SU N DARAM TA G O R E G A L L E RY
G A L L E RY M I S S I O N Sundaram Tagore Gallery is devoted to examining the exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures. With spaces in Hong Kong, Singapore’s Gillman Barracks and New York City (in Chelsea and on Madison Avenue), the gallery was the first to focus exclusively on the rise of globalization in contemporary art. The gallery represents painters, sculptors and photographers from around the world. They each work in different mediums and use diverse techniques, but share a passion for cross-cultural dialogue. The gallery is renowned for its support of cultural activities—including poetry readings, book launches, music performances, and film screenings—that further its mission of East-West exchange.
ART CENTRAL 2016 Sundaram Tagore Gallery is pleased to present a curated exhibition of paintings, photographs and installations by an international group of artists exploring themes of cultural entanglement. Known for its boundary-pushing exhibitions, the gallery has built its reputation featuring artists who share a global prospective, living and working between cultures. This year’s Art Central presentation examines the results of these cultural exchanges through the work of such artists as Japanese painter Hiroshi Senju; Chinese sculptor Zheng Lu; Iranian painter Golnaz Fathi; Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky; Japanese-American metal artist Miya Ando; and Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. Many of the artists in this exhibition were part of Frontiers Reimagined, a global contemporary art exhibition and a Collateral Event of the 2015 Venice Biennale. The exhibition received wide acclaim and was named one of the five best exhibitions at the Biennale by The Art Newspaper.
M I YA A N D O A descendant of Bizen sword makers, New York-based emerging artist Miya Ando was raised among Buddhist priests in a temple in Okayama, Japan. Ando is half Japanese and half RussianAmerican and grew up within two distinct cultures, spending her childhood between Japan and Northern California. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in East Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and attended Yale University to study Buddhist iconography and imagery. After university, she apprenticed at the master metalsmith Hattori Studio in Japan and in 2009 did a residency at Northern California’s Public Art Academy. Combining traditional techniques of her ancestry with modern industrial technology, Ando skillfully transforms sheets of burnished steel and anodized aluminum into ephemeral, abstract paintings suffused with subtle gradations of color. The foundation of her practice is the transformation of surfaces. She produces light-reflecting gradients on her metal paintings by applying heat, sandpaper, grinders and acid, irrevocably altering the material’s chemical properties. It’s by an almost meditative daily repetition of these techniques that Ando is able to subtract, reduce and distill her concept until it reaches its simplest form. For Ando, the paradoxical pairing of metal with spiritual subject matter is intentional. She says: “My work is an exploration into the duality of metal and its ability to convey strength and permanence, yet in the same instance absorb shifting color and capture the fleetingness of light. It reminds us of the transitory nature of all things in life.” Miya Ando is the recipient of many awards, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2012. Her work has been exhibited extensively all over the world, including in a recent show curated by Nat Trotman of the Guggenheim Museum and in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the Venice Biennale curated and organized by Sundaram Tagore, in 2015. Ando has produced numerous public commissions, most notably a thirty-foot-tall commemorative sculpture in London built from World Trade Center steel to mark the ten-year anniversary of 9/11. Born in Los Angeles, 1978 | Lives and works in New York 6
Ephemeral Vermillion, 2015, urethane, pigment and resin on aluminum, 36 x 36 inches/91.5 x 91.5 cm 7
Ephemeral Autumn, 2015, urethane and pigment on aluminum, 48 x 48 inches/122 x 122 cm 8
Winter Black, 2015, urethane and pigment on aluminum, 36 x 36 inches/91.5 x 91.5 cm 9
Winter Indigo, 2015, urethane and pigment on aluminum, 48 x 48 inches/122 x 122 cm
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Red Moon Mandala, 2014, pigment, dye, lacquer on stainless steel, 40 x 40 inches/101.6 x 101.6 cm
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FE R NAN DO BOTE RO Fernando Botero is internationally renowned for his paintings and sculptures depicting rotund humans and animals. Referencing Latin-American folk art, Botero applies brightly colored paint to canvas without a trace of brushwork. This enhances his subjects’ inflated shapes and creates the appearance of a smooth surface. His cast-bronze sculptures of a similar subject matter are an extension of his paintings. Botero’s work has been included in over one hundred exhibitions worldwide and is collected by major international museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Musée Maillol, Paris; the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; and the National Museum of Colombia, Bogotá. Born in Medellin, Colombia, 1932
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Donna Seduta, 2006, bronze, 16.9 x 10.6 x 12.6 inches/43 x 27 x 32 cm 15
E D WA R D B U R T Y N S K Y Photographer Edward Burtynsky chronicles human impact on nature in his disarmingly beautiful images of industrial landscapes around the world. Burtynsky’s painterly, often abstract photographs, frequently shot from an aerial perspective, show the massive scale of environmental devastation. Burtynsky began photographing nature in the early 1980s. His early works were intimate explorations of Canada’s unspoiled landscapes. By the late 1980s, however, he turned away from the quickly disappearing natural terrain, realizing that this was the world we were losing not the one we were to inherit. Instead, he began to investigate industrial incursions into land with arresting results. This image comes from his Water series, a vast body of work begun in 2007 documenting how human interference and consumption are depleting this precious resource. Edward Burtynsky was recognized with a TED Prize in 2005. In 2006 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors. He holds six honorary doctorate degrees and his distinctions include the National Magazine Award, the MOCCA Award, the Outreach Award at the Rencontres d’Arles and the Applied Arts Magazine Complete Book Photography Award. In 2006, Edward Burtynsky was the subject of the award-winning documentary Manufactured Landscapes, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival. His newest film, Watermark, debuted in 2013. Edward Burtynsky’s works are in the collections of more than fifty museums worldwide, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the AlbrightKnox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; The Photographer’s Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, 1955 | Lives and works in Toronto
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Markarflj贸t River #1, Erosion Control, Iceland, 2012, chromogenic color print, 39 x 52 inches/99.1 x 132.1 cm 17
Shipyard #14, Qili Port, Zhejiang Province, 2005, chromogenic color print, 60 x 48 inches/152.4 x 122.9 cm 18
Stepwell #5, Nagar Kund Baori, Bundi, Rajasthan, India, 2010, chromogenic color print, 39 x 52 inches/99.1 x 132.1 cm 19
Xiluodu Dam #1, Yangtze River, Yunnan Province, China, 2002, chromogenic color print, 35 x 68 inches/88.9 x 172.7 cm
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K A M O L PA N C H O T V I C H A I Kamolpan Chotvichai addresses issues of identity and gender in her photo-based self-portraits. At the same time, she challenges the formal limitations of paper and canvas by meticulously handcutting her images, creating sinuous ribbons along various parts of her anatomy. Her goal is to dissolve her form, based on an understanding of the Buddhist teachings of the three characteristics of existence: anatta (the eternal substance that exists beyond the physical self); dukkha (sorrow and dissatisfaction); and anicca (impermanence). She obliterates her identity, eliminating her face and literally stripping away her physical form, in the process relinquishing attachment to her body. The artist received a Master of Fine Arts degree at Silpakorn University, Bangkok, and has since been awarded numerous scholarships and art prizes, including a Gold Medal at the 58th National Exhibition of Art (2012), Bangkok. Kamolpan Chotvichai was invited to participate in ON PAPER, a paper art workshop that was part of the ON PAPER—Paper & Nature exhibition at Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo. Group exhibitions include Anthropos Bangkok, Numthong Gallery, 2013; Anthropos: Navigating Human Depth in Thai and Singapore Contemporary Art, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore and New York, 2013; the 4th Young Artists Talent Art Exhibition 2013, Royal Thai Consulate-General, Los Angeles; the 2012 International Women Arts Exhibition, Lights of Women, Gwangju Museum of Art Kum Namro Wing, Metro Gallery, Korea, 2012; and Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the Venice Biennale curated and organized by Sundaram Tagore, 2015. Chotvichai was a featured artist in Thailand Eye at the Saatchi Gallery, London, which closed in January 2016. Born in Bangkok, 1986 | Lives and works in Bangkok
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Selflessness, 2013, c-type print and hand-cut paper, 37.4 x 25.2 inches/95 x 64 cm, edition 2 of 3 23
Right Hand, 2013, c-type print and hand-cut paper, 33 x 29.5 inches/84 x 75 cm, edition 1 of 3 24
Fall, 2013, c-type print and hand-cut paper, 25.6 x 35 inches/65 x 89 cm, edition 1 of 3 25
G O L N A Z FAT H I Drawing on her extensive training as a calligrapher, Golnaz Fathi uses texts and letters as formal elements, transforming traditional calligraphy into a personal artistic language. She studied classical calligraphy before she established her own style of working, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Graphics from Azad Art University, Tehran, and completing further studies at the Iranian Society of Calligraphy. Fathi works in fine pen, mostly on varnished raw, rectangular, polyptych canvases, in a limited palette of white, black, red and yellow. She layers the surface of the canvas with thousands of minute marks that echo the curvilinear forms of calligraphic letters and words. These intricate lines coalesce into minimalist compositions that can be read in multiple ways—as landscapes, electronic transmissions or atmospheric phenomena. She refrains from titling her works, which allows the viewer free reign to assign his or her own interpretation. The basis of Fathi’s practice is siah-mashq, a traditional exercise in which the calligrapher writes cursive letters across the page in a dense, semi-abstract formation. The letters aren’t meant to form words or convey meaning, but rather strengthen the skill of the scribe. Fathi reinterprets this technique, drawing inspiration from Western and Eastern sources, including American Abstract Expressionism, as well as the work of Iranian and Middle Eastern modernists who pioneered the use of the written word as a pictorial element in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By skillfully combining these various elements, she has created a unique visual language with universal appeal. Golnaz Fathi’s works are in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Brighton & Hove Museum, East Sussex, England; Carnegie Mellon University, Doha, Qatar; the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur; the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore; the British Museum, London; the Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi; and The Farjam Collection, Dubai. In 2011, Fathi was chosen as a Young Global Leader Honoree by the World Economic Forum and in 2015, her work was included in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the Venice Biennale curated and organized by Sundaram Tagore. Born in Tehran, 1972 | Lives and works in Tehran and Paris 26
Untitled, 2015, acrylic and pen on canvas, 11.8 x 23.6 inches/30 x 60 cm 27
Untitled, 2014, pen and varnish on canvas, 57.5 x 50.4 inches/146 x 128 cm 28
Untitled, 2014, acrylic, pen and varnish on canvas, 57.5 x 50.4 inches/146 x 128 cm 29
KIM JOON Kim Joon creates digital prints focusing on themes of desire, memory and fragility. He uses the human body as his canvas, superimposing tattoos and brand logos on hyperrealistic flesh and porcelain fabricated using three-dimensional modeling and rendering software. The artist has long been preoccupied with tattoos, a social taboo in Korean society, which he uses as metaphors for unconscious desires. Kim’s elaborate tableaux consist of tableware, fragments of idealized nudes and icons of Western pop culture, including guitars, cars and guns. Juxtaposing old and new, traditional Asian motifs and new media, he raises questions about conflicting forces of identity in Korea’s increasingly Westernized culture. By using brand logos and luxury products, he also explores society’s materialism, commodification and a loss of individuality in the era of globalization. Kim Joon’s works have been exhibited extensively across the globe, including in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the Venice Biennale curated and organized by Sundaram Tagore, in 2015; the Saatchi Gallery, London, where his work was featured on the cover of Korean Eye: Contemporary Korean Art, the book that accompanied the exhibition of the same name; the Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea; and the National Taiwan Museum. Born in Seoul, 1966 | Lives and works in Seoul
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Versace, 2014, digital print, 47.2 x 75.6 inches/120 x 192 cm, edition 1 of 5 31
Ebony-Tiger, 2013, digital print, 47 x 47 inches/120 x 120 cm, edition 2 of 5 32
Bird Land-Lacoste, 2013, digital print, 47 x 82.7 inches/120 x 210 cm edition, 5 of 5 33
JANE LEE Jane Lee is best known for her inventive techniques and innovative use of materials. She explores the very nature of the way paintings are constructed by treating the components of a painting— stretcher, canvas, and the paint itself—in new ways. The surfaces of her paintings are highly tactile and sensuous, often dimensional enough to be considered sculptures. In some cases, Lee dispenses with canvas altogether extruding acrylic paint directly on wooden stretchers, which results in a hollow, three-dimensional object, with the paint at the bottom seemingly giving in to gravity. Many of her works appear to move: they fall, unroll, hang or slide suggesting, in the process, everyday objects (a hose, a carpet, a window). Operating in a post-colonial Southeast Asian context, Lee re-examines the significance of Western painting practices while asserting her own culture. Pushing the boundaries of the medium, her work echoes the breakdown of cultural barriers in the era of globalization and affirms the universality of contemporary art. Jane Lee has won numerous awards, including a Celeste Prize for painting in 2011. She was a finalist for the 2007 Sovereign Asian Art Prize and was the first recipient of the Singapore Art Exhibition International Residency Prize in 2007. Her work was showcased at the Singapore Biennale 2008, Collectors’ Stage at the Singapore Art Museum in 2011 and in the Southeast Asia Platform, a curated exhibition of cutting-edge work organized by region, at Art Stage Singapore in 2014. In 2015, her work was selected for Prudential Singapore Eye, one of the largest surveys of Singapore’s contemporary art to date, held at the ArtScience Museum and Medium at Large, a year-long exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum. From January to March 2016, her work was on view in the solo exhibition Freely, Freely at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute. Jane Lee has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a diploma in fashion from LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries in Asia and Europe, among them the Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. Born in Singapore, 1963 | Lives and works in Singapore 34
Beyond the Canvas, 2016, mixed media on canvas, wood stretcher, fiberglass, 49.2 x 43.3 x 9 inches/125 x 110 x 23 cm 35
Portrait #14, 2016, acrylic paint, heavy gel on fiberglass, 40.2 x 40.2 x 9 inches/102 x 102 x 7 cm
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AN N I E LE I BOVITZ Annie Leibovitz began her career as a photojournalist for Rolling Stone magazine in 1970 while she was still a student at the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1983, she joined the staff of Vanity Fair magazine, where, over three decades, she has developed a large body of work—images of actors, directors, writers, musicians, athletes, and political and business figures—offering a collective portrait of contemporary life. Today, her photographs of celebrated figures assume gestures and poses that expose a private side of their personalities. Leibovitz is the recipient of many honors, including the International Center of Photography’s Lifetime Achievement Award, The American Society of Magazine Editors’ first Creative Excellence Award and the Centenary Medal of the Royal Photographic Society in London. Several collections of Leibovitz’s work have been published and exhibitions of her work have been held at museums and galleries worldwide, including at the National Portrait Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the International Center of Photography, New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. The exhibition Women: New Portraits, new photographs commissioned by USB, will be shown in ten cities during 2016, including Singapore and Hong Kong. Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, 1949 | Lives and works in New York.
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Carla Bruni, ÉlysÊe Palace, Paris, page proof, 30.5 x 42.9 inches/77.5 x 108.9 cm 39
Scarlett Johansson, Los Angeles, 2004, archival pigment print, 30.5 x 42.9 inches/77.5 x 108.9 cm
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ZHENG LU The gravity-defying sculptural works of Zheng Lu are deeply influenced by his study of traditional Chinese calligraphy, an art form he practiced growing up in a literary family. Zheng Lu uses language as a pictorial element, inscribing the surface of his stainless-steel sculptures with thousands of Chinese characters derived from texts and poems of historical significance. To create his metal sculptures, Zheng Lu begins with a plaster base. He then laser-cuts characters into metal, and in a fashion similar to linking chainmail, uses heat to connect the pictographs so that they can be shaped to the support. The resulting works are technically astonishing; their fluid, animated forms are charged with the energy (qi) of the universe, belying their steel composite. Zheng Lu graduated from Lu Xun Fine Art Academy, Shenyang, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture in 2003. In 2007, he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, while also attending an advanced study program at The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris. Zheng Lu has participated in numerous exhibitions in China and abroad, including at the Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem; The Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Moscow; Musée Océanographique, Monaco; Musée Maillol, Paris; the National Museum of China, Beijing; the Long Museum and the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai. In 2015, the artist had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, one of the leading institutions in the region. Born in Chi Feng, Inner Mongolia, 1978 | Lives and works in Beijing
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Water Dripping - You, 2016, stainless steel, 39.4 x 39.4 x 33.5 inches/100 x 100 x 85 cm 43
R I CA R D O M A Z A L Ricardo Mazal explores themes of life, death, transformation and regeneration through a multidisciplinary approach to painting that includes photography and digital technology. In 2004, the artist embarked on a trilogy examining the sacred burial rituals of three cultures, continents, and time periods. He began at the Mayan tomb of the Red Queen in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, then traveled to the FriedWald forest cemetery in Odenwald, Germany. His final series was inspired by the sky burials and prayer flags of Mount Kailash, Tibet’s holiest summit. Mazal conveys his experience of these spiritual sites through an iterative process of abstraction, building up the painting from photographs gathered in situ and digital manipulation. Applying and scraping away oil paint with foam-rubber blades, he creates works layered with luminous passages of color. Ricardo Mazal’s work is included in the collections of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez, Zacatecas, Mexico; Maeght Foundation, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France; and Deutsche Bank, New York and Germany. In 2006, a retrospective of his work was held at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City. In 2015, the artist’s work was included in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the Venice Biennale curated and organized by Sundaram Tagore and he had his second solo show at Mexico City’s Centro Cultural Estación Indianilla. Born in Mexico City, 1950 | Lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico and New York
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Bhutan PF 26, 2016, oil on linen, 54 x 64 inches/137.2 x 162.6 cm 45
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Left: BA Study with Red 5, 2016, oil on linen, 23 x 24 inches/58.4 x 61 cm Right: BA Study with Black 5, 2016, oil on linen, 23 x 24 inches/58.4 x 61 cm
Left: BA Study with Green 6, 2016, oil on linen, 23 x 24 inches/58.4 x 61 cm Right: BA Study with Yellow 6, 2016, oil on linen, 23 x 24 inches/58.4 x 61 cm
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Noche Transfigurada 1, 2016, oil on linen, 77 x 80 inches/196 x 203.2 cm
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PF Diptych, 2016, oil on linen, 40 x 84 inches/101.6 x 213.4 cm 50
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S T E V E M C C U R RY Magnum photographer Steve McCurry is best known for his evocative color images, many of which have become modern icons. Born in 1950 in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he studied film at Pennsylvania State University. After graduating cum laude he worked as a photojournalist for a local newspaper. Upon visiting India in 1978, the first of countless visits, McCurry embarked on what were to become the formative years of his astonishing career. As the Soviet-Afghan war commenced and Western journalists were prohibited from entering Afghanistan, McCurry crossed the border from Pakistan. He became the first photographer to bring the world images of the Afghan conflict. McCurry has since travelled extensively around the globe for his photographic projects, covering areas of international and civil conflict and documenting ancient traditions, vanishing cultures and contemporary culture. In each of his images he transcends cultural boundaries to capture the essence of human struggle, joy and unguarded moments. Steve McCurry has been honored with some of the most prestigious awards in the industry, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal, National Press Photographers Award, and an unprecedented four first-prize awards from the World Press Photo contest. In 2013 the Minister of French Culture appointed him Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. Most recently, the Royal Photographic Society in London awarded McCurry the Centenary Medal for Lifetime Achievement. McCurry has scores of book and magazine covers and countless exhibitions to his credit. Born in Philadelphia, 1950 | Lives and works in New York
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Dust Storm, Rajasthan, India, 1983, ultrachrome print, 60 x 40 inches/152.4 x 101.6 cm 53
Girl with green shawl, Peshawar, Pakistan, 2002, ultrachrome print, 24 x 20 inches/61 x 50.8 cm 54
Russian Car Old Havana, Cuba, 2010, ultrachrome print, 40 x 60 inches/101.6 x 152.4 cm 55
SOHAN QADRI The late artist, poet and Tantric guru Sohan Qadri was one of the few modern painters of note deeply engaged with spirituality. He abandoned representation early on, incorporating Tantric symbolism and philosophy into his vibrantly colored minimalist works. He began his process by covering the surface of heavy paper with structural effects by soaking it in liquid and carving it in stages with sharp tools while applying inks and dyes. As a result, the paper was transformed from a flat surface into a three-dimensional medium. The repetition of careful incisions on the paper was an integral part of his meditation. Having lived and worked in more than a dozen countries, Qadri was one of India’s many post-Independence artists who form a sprawling diaspora. He once said, “I did not want to confine myself to one place, nation and community….My approach to life has been universal, and so is my art.” Qadri was initiated into yogic practice at age seven in India, his birthplace. In 1965, he left India and began a series of travels that took him to East Africa, North America and Europe. After settling in Copenhagen in the 1970s, Qadri participated in more than forty solo shows, in Mumbai, Vienna, Brussels, London, Oslo, Stockholm, Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York. Sohan Qadri’s works are included in the British Museum, London; the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts; the Rubin Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; as well as the private collections of Cirque du Soleil, Heinrich Böll and Dr. Robert Thurman. In 2011, Skira Editore published the monograph Sohan Qadri: The Seer. Born in Chachoki, Punjab, India, 1932 and died in 2011 | Lived and worked in Copenhagen and Toronto
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Untitled, 2008, ink and dye on paper, 55 x 39 inches/139.7 x 99.1 cm 57
Uma III, 2008, ink and dye on paper, 55 x 39 inches/139.7 x 99.1 cm
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S E BASTIÃO SALGADO Sebastião Salgado has made it his life’s work to document the impact of globalization on humankind. His black-and-white prints lay bare some of the bleakest moments of modern history as well as some of the planet’s last remaining wonders. In the past three decades, Salgado has traveled to more than one hundred countries for his photographic projects and devotes years to each series in order to grasp the full scope of his topic. Breaking down barriers, he lives with his subjects for weeks, immersing himself in their environments. Salgado describes this approach as photographing from inside the circle. Each of his images is infused with empathy and respect for his subjects. The image on display comes from his most recent series, Genesis, which he began in 2004 as an antidote of sorts to the harrowing scenes encountered on previous projects. With the aim of reviving hope, Genesis pays homage to nature left unscathed by humankind. Salgado has had solo shows at the Barbican Art Gallery, London; the International Center of Photography, New York; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Photographers’ Gallery and the Natural History Museum, London; and the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. Among his many honors, Salgado has been named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2015, his work was included in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the Venice Biennale curated and organized by Sundaram Tagore. In 1998 Sebastião and Lélia Salgado founded the non-profit Instituto Terra, an organization focused on reforestation and environmental education. Since the 1990s, they have been restoring a portion of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. Born in Aimorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1944 | Lives and works in Paris
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Southern right whale, Valdes Peninsula, Argentina, 2004, gelatin silver print, 50 x 68 inches/125 x 180 cm 61
HIROSHI SENJU Japanese-born painter Hiroshi Senju is noted worldwide for his sublime waterfall and cliff images, which are often monumental in scale. He combines a minimalist visual language rooted in Abstract Expressionism with ancient painting techniques unique to Japan. Senju is widely recognized as one of the few contemporary masters of the thousand-yearold nihonga style of painting, using pigments made from minerals, ground stone, shell and corals suspended in animal-hide glue. Evoking a deep sense of calm, his waterfalls, which he creates with incredible delicacy by pouring paint onto mulberry paper on board, conjure not only the appearance of rushing water, but its sound, smell and feel. Hiroshi Senju was the first Asian artist to receive an Honorable Mention Award at the Venice Biennale (1995), and has participated in numerous exhibitions including the Beauty Project in 1996 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, London; The New Way of Tea, curated by Alexandra Munroe, at the Japan Society and the Asia Society in New York in 2002; Paintings on Fusuma at the Tokyo National Museum in 2003; and Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the Venice Biennale curated and organized by Sundaram Tagore, in 2015. Public installations include seventy-seven murals at Jukoin, a sub-temple of Daitokuji, a Zen Buddhist temple in Japan, and a large waterfall at Haneda Airport International Passenger Terminal in Tokyo. The Benesse Art Site of Naoshima Island also houses two large-scale installations. Senju’s work is in the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan; the Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo; Tokyo University of the Arts; and the Kushiro Art Museum, Hokkaido, Japan. In 2009, Skira Editore published a monograph of his work titled Hiroshi Senju. The Hiroshi Senju Museum Karuizawa, designed by Ryue Nishizawa, opened in 2011 in Japan. Born in Tokyo, 1958 | Lives and works in New York
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Waterfall, 2011, natural, acrylic pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 89.5 x 71.6 inches/228 x 182 cm 63
Suijin, 2015, natural pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 102 x 228.9 inches/259 x 581.4 cm 64
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Cliff #25, 2015, acrylic and natural pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 68.9 x 37.75 inches/175 x 96 cm
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S U N D A R A M TA G O R E G A L L E R I E S new york new york hong kong singapore
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President and curator: Sundaram Tagore Director, New York: Susan McCaffrey Director, Hong Kong: Faina Derman Director, Singapore: Melanie Taylor Designer: Russell Whitehead Contributing editor: Kieran Doherty Art consultants: Lisa De Simone, Gabrielle Mattox, Raj Sen, Shuyin Yang, Chelsea Zhao
WWW.SUNDARAMTAGORE.COM Text © 2016 Sundaram Tagore Gallery Photographs © Sundaram Tagore Gallery All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.