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Orissa is a land of multiple cultures ranging from folk to tradition to music and dance forms and many more. The visual art has been strong at the traditional level while modern contemporary art is striving for a place in cultural space. The fact that Orissa has two recognized art colleges with valuable exponents but due to the misplaced understanding at the local level, the entire environment is affected. The contemporary artists have taken their stand to propagate artistic issues since long, at least for last fifty years. But the expositions are limited to the artists rather than getting closer to the social community. The problem seems to be lying with the communicating values. The state non-cooperation and their limitations to foresee the present and future of the arts have taken disseminating position. Blame game is a strong culture that persists in the sphere by choice or otherwise. While taking stock of the matter, it seems as if one is addressing the politics in art. That is very much by chance, while the fact is no one would like to project a negative perspective of the communication, at least in a time when information technology has taken over the virtual space of interaction and art has become a substantial part of it. Well the artists have been trying to cap issues that are very much relevant and social. The present artists have somehow tried to create a positive feeling by coming together on singular platform to present their art with concern.

Art unfolds and the artists are approaching new avenues to interact. This time its the turn of many young and dynamic artists pulled together to exhibit in the Rashtriya Lalit Kala Kendra, Bhubaneswar. The group show was organized by the Ashok Art gallery (an International art gallery) operating from New Delhi promoting the art and artists. This is for the first time the young and budding artists and people of Orissa are privileged to view few international artists like Ruth Olivar Millan (USA) Thea Walstra (The Nederlands) Amna Ilyas (Pakistan). The show was scheduled between 27^th February and 5^th March 2009. Many artists those including the Orissan Master Chandrasekhar Rao, Baladev Moharatha, young reputed artists like Jagannath Panda Pratul Dash, Ramakanta Samantaray, Adwaita Gadanayak, Sitikanta Pattnaik, Pradosh Swain, Subash Pujhari, Manas Ranjan Jena and several others. Among the national artists are Dharmendra Rathore, Hukumlal Verma, Ramesh Tardal , Vinod Manwani, Indu Tripathy, Sanjoy Bose those have placed themselves in the global platform also joined the show.

For last couple of months the art scene of Orissa seems to have upgraded its activities to keep pace with the time and need. City’s art calendar has seldom been so active.Several exhibitions, Film Shows, camps and symposiums have been organised up to update the young artists with the latest global developments. This exposition truly reflected the global ideology while representing the local. This can mean one thing. Bhubaneswar is fast growing as a metropolis, said Minati Singh of TOI. The signs are quite clear and the trend of the art market has been growing over the past few year. A good number of artists and art aficionado have got into a habit of visiting art galleries have also come up to hold exhibitions in the city with an aim to popularizes love for art and create an art market. The rationale behind these exhibitions is to bring the potential of these local artists under one roof, alongside some of the noted artists of the state. This exhibition will help market the works of these small-time artists. Speaking about the camps, Ashok Nayak from New-Delhi based Ashok Art Gallery says, “earlier art camps were organized only by Lalit Kala Akademi. Since the AKademi has its own limitation, other organisations have started top take initiative to place the artists under one roof through camps and other similar events”.

The gallery organized this international exhibition of more than a hundred art works by eighty four artists comprising of paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and installations here on Friday at the Lalit Kala Akademi. “There is demand for genuine artworks and the buyers are choosing to invest in art. They are searching for fresh venues to explore the right art and therefore, we must organize regular art shows, camps and exhibitions so that chances are created for the better selection,” Mr. Nayak said. In this exhibition, he added, “we brought artists both renowned and aspiring, from all over the world so that the creative gap is lessened. Most of these have dealt with issues of major political and social concerns. Adding to the flavor of the exhibition the corporate houses have offered their patronage to the event. “Patronage is essential to the growth of art. Now the time has come when the government should invest in the growth of public art and earmark some fund for it. A growing city like Bhubaneswar has all essential facilities for it. The corporate houses and other private sector should join hand to make the difference feel to the citizens of this city”, said Ashok. Kanta Kishore Moharana, another artist said,” I am not worried about selling my sculptures. I want people to just come and have look at my creations so that they get a feel of them. The new trend has come up these days to combine sculptures with other from of art in a single item. So I tried to mingle them with my sculpture.”        

“Art has never known boundaries. It just captures viewer’s attention through colours, images and expressions, each work saying something different and important. The mystique nature of contemporary art comes alive in the work of Nederland based artist Thea Walstra’s brush work on canvas showing a looped bright light in vermillion shades as in Sajal Patra’s acrylic work where a woman stands in front of a locked door. Pratul Dash’s water cololur on paper brilliantly brings out a scene of crowd while Tapan Dash has used dry pastel on paper to produce a thought provoking face. Sculptor Biswaranjan Kar has shown his efficiency in painting, again based on his continuing work on Olive Ridley turtles”, a city based Art Critic Namita Panda said.

Exhibited at the international art exhibition of painting, drawing, sculptures, photographs, and installations these paintings stood alongside almost a hundred more of similar brilliance artists like Amna Ilyas from Pakistan, Ruth Olivar Millan, Adwaita Gadnayak, Gauranga Bariki, Sitikanta Patnaik, Jagannath Panda, Pratul Dash, Tapan Dash, Gadadhar Ojha and growing ones like Pratap Jena, Ajay Mohanty, Somanath Raut, Manas Moharana, Subash Pujhari and Kanta Kishore Moharana.

The art tradition in Orissa is so very strong that artists adapt the visual elements with subtle changes to suit contemporary makeover. In the case of Ajay Mohanty, one could easily consider these remains. They have emerged with subtle aesthetic layers with focus on the compositional patter. Stylistically different though but the gestures and colour have strong reference points. The only deviation perhaps is that of the space treatment and that make it visual strong and appealing. The present form of Anup has travelled long beyond Bihania and the transformation has remarkably shown up. The synchronization of the butterfly, the mystery and the illusory impact of the veil underlines the invisible face with intelligent symbolic. Gadadhar Ojha's Sans Titre holds the clue to the textural adventure and the space arrangement. The marble images refer to the Indian concept of bindu and vistara, a concept that deal with the centre and the periphery. The coordination that necessarily speak of the relationship in interface: the globe and the India, the local and global and its likes. Hukumlal Verma's image is a simple play of colours and its definition in overlapping pattern.

Indian contemporary art has now started evolving new paradigms and several artists have been relocating themselves in the present context. The boundaries of the mediums are intelligently merged and meaningfully redefined to engage in artistic creativity. Emotion and expression are charged with intellectual input into and outside the civilisational aspect. Jagannath Panda is such an artist who has overcome the restraint of time and space with the medium. Environment and human relationship gets attached to the expressive medium. The overlapping planes represent timeless narrative with the man calculating the journey through its triangular device locating its existence. It seems to be an endless calculation in the background. The triangle shows the past , present and future coinciding to the three angles and the human race to achieve all in one go, finally failing to synchronise the ends. The compartment below derives the sky and its relational value to the upper segment. Pratul has sensitively arranged a human-scape with photo-dynamic. The composition seem to have a sense of social congregation. He might be nostalgic with the terror strikes in Mumbai and initiates the unique oneness of the subcontinent. Tapan continues to draw with his mask(y) faces with layers of personality hidden within one self. This reality has surfaced with the racial competition to win over the world, every one individual trying to over do the other and justify the presence. This could also hint at a psychological value of human existence. Pradosh Swain has semantically drawn the earth through the bird image; upper part of the image beautifully interprets the sky with the runway at the background merging to the vistas, while the lower part reflects the dry land beginning to beg its fate looking at the past (which might have just saved its life). It is a sensitively created piece referring to the misbalance caused by human to nature.

Ruth is different and direct, creating a equilibrium between form and affection, of desire and achievement. The simple expression of the child and the mother is derived from life and diligently put forward on the canvas. And Shekh Hifzul is narrative in his form and composition, decorating the image with subtle rendering of designs and trying out mythical representation with a wing (?).  In this couple, male has the wings of desire and freedom remaining at the upper band while the female share its presence delicately supporting the figure. Thea Walstra speaks about the laser interactive rays those radiate to unite and spread around like dvani (sound), glowing into the cosmic sphere merging into the air and bringing back the sound to the ears, with the same transparency and layers.

There has been huge footfall and the viewership has widened to family people and youngsters too now. In fact many of the displayed works were bought as well. The weeklong exhibition that concluded on 5th March 2009 also included a work by the immortal art guru Chandrasekhar Rao and present master Baladev Moharatha. Though too huge for a viewer to absorb all the creations properly, almost every form of the art was present at Lalit Kala Akademi Regional Centre. One could easily find his interest as a number of subjects like environment, nature, society, beauty, spirituality, culture, and many more were included in various media like metal, wood, marble, fibre, rock in sculpture and pastel, acrylic, mixed media, water colour, graphic in paintings. This exhibition is a venture projecting the insider and the outsider to and from the subcontinent and more so in Orissa it would definitely make sense as they all bring different vocabulary on one platform.  Ashok Art Gallery has done this in Delhi before and now presenting this to the Orissa audience, and hopefully they will cater to the creative desire of the young state art forum. What we need is reasonable spirit and appreciation of the art situation today, because we live in the present and need to keep pace with time. More such exhibitions will expose us to the global happenings. This first exhibition of its kind will definitely work as a catalyst for future.

Dr Pradosh Mishra (Art Historian)

Associate Proffesor, BHU

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Bibhuti Kanungo College of Art & Crafts has been a significant chapter in contemporary orissan art. Established in 1984, the BKCAC opened up new avenues for the artists to experiment and stretch their limits without being victimised by politics. The founder members of the college have responsibly delivered an environment with human ambience where artistic freedom could find an appropriate expression. The comprehensive effort of the teachers and students in the provided space, dreamt of a new world that deals with innovation and realisation. The integrated conviction has brought the BKCAC through these twenty five years; from a rented house at Kalpana Square to its own premise at Khandagiri in Bhubaneswar, from small rooms to spacious studios, from deputed teachers to permanent faculties, from town exhibitions to international exposure. In these years there have been ups and downs but the nuance and vibe of the associates has remained intact

Art education has been a non-state affair in Orissa. While the richness of the cultural resources has attracted many artists and scholars from all over the globe to enrich their knowledge, least has been ever thought for its development by the government. In spite of all the snags the resources have inspired several intellectuals to build on it a strong foundation that could be able to carry the legacy forward.

Bibhuti Kanungo College of Art & Crafts has been a significant chapter in contemporary orissan art. Established in 1984, the BKCAC opened up new avenues for the artists to experiment and stretch their limits without being victimised by politics. The founder members of the college have responsibly delivered an environment with human ambience where artistic freedom could find an appropriate expression. The comprehensive effort of the teachers and students in the provided space, dreamt of a new world that deals with innovation and realisation. The integrated conviction has brought the BKCAC through these twenty five years; from a rented house at Kalpana Square to its own premise at Khandagiri in Bhubaneswar, from small rooms to spacious studios, from deputed teachers to permanent faculties, from town exhibitions to international exposure. In these years there have been ups and downs but the nuance and vibe of the associates has remained intact.To mark this , all the students passed
from BKCAC has formed an organization AlumniBKCAC, and it will work towards upliftment and promotion of college and orissan art.
Some AlumniBKCAC are: Adwaita Gadanayak, Jagannath Panda, Pratul Dash, Sudhanshu Sutar, Ashok Nayak,Tapan Dash, M.Sovan Kumar, Pradosh Mishra, Pradosh Swain, Sambit Panda, Anup Chand, Prabir Dalai, Pratap Jena, Kanta Kishore Moharana, Paresh Choudhury, Deepak Harichandan, Ajay Mohanty, Siba Prasad Sahu,Meenaketan Patnaik, Ranjan Mallik, Rakesh Ratan, Smruti Ranjan Nayak,Manoj Mohanty, Swarup Panigrahi, Manas Ranjan Jena, Subhash Pujhari, Panchanan Samal, Pradeep Pandey, Rajesh Nayak, Sanjeev Sahoo, Pranati Panda, Naresh Das, Bibhu Patnaik, Satya Padhi, Subrat Mullick, Anjan Sahu, Tarakant Parida
AlumniBKCAC
City Office : Plot-132 1st Floor,Forest park, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India, Pin-751009
Campus Office : B.K.College of Art and Crafts,Tapovana,Khandagiri
Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India, Pin-751030
Web : http://www.alumnibkcac.org/

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists.
Visit our gallery
http://www.ashokartgallery.com
Video: Jagannath Panda Vice President AlumniBKCAC

From past 13 yrs have been constantly experimenting .today my media are acrylic.when I paint, I try to reproducing my sense of imagination, my experience as well as my emotions in the form of different textures, brush strokes and forms, some times my works have metaphor of society and sometime open to interpretation, said a young and promising Indian artist Ramesh Terdal.

His expressions through creative mediums are the form of an inward journey. It reflects how he conceive his existing potentials and true towards life .Ramesh Terdal started his journey with inward flow of light (journey through life) as his subject of paintings which belongs to every walk of life voilant mind,cruel gunman image,exposing bodys,they made their body as a earning source to exposing body ,black shadows over society,superemo image, power dominated image,how passion inter built with once day to day life, imbalance society. a struggle that is existing within the complexity life.India is a country where life and struggle is not rolling in a parallel way but it is an endless zigzag competition of living. Where lives are continuously struggling with unknown anxiety, fear and heat rate.in this struggle/juggling I am finding hope of smile metaphore of kid,infant,in innocent faces, once he said.
His work, for quite some time, has found inspiration / borrows motifs from the mass media. The black and white photographic images adopt a documentary style of address, presenting a snippet of everyday reality, such as we would be likely to find in a newspaper or magazine clipping. Apart from this stencils, and advertisements, Magazines, photographs.like cut out figures and billboard hoardings. The cutout has become a vehicle for him to transport populations to different localities and diverse societies. It also helps him to look at the social fabric today. After all what is our social structure? What relationships are we building up within our society ?He said, “I do not believe in concrete structures like the state and religion. They are both artificial entities. In reality there are no marked boundaries it is a palimpsest.”
Painting is his passion and journey ,so for,has been quite and eventful. There are things to learn,unlearn and learn every day,as an aspiring art practitioner we have social responsibility on us there is lot to learn things around us; keeping these things in to mind that we have to convey the society about right and wrong i fallow my heart and paint for society.
Ramesh believe that all art reflects on ones own ideal state of beauty and he look at it as a concept of personal transformation. Ramesh’s work has therefore a certain meditative connotation, as it strives to uncover an ideal of harmony and stability that remains however, forever ephemeral.

India Habitat Centre (New Delhi): Ramesh Terdal

Venue: Open Palm Court Gallery India Habitat Centre Lodhi Road, New Delhi

Dates: 23-28 October, 2008, 11 am - 8 pm daily

Website: http://www.ashokartgallery.com/

Details: First time in New Delhi presenting a very talented and promising young artist Ramesh Terdal. Ashok Art Gallery is going to host a show of 18 recent paintings of artist Ramesh Terdal At Open Palm Court Gallery India Habitat Centre.

COME AND JOIN US FOR A DRINK(NA) ON 23RD OCT AT 6 PM

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists.
Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.

The recent Art Summit was the Indian art scene’s attempt to climb a new rung in its international aspirations, says NISHA SUSAN
An astounding 10,000 art enthusiasts walked in to witness India’s First International Art Fair, India Art Summit(TM) 2008, firmly establishing it as a one stop destination for art in India. With an overwhelming mix of art collectors, artists, critics, curators, students and art enthusiasts from across India and overseas, the Summit achieved exactly what it set out to - making art, and the knowledge of art, accessible to a widespread audience.
Commercially speaking, the fair clocked in a record sale of approximately 50%, with the 34 participating galleries selling over 280 artworks worth Rs.10 crores approximately. Given that the total value of the 550 artworks on display was approximately Rs. 20 crores, India Art Summit has emerged as one of the most successful first editions of any art fair across the world.
With all eyes now on India, event producers Hanmer MS&L, have announced plans to schedule India Art Summit 2009 between 19th - 22nd August’ 2009 in New Delhi. Next year, the fair is proposed to be over three times bigger and applications are already pouring in from across India and world. While in the first year, the focus was largely on Indian art and Indian galleries, the second year will see participation from galleries across the world showcasing a sizeable array of artworks from different parts of the world.

Ashok Art Gallery is a five-yearold Delhi gallery that largely functions online. A mom-and-pop operation with a handful of unknown artists, Ashok Art Gallery has never had any exposure in the media. Their only previous art fair experience was with the Mumbai art expo earlier this year. As one among 35 galleries that participated in the recent India Art Summit (between August 22 and 25), Ashok Art Gallery did not expect to become frontpage news. But their 27-year-old Oriya artist Kanta Kishore’s marble sculptures of rolled-up newspapers were sold within hours of the fair’s opening. Gallerists Ashok Nayak and Kavita Vig, Kavita’s husband Bharat and septuagenarian mother-in-law watched astonished as the art young Indian superstar Subodh Gupta and politician Maneka Gandhi came to their stall. And in their wake, thousands of visitors and the press.Sculptures and installations sold almost as well as paintings, signalling a new trend. The panel of speakers and choice of topics at the Art Forum also drew many accolades and was deemed as amongst one of the best such initiatives of its kind, internationally.

Mr. Sunil Gautam, Managing Director, Hanmer MS&L commenting on the fair said, “It is great to see that India Art Summit has emerged as the most inclusive collaborative art platform in India in it’s very first year. We believe that this initiative is a step in the right direction to put India on the global art fair circuit.”
Commenting on the success of the fair, Mr. Philip Hoffman, Chief Executive, The Fine Art Fund said “The Indian market is very important in the global art scene and this fair is a major step. I can imagine this to be major fair in Asia competing alongside London, Miami and Basel in the next 5-10 years. The sales results of the fair seemed very impressive by comparison to other fairs in their first year.”
Applications for participation in India Art Summit 2009 can be submitted at http://www.indiaartsummit.com
India Art Summit - Backgrounder
The art fraternity in India has for long felt a gap and the need for a collaborative industry platform in the country owing to the phenomenal growth and global interest in Indian art. While the art fraternity the world over gets numerous opportunities to interact and collaborate through various art fairs, biennales & expos, there was no such platform in India. Therefore the time was right for India to offer a suitable platform for art. The initiative has received invaluable recognition and endorsement from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India and Sotheby’s.
The Summit hopes to achieve the dual purpose of, on one hand, serving as a window for International collectors to get a single access point to Indian art and, on the other, exposing the Indian collectors to a range of global Art that will be showcased at the fair in the coming years. More than just a place for buying and selling art, this initiative will enable diverse stakeholders from India and around the world to come together and discuss the creative and commercial aspects of Indian art.
Today, Indian art is greatly appreciated both internationally and within the country, annually growing at 30-35%, the Indian art market is currently worth Rs 1500 crores. The Indian art market has gone up by 485 percent in the last decade making it the fourth most buoyant art market in the world. The total auction market size of Indian art has changed from US $5 million in 2003 - just five years back - to nearly US $150 million this year.