My Art on Cover Page of SPAN magazine

One happy news to share with my readers. I have won the 50th anniversary Cover Art contest organized by SPAN. My Painting will be on the cover page of SPAN magazine for Jan/Feb 2011 issue. (also as a winning gift i will be getting an Apple iPad) .

Ever since my childhood as far back as i remember, we received SPAN magazine. Even in those days (30 yrs back) the magazine had superb paper quality and photograph quality images. All other mags were simply black and white or at most poor quality photographs. No wonder we always waited for this one magazine to be delivered by our postman and be the first to smell between the pages.

When i heard of SPAN orgazining a painting competition, all those past memories flooded down to create the one painting that summarised what India and US meant to me.

Here is the painting

Title : Contemplating Reflections
Writeup : If one wants to compare two countries there can not be a more diverse set than India and US. With their differences in culture and ways of working, its not without reason they are termed Mystical East and Corporate West. They have looked at each others reflections to leverage their differences and make world a better place

Hope you enjoy it.

PS: Congrates to Rupesh Bhandari who won the writing essay contest on topic "What can US and India accomplish together" . Looking forward to meet you at SPAN anniversary function.

Exhibition at Orchid Art Gallery

This has taken a little time for me to update my blog. I have an exhibition ongoing at Orchid Art Gallery, Mangalore which started on October 29, 2010 and is on till November 22, 2010. The exhibition was inaugurated by Mr.Pradeep Pai, M.D. Hangyo Ice Creams Pvt. Ltd. This was a successful event. Adding some photo's of the inauguration event below.

I had been to Mangalore for this event and had the most famous Gadbad Ice Cream. It was yammy...

Opening of my exhibition at Aurodhan Art Gallery

Today on March 22, 2010 my exhibition of paintings at Aurodhan Art Gallery, Pondicherry has started. It was a small gathering of people where we started this event with a silent prayer and little introduction of mine and my works.

Attaching some photos of the opening below:

Mrs.Sehnaz Verma, Me and Mr.Lalith Verma at the opening.

Four of my paintings of size 34"x58' on display at the gallery.

Will keep you updated about the event.

I am also enjoying the peaceful and Serene atmosphere of Pondicherry.

Thank you for all your good wishes.

Pondicherry exhibition at Aurodhan Art Gallery

Aditis (my daughter) exams are over ... and I am all set to venture to Pondicherry. Thanks to Preeti most of the stuff completed in time and there are no last minute emergencies

We will be in Pondicherry for a few days hopefully will get a chance to visit ashrams around the gallery. If you are in Pondicherry do drop in at Aurodhan Art Gallery.

For those who can not come physically, Preeti has arranged for an Online exhibition of the paintings on display there. You can visit it by clicking here. I will ask her to add more photos of our trip.

10 Promising artists in TED by Rubin Agrawal (Why Its an ill-prepared Presentation )

Came to know of this quick presentation of 10 Artists. (Art works are good However presentation by Ravin Agrawal is very ill prepared

A) There is a conflict of Interest

The Word Promising is very esoteric. Promise of what ... !!!

Why does Ravin think these are Promising artists. He does not mention any reasons or how he finalized the list of names ???

Why should I take his word on it. He is himself an investor from TED profile. If he is he trying to push what Art Stocks he has, there are places better suited than TED.
as Mentioned where are the economic, political and technological factors.??? I do not see them anywhere in presentation.

B) WHO are the artists ?? can you please repeat!!!

Subodh Gupta and Jitesh Kallat are already big names. As Ravin just rushed past citing names. I had to Look into comments to get the list of artists These were totally new names. Except the two I mentioned (SG and JK).

PS I dug into comments section to get the names. (There also I do not get it completely, - Raqs Media Collective can not be an Aritst!!! )

C) Not utilising the full time.

Normally 18 min are given to presenter to present in TED and it felt as if Ravin has left us shortchanged with using just 6 min (1/3) of it. This presentation looks as if you tried to put together something quickly in half an hour and present in TED.

The vedio is embedded below. See if you miss the same things as I do. (May be I am just a nitpicking didactic artist getting too old).

PS : There was a invite from ART India for entries for Promising Artists. (Wonder if its that!!!!) As of today 23 Jan 2010 I do not see any info on Art India website

( Disclaimer: I am myself an artist and my name is NOT in this list. so you might think I am just nitpicking. I have nothing against the artists themselves All the works presented are great and my best wishes to all those artists except Subodh Gupta and Jitesh Kallat who have already made it in art world. I feel strongly for my field of work. If someone talks about it They better do a good JOB. TED is a world stage you need to prepare well).

My Personal opinion is Neville Tulli from Osian's could perhaps have done a better job. He deals with far more variety of artists and their vocations

Let me know in comments what you think

Happy New Year 2010

Hi Folks,

Looking forward to 2010,

I already have a scheduled solo exhibition in Pondicherry in March 2010 . This will be shortly after my daughters exams have ended .

Looking back at 2009

My events and participations swelled a little more.

1. Pune - India Art Gallery Exhibition, India
2. Gujrat kala Praishad Group Exhibition, India
3. MP Foundation Swaraj Bhawan Bharat Bhawan Group Exhibition, India
4. Solo Exhibition in Rangayan Art Gallery Bhopal, India
5. Women Painters in India Group Show in Bharat Bhawana, India
6. Landfill Art (Global Project)
7. Vinyasa Art Gallery Group show Chennai, India

So it was good. However I am not satisfied. If only I got to exhibit my works outside India that could be great. There is so much energy and news surrounding Asian Artists in global art world. Looking for that BIG break and will try for that in 2010. :)

One of my lastt works in 2009, It is loosely based on same colour scheme as GulMohar - theFlameTree.

Happy New Year 2010 and best wishes.