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September 2007 New York- Bose Pacia Gallery presents
"Half Full: Part I", an exhibition of new works by
Mithu Sen from September 28 through November 3, 2007. The gallery is located at 508 West 26th Street on the 11th Floor, in New York City. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 to 6 pm and by appointment. There will be an opening reception on September 28 from 6 to 8pm. The public is invited.
In Half Full, Mithu Sen transforms Bose Pacia into a lush forest in which different versions of the artist pose and play. Sen pursues the idea of self and the influence of society on the development of her own personality. Half Full is a large-scale installation comprised of a variety of media, including mixed media works on paper, photographs, and video. Through these works, Sen explores the various permutations of identity that one can create and try on, depending on necessity or desire. The artist hopes the exhibition will inspire the viewer to go through a similar process of self-analysis.
In 2006, Sen participated in a residency program in Bahia, Brazil, which has had a profound impact on her work. Her experiences traveling abroad and interacting with people around the world provided some of the inspiration for Half Full. While traveling, Sen was often surprised by others' reactions to her. She translated these interactions into a show that incorporates her own personal experience into a body of work that can provoke the viewer onto new self critical tangents.
"I try to provoke the viewer to question our social values: to question what we do as human beings. The humor in the work is meant to invite the viewer to play and interact with the ideas and meanings of 'self'. By engaging with the work, the viewer is subconsciously applying my caricatures to their own lives. I use humor to reveal all the social, emotional, political, and all together fundamental aspects of identity." (Mithu Sen, speaking about Half Full: Part I, August 2007)
Half Full includes nine large 'self-portraits'. Each of these stunning and shocking works evokes a different personality that Mithu Sen has created for herself. Sen unitizes her trademark aesthetic in this work by including neo-surrealist themes as well as a variety of collage elements such as faux fur and brightly colored fabric, making these works both thought provoking and beautiful. The exhibition also includes a larger than life installation of intestinal tracks, which lurk subtly in a darkened corridor of the gallery. The artist has always been fascinated by the human body and sexuality, as indicated by the long phallic tendrils of this looming soft sculpture as well as several of the large works on paper that illustrate a variety of innards and entrails.
Born in Burdwarn in 1971, Mithu Sen received her BA and MFA in painting from Visva Bharti, Kala Bhavan, in Santiniketan, in 1991. Following the completion of her degree, Ms. Sen went on to study at the Glasgow School of Art, in the United Kingdom in 2001. Mithu Sen has had numerous international solo exhibitions. Her most recent solo New York exhibition was a site specific installation completed as part of an artist residency called: It's Good to be Queen (Bose Pacia Artist Space, New York, 2006). The artist has also participated in numerous international group shows including Horn Please: Narratives in Contemporary Indian Art (Kunstmuseum, Bern, 2007) and Tiger by the Tail: Videos by Indian Female Artists (Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, 2007). The artist has been the recipient of several international awards, including the UNESCO Ashburg Scholarship for Brazil (2005-2006), and the Charles Wallace India Trust Award in the United Kingdom (2000-2001). Ms. Sen lives and works in New Delhi, India.