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GALLERY MISSION Sundaram Tagore Gallery is devoted to examining the exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures. With spaces in Hong Kong, Singapore 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.
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ANILA QUAYYUM AGHA Anila Quayyum Agha examines issues of global politics, cultural identity, mass media and gender roles in her multi-disciplinary practice. The Pakistani-American artist is best known for her immersive, large-scale light installations in which she laser-cuts elaborate patterns into three-dimensional cubes. Suspended and lit from within, the cubes cast lace-like, floor-to-ceiling shadows that completely transform the surrounding environment, alluding to the richly ornamented public spaces such as mosques that Agha was excluded from as a female growing up in Lahore. In addition to her suspended light installations, Agha also creates wall-mounted sculptural works, including her Flowers series (2018) that explores love and loss inspired by the mixed emotions she experienced following her son’s wedding and mother’s passing, events that happened in the same year. Although these works may appear decorative, they are imbued with meaning, from the floral patterns that express the beauty and femininity of her mother, to the metallic threads commonly used for wedding dresses in Pakistan. The visual elements collectively amplify the interplay between the matrimonial and the funereal, and by extension, the larger cycle of life. To produce these elaborate works, Agha laser-cuts vibrantly hued encaustic paper with intricate patterns and adorns them with light-reflecting embroidery and beads. These exquisitely detailed drawings are framed within shadow boxes, allowing light to pass through the cut-outs and cast patterned shadows in a manner similar to her large-scale light installations. The framing and shadows allow these works to transcend their two-dimensionality. Anila Quayyum Agha has an M.F.A. in fiber arts from the University of North Texas. She has exhibited her work across the globe, including in the 2018 Kansas City Biennale, curated by Dan Cameron; the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts; the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York; the Dallas Contemporary Art Museum, Texas; the National Museum of Sculpture, Valladolid, Spain; and the Cheongju Craft Biennale, Korea. Her work is in the collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio; the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan; and the Kiran Nader Art Museum, New Delhi. In 2014, Agha was awarded the popular and juried vote at ArtPrize for her installation Intersections, a first in the history of the Grand Rapids-based competition. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, 1965 | Lives and works in Indianapolis, Indiana 4
Itinerant Shadow - White (Caged Flowers), 2019, white laser-cut lacquered steel and light bulbs, 24 x 24 x 24 inches/61 x 61 x 51 cm 5
Flowers (Red and White Squares), 2017, mixed media on paper, 29.5 x 29.5 inches/74.9 x 74.9 cm 6
Ephemeral Bloom - Teal, 2017, mixed media on paper, 30 x 30 inches/76.2 x 76.2 cm 7
MIYA ANDO
Miya Ando is an American artist known for her metal paintings that encapsulate both ephemerality and permanence. A descendant of Bizen sword makers, Ando spent her childhood among Buddhist priests in a temple in Okayama, Japan, and later, in California. She combines the traditional techniques of her ancestry with modern industrial technology, skillfully transforming sheets of metal into ephemeral, abstract paintings suffused with color. Working across two and three dimensions, Ando’s oeuvre contains abstract painting and sculpture, including large-scale public art pieces that reflect the transitory essence of life. Miya Ando has a Bachelor of Arts degree in East Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and attended Yale University and Stanford University to study Buddhist iconography and imagery. She apprenticed with the master metalsmith Hattori Studio in Japan, followed by a residency at Northern California’s Public Art Academy. Her work has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions, including at The Noguchi Museum, New York; Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum, Savannah, Georgia; The Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York; and the American University Museum, Washington D.C. Her work has also been included in extensive group exhibitions at institutions such as Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), California; Bronx Museum and Queens Museum of Art, New York; and The Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York. In 2015, her work was exhibited in Frontiers Reimagined at the 56th Venice Biennale. Ando is included in the public collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Detroit Institute of Arts Museum (DIA), Luft Museum in Germany, as well as numerous private collections. She has been the recipient of several grants and awards, including the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant Award. Ando has produced several public commissions, most notably a thirty-foot-tall sculpture in London built from World Trade Center steel to mark the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, for which she was nominated for a DARC Award in Best Light Art Installation, as well as for The Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson, which is now a museum and National Historic Landmark. Born in Los Angeles, 1973 | Lives and works in New York
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Green Purple Shift Moon 5.19.2.1, 2019, pigment, resin and urethane on stainless steel, 24 inches/ 61 cm tondo 9
Vermillion 4.19.3.3.1, 2019, pigment, urethane and resin on aluminum, 36 x 36 inches/91.4 x 91.4 cm 10
Night Black Blue 4.19.40.40.2, 2019, pigment, resin and urethane on steel, 40 x 40 inches/101.6 x 101.6 cm 11
3.3 Blue Green, 2019, pigment, resin and urethane on aluminum, 36 x 36 inches/91.4 x 91.4 cm
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KAREN KNORR
Through her photography and videos, American artist Karen Knorr explores the dynamics of power and its influence on cultural heritage, from the patriarchal structures of the English aristocracy to the roles and representations of animals in art. Born in Frankfurt in 1954 and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Knorr is best known for her seminal photographic series, India Song, a body of work that focuses on the interiors of significant architectural spaces of Rajasthan. Within these lavish rooms—symbolic of wealth and societal power structures—Knorr digitally imposes images of live tigers, elephants, peacocks and monkeys, which she photographed separately in reserves and zoos. Lush and playful, these vibrantly colorful images appear to be photographic renderings of Indian folklore, in which the line between reality and illusion is blurred. Yet Knorr’s work, which is influenced by surrealism and the mystical realism of Latin America, delves below the surface to consider issues of colonialism, exoticism, appropriation, societal hierarchies, and femininity as it relates to the animal world. Karen Knorr has exhibited her work at venues such as the Museum of London, United Kingdom; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; San Diego Museum of Photography, California; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow; Kyoto Modern Museum of Art, Japan; Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; and the Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai. Her work is in prestigious collections such as Tate London, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the United Kingdom Government Art Collection, England; Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Centre Georges Pompidou, France; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan, among others. Knorr was awarded the Photography Pilar Citoler Prize in 2010 and she was nominated for the Deutsche Börse in both 2011 and 2012. She also received nominations for the Prix Pictet in 2012 and 2018. As an advocate for women in photography, she was made an Honorary Fellow at the Royal Photographic Society in 2018, as well as Honorary Chair of Women in Photography. Born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1954 | Lives and works in London 14
The Survivor, Deogarh Palace, Deogarh, 2012, HahnemĂźhle ink jet print, 48 x 59.8 inches/122 x 152 cm 15
The Opium Smoker, Chitrasala, Bundi, 2017, HahnemĂźhle ink jet print, 48 x 59.8 inches/122 x 152 cm
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TAYEBA BEGUM LIPI
Tayeba Begum Lipi creates paintings, prints, videos and installations articulating themes of female marginality and the female body. Her sculptural works re-creating everyday objects including beds, bathtubs, strollers, wheelchairs, dressing tables and women’s undergarments use unexpected materials, such as safety pins and razor blades. This purposeful and provocative choice of materials speaks to the violence facing women in Bangladesh, as well as referencing tools used in childbirth in the more underdeveloped parts of the country. Lipi completed a Master of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka in 1993. She was an artist-in-residence at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, in 2000. In 2003, Lipi was awarded a Grand Prize at the 11th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh. She was the commissioner for the Pavilion of Bangladesh at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, and was one of the curators for the Kathmandu International Art Festival in 2012. Lipi has exhibited across the globe at venues such as the Shanghai Modern Art Museum, China; Museum Arnhem, Netherlands; the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, Michigan; and the Taiwan National Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan. She participated in the 14th Jakarta Biennale in 2011; the 2012 Colombo Art Biennale, Sri Lanka; and the 2012 Dhaka Art Summit. In 2015, Lipi’s work featured prominently in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the 56th Venice Biennale. Lipi’s work is in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; LO-FTF Council, Denmark; Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney; Bengal Foundation, Dhaka; the National Art Gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Segunbagicha; Samdani Art Foundation, Bangladesh; Devi Art Foundation, Gurugram, Haryana; Floodlight Foundation, New Delhi; JSW Foundation and the Harmony Art Foundation/Reliance Group, Mumbai, India. In 2002 Lipi co-founded the Britto Arts Trust, Bangladesh’s first artist-run alternative arts platform dedicated to organizing exhibitions, encouraging intercultural dialogue and providing residencies for local artists. Born in Gaibandha, Bangladesh, 1969 | Lives and works in Dhaka 18
Not For Me 2, 2019, stainless steel, 8 x 9 x 6 inches, 20.3 x 22.9 x 15.2 cm 19
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, the artist 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 in Dripping - Chao, 2016, stainless steel, 75 x 78 x 88 inches/190.5 x 198.1 x 223.5 cm 21
Jin Bo, 2017, stainless steel, 69.7 x 31.5 x 44.9 inches/177 x 80 x 114 cm 22
Water in Dripping - Qian, 2014, stainless steel, 42.5 x 45.3 x 46.5 inches/108 x 115 x 118 cm 23
Yan Fei, 2019, stainless steel ,29.92 x 25.59 x 43.31 inches/76 x 65 x 110 cm
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RICARDO MAZAL Ricardo Mazal, one of Mexico’s most prominent contemporary artists, is known for his lush abstract oil paintings in which he explores spiritual themes. He is perhaps best known for his near decade-long investigations into the sacred burial rituals of diverse cultures, from the Mayan tomb of The Red Queen in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, to the Buddhist prayer flags of Bhutan. These studies yielded a succession of large, multidisciplinary bodies of work reflective of the artist’s observations. However, his most recent series, Violeta and Prague, are imbued with a more personal narrative, increasingly transitioning Mazal from witness to author. Ricardo Mazal has exhibited extensively in galleries and museums throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe. Since 2000, he has had fourteen individual museum exhibitions in Mexico and the United States, including five retrospectives of his work at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey (2000), the Museo de Arte Moderno de la Ciudad de México (2006), the Museo de Arte de Querétaro (2009), the Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguerez (2010) and the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe, as well as thematic exhibitions in the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (2006), the Museo Nacional de Antropología (2004-2005) and the Centro Cultural Estación Indianilla, among others. In 2015 Mazal’s work was included in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the 56th Venice Biennale. Mazal’s work is included in the permanent collections of The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez, Zacatecas, Mexico; Maeght Foundation, Paris; Centro de las Artes, Monterrey, Mexico; Cirque du Soleil, Montreal; the Peninsula Hotel, Shanghai; and Deutsche Bank, New York and Germany.
Born in Mexico City, 1950 | Lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico and New York 26
SP Black 2, 2019, oil on linen 60 x 66 inches/152.4 x 167.6 cm 27
SP Black 8, 2019, oil on linen 30 x 32 inches/76.2 x 81.3 cm 28
SP Black 11, 2019, oil on linen 30 x 32 inches/76.2 x 81.3 cm 29
White PF4, 2018, oil on linen, 36 x 38 inches/91.4 x 96.5 cm
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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-year-old nihonga style of painting, using pigments made from minerals, ground stone, shell and corals suspended in animal-hide glue. 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 New Way of Tea, curated by Alexandra Munroe, at the Japan Society and the Asia Society in New York, 2002; Paintings on Fusuma at the Tokyo National Museum, 2003; and Frontiers Reimagined at the Venice Biennale, 2015. He was recently awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendation from the Japanese government for contributions to art. In May 2017 he was honored with the Isamu Noguchi Award. Public installations include seventy-seven murals at Juko-in, a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple in Japan, and a monumental waterfall at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. The Benesse Art Site of Naoshima Island also houses two large-scale installations. Most recently, Senju completed two monumental paintings for Kongobuji Temple at Koyasan. The temple is a sacred site in Japanese Buddhism and the works—a waterfall and a cliff—were commissioned to celebrate Koyasan’s 1,200th anniversary. Ahead of the dedication at Kongobuji, the paintings will be on view in several major museums throughout Japan until they are installed as fusuma (sliding doors) in the summer of 2020. Senju’s work is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; the Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan; the Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo; Tokyo University of the Arts; and the Kushiro Art Museum, Hokkaido. In 2009, Skira Editore published a monograph of his work titled Hiroshi Senju. The Hiroshi Senju Museum Karuizawa in Japan opened in 2011. 32
Born in Tokyo, 1958 | Lives and works in New York
Waterfall, 2018, natural, acrylic pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 44.1 x 63.8 inches/112 x 162 cm 33
Waterfall, 2018, natural and acrylic pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 63.8 x 51.3 inches/162 x 130.3 cm 34
Waterfall, 2018, acrylic and natural pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 63.8 x 63.8 inches/162 x 162 cm 35
Waterfall, 2014, acrylic pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 102 x 76 5/16 inches/259 x 194 cm
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CHUN KWANG YOUNG Korean artist Chun Kwang Young incorporates elements of both painting and sculpture in his practice. He is best known for his acclaimed Aggregation series: freestanding and wall-hung amalgamations of small, triangular forms wrapped in antique mulberry paper, often tinted with teas or pigment. The development of his signature technique was sparked by childhood memories of seeing medicinal herbs wrapped in mulberry paper, tied into small packages and hung from the ceiling of the local doctor’s office. He became intrigued with the idea of merging the techniques, materials and sentiment of his Korean heritage with the conceptual freedom he experienced during his Western education. Chun Kwang Young received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Hongik University, Seoul and a Master of Fine Arts from the Philadelphia College of Art, Pennsylvania. His work is in numerous public collections, including the Rockefeller Foundation and the United Nations, New York; the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.; the Philadelphia Society Building, Pennsylvania; the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, and the Seoul Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the National Museum of Fine Arts, Malta. He was named Artist of the Year by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, in 2001 and in 2009 he was awarded the Presidential Prize in the 41st Korean Culture and Art Prize by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Kwang Young Chun: Aggregations, a major retrospective of the artist’s work, is on view at the Brooklyn Museum through July 2019. Born in Hongchun, Korea, 1944 | Lives in works in Seongnam, Korea
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Aggregation 16 - JA006 (Blue), 2016, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 46.5 x 36.2 inches/118 x 92 cm 39
Aggregation 18 - AP027, 2018, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 57.9 x 81.9 inches/147 x 208 cm 40
Aggregation 18 - AP023, 2018, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 70.1 x 57.1 inches/178 x 145 cm 41
SUNDARAM TAGORE GALLERIES new york new york hong kong singapore
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President and curator: Sundaram Tagore Director, New York: Susan McCaffrey Director, Singapore: Melanie Taylor Registrar: Julia Occhiogrosso Designer: Russell Whitehead Editor: Kieran Doherty
WWW.SUNDARAMTAGORE.COM Text © 2019 Sundaram Tagore Gallery Photographs © 2019 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.