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September 2002 New York- Bose Pacia Gallery presents a solo exhibition of new works by
Jitish Kallat from September 19 through November 2, 2002. The gallery is located at 508 West 26th Street on the 11th Floor, in the Chelsea district of New York City. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 12-6pm and by appointment. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, September 19th from 6 to 8pm. The public is invited.
Seven canvases, monumental in scale and theme alike, share the space with intimate works on paper. Each work serves as an indictment, scathing in its estimation of the terror and oppression pervasive in our present history. Influenced both by the brutal violence unleashed against a Muslim minority in Gujurat, India and the devastating events of September 11th, 2001, First Information Report presents a bittersweet reflection upon survival and mortality in the new century. It is a vision that assumes extreme proportion amid the teeming masses of Kallat's home city of Mumbai.
Whether exposing the corruption of state or alerting the viewer to the plight of the street waif, his canvases lay bare the struggle for existence via a wholly contemporary aesthetic. Portraits of man, in isolation and en masse, are rendered in neutral shades and blurred forms, recalling electronic distortions of a flickering television. Backgrounds painted in vivid tones and surfaces subtly ridged in horizontal tracks evoke mammoth video monitors. Typographic symbols borrowed from a ubiquitous word processing program provoke the viewer to confront subversion of language and modes of propaganda. Employing techniques ranging from the traditional application of pigment with brush and rag to photocopy transfers to spattering paint with a vacuum cleaner, Kallat exploits his media to extract its full potential of expression.
Each work provides evidence of institutional failure and suspension of reason, and together, these individual statements combine to register the vociferous protests of one artist-citizen. Yet these are protests imbued with the kind of urgency generated only by optimism. His wrenching depictions of street children are rendered hopeful by the inclusion of an anonymous benefactor providing nourishment. Drawings of people at Mumbai bus stops and train stations are stained with burnt orange and yellow, evoking a city history riddled with violence and mayhem. Yet, these passengers offer up smiles as they jostle good-naturedly amongst each other and accept the inevitable crowds and confusion of urban life. Merely a preliminary diagnosis on the contemporary state of modern existence, Jitish Kallat's First Information Report anticipates redemption and renewal.
Jitish Kallat returns to New York for his second solo exhibition at Bose Pacia. Born in 1974, he studied at the Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai and received their Govt. First Prize in 1996. Since then, he has garnered numerous accolades at prestigious exhibitions across the globe and his work is included in many significant private and public collections worldwide.