ART & COLLECTOR’S EDITIONS BY TASCHEN: AN ART BOOK EXHIBITION
2 February - 15 April 2012
In a unique collaboration with world-renowned publisher TASCHEN, Serindia Gallery presents ART & COLLECTOR’S EDITION by TASCHEN.
“The most exquisite books on the planet.” Wallpaper, London
“The most beautiful, eccentric and sexy books around.” GQ, New York
German publisher TASCHEN produces some of the world’s most beautiful art books — books as art objects. Serindia Gallery presents a selection of Taschen’s finest titles, including some of the most spellbinding Art and Collector’s Editions. These exquisite art editions are shown at this exhibition, including signed prints by famous photographers, fashion designers, and film directors. Serindia Gallery brings them together to create this unique show which serves as a visual guide for the collectors to start his or her art library and for book enthusiasts to appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship of art books — one of the publishing world’s greatest accomplishments. Some of TASCHEN’s books are those you would “sneak a glance around the store to make sure nobody is looking.” This exhibition is one of the few chances, especially in Asia, to see these amazing book productions.
WATERCOLOUR PAINTINGS OF UNIQUE AND EXQUISITE ORCHIDS AND OTHER PLANTS OF THE HIMALAYAS by Hemlata Pradhan
ภาพวาดสีนํ้ากล้วยไม้และพรรณพฤกษาแห่งหิมาลัย โดย เหมลตา ประธาน
17 MARCH - 1 MAY 2011
17 มีนาคม - 1 พฤษภาคม 2554
Botanical illustration is a genre that reflects the development of art and science for over 500 years. In the Renaissance there was an interest in naturalism and expeditions that left Europe in search for new lands led to new discoveries of plant species. In the 17th and 18th century, botanical art gained popularity in the west, especially England and Scotland where gardening became popular among aristocrats who began collecting and cataloguing exotic and native plants. Sadly, this painting genre has begun to fade in modern times.
This exhibition features watercolour paintings by India’s foremost botanical painters - HEMLATA PRADHAN. A gifted child in the Pradhan family that has run orchid nursery for three generations in the hills of Kalimpong, Darjeeling, India, Hemlata Pradhan graduated with a diploma in botanical illustrations from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with scholarship from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, Canada, and a Master’s Degree in Natural History Illustration from the Royal College of Art, London, with scholarship from the Association of Commonwealth Universities, London. It is rare in modern days to see such a talent in botanical illustrations: orchids and plants are alive in her paintings, which also are scientific records of vanishing species.
Amongst some large works of orchids in habitat, other paintings in the show include Bailey’s Himalayan Blue Poppy, studies of Himalayan Cobra Lilies, and also a painting of Himalayan Blue Bamboo from the collection of her father Udai C. Pradhan, one of India’s renowned botanists.
Pradhan’s works have been exhibited at the British Museum and are in the collection of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England. The Kingdom of Bhutan also commissioned her for its orchid stamps.
Serindia Gallery is proud to present this special exhibition. Hemlata Pradhan’s work not only enriches our knowledge of orchids and plants and its endangered habitats, but it also helps preserve an art form that is dying out in modern times.
MEN OF RAJASTHAN by Waswo X. Waswo
บุรุษแห่งราชสถาน นิทรรศการภาพถ่ายระบายสี ของ วาสโว เอกซ์ วาสโว
27 JANUARY - 27 FEBRUARY 2011
27 มกราคม - 27 กุมภาพันธ์ 2554
Born in America, Waswo X. Waswo has spent the past ten years of his life living and travelling in India. He has kept a home and studio in Udaipur, Rajasthan, for the past five. The photographs in this exhibition are taken from a large body of work that the artist broadly refers to as A Studio in Rajasthan.
In this series Waswo playfully re-examines the genres of both the ethnographic photograph-as-document that is linked to the colonial era, as well as the fantasy-inspired make-believe that has emanated from traditional Indian portrait studios. Using the dual attributes of each, fact and fiction, Waswo concocts an inspired mix of homage and critique. The resultant images straddle a line between the retro and the contemporary that resist easy efforts to classify them. These works are layered. They can cause a viewer to rethink what he initially perceives, question the dialogue set up between photographer and model, and eventually challenge the viewer’s own preconceptions.
Waswo works with a variety of local craftsmen and artists in Udaipur. Foremost among these is Rajesh Soni, a third generation photo hand-colourist whose grandfather, Prabhu Lal Soni, was once court photographer to the Maharana Bhophal Singh of Mewar. Soni’s careful craftsmanship in the painting of Waswo’s digital prints is an integral part of the process. His immense contributions to the project have been well documented, and as chief collaborator he signs the reverse of each print.
Men of Rajasthan is a selection of male portraiture selected from the series discussed above, and is accompanied by a newly released book of the same name. More so than elsewhere in India, males hold a special status in Rajasthani culture. Men of Rajasthan takes a look at that world through evocative imagery, wry humour and poignant anecdote.
NIRVANIC ICONS: SACRED LUANG PRABANG แลรูปสู่นิพพาน: วิถีพุทธแห่งหลวงพระบาง
25 NOVEMBER 2010 - 16 JANUARY 2011
25 พฤศจิกายน 2553 - 16 มกราคม 2554
Nirvanic Icons: Sacred Luang Prabang, an exhibition of platinum prints by Hans Georg Berger, explores Theravada Buddhism in present-day Laos, offering an artistic perspective on the lives of the Buddhist sangha and laypersons of Luang Prabang. For over two decades, from 1993 to today, Berger, a photographic artist-documentarian, has created a unique photographic documentation of Lao Buddhist culture. The photographs shown in this exhibition are done in “platinum prints” format, a century-old photographic process that has been used by great masters of photography. It has been called the “king of visual print” for its exceptional refinement, its expanded tonal range, and a unique luminous quality. This exhibition combines the images of an ancient Buddhist tradition with the most subtle of all techniques in photographic print-making — a distinct combination that has never before been done in such a scale.
THE BODY NEVER LIES: WOODCUT PRINTS BY S. CHANDRAMOHAN
11 MAY - 20 JUNE 2010 (SHOW EXTENDED TIL 20 JUNE)
“The body never lies.” — Martha Graham, dancer
This exhibition features the first solo exhibition by one of India’s finest contemporary artists: Srilamantula CHANDRAMOHAN. Hailing from a traditional carpentry family in South India, Chandramohan won several important national and international awards, including the Lalit Kala Akademi award, India’s most prestigious national art award, and the Bharat Bhavan Bienniale, an international print competition in 2008. His works explore the issue of sexuality, desire, and guilt, communicated powerfully through the medium of large-format woodcut prints. The bold, graphic use of color is one of the signifying traits of Chandramohan’s body of work, as is his iconic self-representation. His works are an important part in the evolution of contemporary Indian art in the 21st century. Chandramohan is at the forefront of the new vanguard of modern Indian artists, pushing his contemporaries and the viewing public into an era of fresh, bold, and challenging artistic expression.
AVALOKITEŚVARA: Buddhist Paintings from Nepal, Selections by Robert Beer
11 March - 25 April 2010
Avalokiteśvara, the ‘Beholding Lord’, is the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron deity of Tibet, whose principal emanation is the Dalai Lama, and who is invoked by the famous six-syllable mantra: OM MA-NI PAD-ME HUM. In the Newar Buddhist tradition of Nepal he is commonly known as Lokeśvara, the ‘Lord of the World’, or as Mahakarunika, the ‘Great Compassionate One’, who has a hundred-and-eight different manifestations. And in China he is strongly identified with the Goddess of Mercy, Guan Shi Yin (觀世音), she who ‘Hears the Cries of this World’, who likewise has a hundred-and eight different manifestations.
According to a popular legend Avalokiteśvara once vowed that he would first free all beings from suffering before attaining liberation himself, so he set about this task with great effort. But when he saw how few he had so far saved compared to how many still remained, his sudden despair caused his head and body to explode into many pieces. Seeing his plight, Amitabha Buddha then came swiftly to his aid, and from all the shattered fragments reconstructed his body into a far more powerful form, with eleven heads and a thousand arms, so that he was able to gaze compassionately over all beings in the ten directions and reach out to them with his many arms. Another legend tells how two lakes were formed from Avalokiteśvara’s tears of despair, and from these lakes arose the lotus-borne forms of Green and White Tara.
Avalokiteśvara is the principal Bodhisattva or ‘Spiritual Son’ of red Amitabha Buddha, who presides over the western direction as the ‘Lord of the Padma or Lotus Family’, whose symbol is a lotus. In the Newar tradition Lokeshvara most popular aspect is as Padmapani, the ‘Lotus-bearer’, who stands gracefully upon a lotus-pedestal while holding the stem of a lotus in his left hand. Lokeshvara is usually white or sometimes red in colour, with two, four, eight or a thousand arms, and his characteristic emblem is an antelope-skin that is draped over his left shoulder.
Although this Bodhisattva of Compassion is widely adored and venerated throughout the Buddhist world, many of his unique Newar aspects are still unknown outside the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. So we have chosen to present some of these rare aspects of Lokeshvara in this exhibition, along with those that are more widely known within the Indo-Tibetan or Mahayana Buddhist traditions.
Robert Beer is internationally-renowned author of the Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs (Serindia Publications) and a specialist of Buddhist paintings from Nepal. His selections for this exhibition include pieces from living master painters in Nepal.
VIEW THE COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL WORKS
VIEW THE COLLECTION OF ARCHIVAL PRINTS
MONGOLIA: Platinum Prints by Hamid Sardar-Afkhami
28 January - 28 February 2010
Inspired by the pioneers of ethno-photography during the Age of Exploration, such as Edward Curtis who photographed the Indian peoples of North America and Canada, Hamid Sardar-Afkhami dedicates his cameras to making a visual record of Mongolia’s last nomad tribes. Following horse-breeders, bear-hunters, wolf-tamers, eagle-masters and reindeer riders on their seasonal migrations, Sardar-Afkhami presents timeless iconic compositions that take us to a place where men still speak the language of the animals.
This Mongolia portfolio is featured in platinum prints - considered the ‘king of visual prints’ – they display unsurpassed and long-lasting details, produced by direct exposure of negatives on platinum deposits brushed directly into the paper. Some photographers only printed certain images in platinum (Irving Penn’s photographs, for example). The result is greater tonal range, detail and longevity unmatched by other methods using classic silver gelatin or the digital process.
TAYLOR CAMP 1969-1977 by John Wehrheim
15 December 2009 - 16 January 2010
“Impressive! The photos are a real time capsule of an era and a place — humane and atmospheric — and news to most people. I love the faces and bodies, and the theme of violated Eden, or After the Fall…” — PAUL THEROUX
In 1969, Howard Taylor, brother of actress Elizabeth, bailed out a rag-tag band of thirteen young Mainlanders jailed on Kauai (an island 90 miles northwest of Honolulu) for vagrancy and invited them to camp on his oceanfront land. Soon waves of hippies, surfers and troubled Vietnam vets found their way to Taylor Camp and built a clothing-optional, pot-friendly tree house village at the end of the road on the island’s North Shore. In 1977, after condemning the village to make way for a State park, government officials torched the camp — leaving little but ashes and memories of “the best days of our lives.” Powerful photos from the seventies reveal a community that rejected consumerism for the healing power of nature while the story of Taylor Camp’s eight-year existence is documented through interviews made thirty years later with the campers, their neighbors and the Kauai officials who finally got rid of them.
TIBET OUTSIDE TIBET: A Photographer’s Journey through Tibet’s Borderlands by Luke Duggleby
5 November - 6 December 2009
Modern cartography drastically simplifies the complexities of a region and none more so than Tibet. Through generations of governance by the People’s Republic of China, maps of the world feature Tibet as the Tibetan Autonomous Region or TAR. Viewing a map it can be assumed that everything Tibetan exists within these penned boundaries. Yet all things Tibetan, its people, its culture, its languages exist in strength well beyond the boundaries of the TAR. In China, Tibetan culture exists throughout the surrounding provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan. It is in these areas that Luke Duggleby finds his Tibet. His photographs tell stories of modern pilgrims, caterpillar fungus collectors, ancient salt terraces, nomads, and Tibetan catholics.
Paris in Panorama by Jaroslav Poncar
17 September - 31 October 2009
The earliest panoramic photographs of Paris dated in the mid-1800s right at the beginning of the invention of panoramic camera. Some photographs of Paris in this format survived and are now in the Carnavalet Museum in Paris. Jaroslav Poncar’s photographs of Paris were taken with the old Russian FT-2, which is not only a tiny, pocket-sized camera but also the only panoramic camera that can be used with a 50mm lens and a standard 35mm film (whereas all others are equipped with wide-angle lens). Inspired by the great Czech photographer Josef Sudek, who created in the early 1950s a panoramic portrait of Prague, Jaroslav Poncar started in 1977 to work on a portrait of Paris. In both color and black-and-white, the exhibition shows Paris at its most serene and inspiring.
Robert Powell: Recent Works
16 July - 12 September 2009
Works by Robert Powell has long been admired by architects and scholars and have been exhibited at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Washington, DC, and the Ethnographic Museum, University of Zurich. They have also been collected by private collectors as well as by institutions. His recent works, shown here for the first time, includes new works on Mustang, Kathmandu, Angkor Wat, and imaginary series. His sense of colors and mood reflects the Himalayan landscapes; his paintings have details of precise architectural elements executed masterfully in watercolors.
