Benita Fernando asks curators, critics and gallerists to pick a name each for “undiscovered” artists, young and mid-career. Here are 10 names all you art lovers should be watching out for
Top 10 young artists whose works you should start following now
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PARUL GUPTA,36
New Delhi: spatial drawings
Gets gallerist Dr Arshiya Lokhandwala's vote
What makes Parul's practice distinct is her careful reading and engaging with the environment inspired by architectural lines. Her interest lies in what happens when the line leaves the paper and enters the space, as she has done in her recent work, Spatial Drawing/Installation. Her unique methodology helps her express subtle shifts in the environment, whether it is through drawing on paper, photography or a site-specific installation. As Parul suggests, her work is "a line taken for a walk".
Drawing Sculpture #3, powder coat on aluminium rods (2016)
See Her At: Artist project at India Art Fair, 2017
NARESH KUMAR,28
Mumbai: rawings and performance
Gets art consultant Farah Siddiqui's vote
Naresh has been selected to be part of Passagens, collateral events of the 57th Venice Biennale at The Palazzo Loredan on Campo Santo Stefano, Italy.
He is being appreciated more internationally than in India.
Residue, photographs of a performance, shown at the Gwangju Biennale 2016
There are two parts to his work - he refers to art history and weaves in his own personal narratives. A work to see is from a series called, Stories My Country Told Me, in which he uses indigo to tell the historic fight of indigo planters and his own story of migration.
See him at: Solo show at New Gallery, Paris, in 2017
NIBHA SIKANDER,33
Baroda/Janjira: papercut works
Gets gallerist Hena Kapadia's vote
Nibha's intricately composed paper cut-outs create three dimensional creatures - real and imagined.
Moth-03 (2016) 6.5 inches in diameter
A graduate of MSU, Baroda, she works with immense precision and in detail to make almost true-to-life insects, butterflies and birds.
Her series of papercut insects was displayed at the Godrej India Culture Lab, in Vikhroli, for a period of six months starting November 2015. Her interest in life and engagement with her process is palpable in her work, and I'm certain that her work will grow immensely in the coming years.
See Her At: Solo show at Tarq in December 2018
Confronted Landscape, from a series under progress
MADHU DAS,29
Mumbai: installations and drawings
Gets gallerist Mortimer Chatterjee's vote
I first got to know the work of Madhu Das through his application to the Inlaks Fine Art Awards.
It was immediately clear that he was an incredibly gifted artist. Since then, he has received a number of awards, including residencies at the TIFA studios, Pune, and Harvard University, USA.
At the heart of Madhu's wildly diverse work, which includes land art and performance, is a wit that sweetens, what are often, weighty themes. He has big presence on the Mumbai contemporary art scene as a collaborator, confidant and general man-about-town.
See Him At: Emerging Artists from South Asia, Harvard, in March 2017
AYESHA SINGH,26
New Delhi/Chicago: sculptures, installation and photographs
Gets art patron Feroze Gujral's vote
Ayesha is a young artist studying at the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago.
Hybrid Drawings (2016), in wrought iron
Her works explore the physical conversion of two-dimensional drawings and photographs, into three-dimensional spaces that can be walked through and experienced.
Through photography, sculpture and installation, the works delve into conversations about hybrid constructions that emulate architectural tropes from various cultures.
See Her At: Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, in February 2017
Wreathe, made of oak tree roots and metal stand
ANJANA KOTHAMACHU,31
Mumbai/Bengaluru: video and sculpture
Gets art india editor Abhay Sardesai's vote
In videos composed with lyrical intensity, Anjana sensitively explores the inter-warfare between shapes, objects, colours and mood. She has been a student of sculpture, animation and psychology.
Her installations often use branches, roots and other found material, and interestingly, many of them are mounted in public spaces -between buildings, in niches or suspended overhead.
Her performance art projects have tried to unsettle the givens of gender and identity positions.
See Her At: Art installation at Cubbon Park Metro Station, Bengaluru, this summer
AMOL PATIL,29
Mumbai: video, installation and sculpture
Gets curator Zasha Colah's vote
Amol's first solo was at the age of 25 in 2013 at Clark House, a union of artists. It was critically acclaimed, with significant reviews in leading art magazines. He may be one of the only artists in the world to have achieved this with a first solo.
When Beatrix Ruf, a dynamic curator and director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam saw his work in a group show in 2014, she advised the museum, buy it, and they did.
Sleep Walker, made of dust and found objects, from the series Kamarados, at Habit-Co-Habit, Pune Biennale (2017)
Amol studied under Nikhil Chopra in Mumbai, and realised his capacity for performance art and the performative capacity of objects, which he turned to discuss death and life in audiotapes, skin colour, the theatre, and the kineticism of the Bombay chawl.
See Him At: Clark House Collective, Colaba
Shoot for the Moon Even If You Miss You will Land Among the Stars
ABHISHEK NARAYAN VERMA,26
Baroda: lithographs
Gets gallerist Priyasri Patodia's vote
I have been following his practice since he was a student at the College of Arts, Vadodara.
I came across his work titled, Dysfunctionality III, which left an impact on me.
The strategy of using humour to convey tragedy was intriguing and interesting. Abhishek says printmaking helps him understand the multiple view of a single element - like the mirror images (prints) - and that he can be involved at every step, physically and mentally.
See Him At: Artist Print 3 show this summer at Priyasri Art Gallery
Indestructible past of the city (2013) installed at Jaya He GVK Museum
CHARMI GADA SHAH,36
Mumbai: sculptures and installations
Gets curator and cultural theorist Nancy Adajania's vote
Charmi, a post graduate from the Chelsea College of Art, London, conducts a forensic study of our derelict neighbourhoods and heritage structures.
She pieces together broken tiles and flaking plaster, making miniature models from clues collected from a botched crime scene - boarded-up windows, bridges that go nowhere or staircases that hang in the air.
Hers is not nostalgia for the urban ruin or a commitment to restore the past to pristine glory.
See Her At: Jaya He GVK Museum, Mumbai International Airport
Dust We Breathe from a solo show, Lifetimes, at Vadehra Art Gallery (2014)
GIPIN VARGHESE,36
Thiruvananthapuram: paintings
Gets gallerist Roshini Vadehra's vote
Gipin received his BFA Painting from College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum, and won FICA's Emerging Artist Award in 2012. He holds a PhD in mural and altar paintings of Kerala's churches as well.
His works, while detailed and beautifully presented, look at news and imagery of violence, death and struggle emerging from non-urban contexts within India.
Gipin often goes about 're-documenting' popular images from sensationalised news stories, paying tribute in his own language to the human element of loss and struggle that are realities forgotten in a fast-paced world.
See Him At: India Art Fair, 2017
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