
Deepti Nair was also born in India in the year 1981. Nair enjoys working with papercuts and clay. She works in the technology industry as an interaction designer. Since she works with technology so much with her day job she prefers to do without when she is creating art.
The duo have been creating their lightboxes since 2010.
This creative team is now based out of Black Book Gallery looked in downtown Denver. This is an awesome gallery to view many of the artists listed here such as Ben Eine and ROA.
Price range information: Most original works are priced $2,000 to $5,000.
These are remarkable works of art made from paper. I am so impressed with the feeling and emotion of the scene the viewer gets when the piece is turned on. They are lit from behind with a L.E.D. light.
Gary Taxali is a contemporary artist and illustrator from Toronto, Canada renown for his cartoon style that brings to mind the commercial themed pop art masters of the 1960s such as Lichtenstein and Warhol.
Taxali has a reputation for great fashion sense. Here we check out pocket square art made by Gary Taxali:
Gary Taxali was born in Chandigarh, India in the year 1968. He was raised in Toronto, Canada. Taxali attended the Ontario College of Art.
Below a great interview with Gary Taxali:
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Taxali reminds of American painter Tim Liddy. Liddy paints imaginary game boards and boxes, and his faces and figures have the same retro comic book style.
Francis Newton Souza, also known as F.N. Souza, was an Indian painter. Francis Newton Souza was born in Saligao, Gao, India in the year 1924.
Souza reminds me of the artist Munch, both artists did a fantastic job at capturing the mood. Souza often depicted pain and suffering. Souza also reminds of German master Käthe Kollwitz.
The artist attended college first at St. Xavier’s College located in Bombay at the time, but was expelled for writing graffiti in a restroom. Souza also attended the Sir J.J. School of Art located in Bombay, India. The artist was kicked out of school for supporting the Quit India movement.
After leaving school he found employment as a journalist writing about art for such periodicals as ArtNews and Review.
A short selection of works by F.N. Souza:
The artist was associated with the Progressive Painting Group of which he was a founding member. Souza was a leader and helped to organize events and exhibitions that would make Indian painters and artists better known among European collectors.
Francis Souza passed away in 2002.
The artist was highly productive over his lengthy career producing many paintings and drawings.
Price range information: Works in ink and drawings start at the $20,000 up to original oils which can reach $2.5 million dollars.
Akbar Padamsee is a contemporary painter from India renown for his surrealist style, and his work with the figure. In addition to painting Padamsee is a printmaker, sculptor, photographer, and film maker.
Akbar Padamsee was born in Mumbai, India in the year 1928. Padamsee attended the Sir J.J. School of Art.
One unique style of painting associated with Akbar Padamsee is discussed, the Metascape. These are mental landscapes which are discussed in further detail in this clip:
Price range information: Works range from $5,000 to $1 million. As a painter he uses watercolors, acrylics, and oils.
Bharti Kher is a contemporary artist who is renown for her work with bindi or bindis, sometimes called the third eye or the “dot” worn by Indian women. Kher works as a painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Her sculptures are often life size works of very large animals such as elephants.
The artist began to use the bindi in the mid 1990s.
Price range information: Most works range from $40,000 to $400,000. Occasionally photographs can be found for less than $10,000.
Bharti Kher was born in London, England in the year 1969.
Her flat works often include bindis glued to wood panel.
In this clip a very large elephant that takes 7 or 8 people to carry is taken to Sotheby’s to get ready for an auction:
Kher is now based out of New Delhi, India.
Below a longer interview with Bharti Kher from 2014:
I always enjoy when items from a culture or country are included in artwork. That is why I so enjoy Inuit and Shona art. Kher work has a great sense of culture and humanity.
Krishen Khanna is a modern Indian artist who works with the figure in an abstract style. The artist was born in Faislabad, Pakistan in the year 1925.
Khanna is a self taught artist.
Krishen Khanna attended the Imperial Service College. The college produced guards for the Royal Family and also engineers. Khanna also attended the Government College.
After college the artist worked in the banking industry.
The artist was the recipient of a Rockfeller Fellowship.
In this clip we visit the studio of Krishen Khanna and a great interview is show:
Price range information: Khanna is highly prolific output working in charcoal, watercolor, oils, and pastels. Prices ranges $5,000 to $400,000.
The artist was born in Khagual, Bihar, India in the year 1964. He is a leading modern artist of India. He gained worldwide acclaim for his sculpture of a human skull made of pots, pans, and cooking utensils. The name of the piece was “Hungry God.” The artist began as a painter but has since moved into installation works with found and recycled materials including kitchen utensils such as pots, pans, and tongs. Gupta also is a photographer.
Price range information: Works including prints and works in ink start around $20,000. Subodh Gupta has broken the one million dollar mark at auction with his oil paintings.
For his collegiate education Subdodh Gupta attended the College of Arts and Crafts located in Patna, India earning a B.F.A.
Gupta is based out of New Delhi, India.
Below is a short interview with the artist and a leading television station based out of India. You can see a quick glimpse of the artist’s studio.
It seems that creative energy is always flowing through the mind of Subodh Gupta.
If you enjoy this artist’s work another artist I find similar is the Brazil mixed media master Vik Muniz. Muniz has produced many creative works that use unusual mediums. Muniz even did a series of famous movie monsters using caviar as a medium!
Natvar Bhavsar is a prominent artist born in Visnager, India in the year 1934. Bhavsar began his artistic career as a Cubist painter and achieved international recognition before the age of twenty.
The artist would eventually find himself in New York City and upon seeing the American Abstract Expressionist painters developed a style that used some methods of traditional Indian sand painting. He prepares each canvas with many acrylic binders and then places the canvas flat on the floor. Rather than painting vertically pigments are dropped onto the canvas as it lies on the floor.
Another artist who had a similar technique was Vance Kirkland. Kirkland started out as a realist painter but eventually came to love abstract painting and developed a harness that would suspend him above his canvas in order to paint it. Two different artists but a similar approach.
Bhavsar earned a bachelors degree in English literature from Gujarat University located in Amdavad, India. Bhavsar earned a M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Bhavsar has won fellowship grants from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations.
Price range information: Most works range from $5,000 to $60,000.
Bhavsar is based out of Soho in New York City.
In this clip from 2010 we visit a documentary movie that was made about Natvar Bhavsar:
I enjoy Bhavsar’s use of color in addition to the unique way he adds color to his canvas with the canvas being on the floor. Paint is used but Bhavsar also uses dried pigments giving his work an explosion of pure color for the eyes!
Dhananjay Singh was born in Hajipur, Bihar, India in the year 1977. This region is located in the north of India. For his artistic education Singh attended the Faculty of Visual Arts of Banaras Hindu University. The artist also earned a master’s degree from the University Baroda.
Dhananjay Singh’s favorite subject is the tree.
The artist works with sculpture and also painting. Many paintings are executed with watercolor on paper.
Many sculptures are made of bronze and either stainless steel wire or copper wire.
Price range information: Works range from $4,000 to $50,000.
I love the way the artist has merged the figure and the tree into one style uniquely his own! It makes sense as the way a branch tapers it reminds me of the same taper you see on the human arm or leg.
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