Masterpiece London 2016

MASTERPIECE 2016 LONDON

SUNDARAM TAGORE GALLERY

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 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.

M I YA A N D O A descendant of Bizen sword makers, New York-based artist Miya Ando spent her childhood among Buddhist priests in a temple in Okayama, Japan, and later, in California. Best known for her sublime metal paintings, Ando combines the traditional techniques of her ancestry with modern industrial technology, skillfully transforming sheets of metal into ephemeral, abstract paintings suffused with color.

The focus of Ando’s artistic practice is the intrinsic connection between the human sphere and the natural world. “My interest is in creating work that allows viewers to experience a relationship to nature and to be truly in the moment as they encounter the transitory qualities of light,” Ando says. “I want to draw people into a slowed-down environment with work that is experiential and employs the visual vocabulary of natural phenomena and transformation.”

Transformation—both in the physical and the metaphysical sense—is the unifying element in all of Ando’s work. To produce the light-reflecting gradients on her metal paintings, Ando applies heat, sandpaper, grinders, acid and patinas to the metal canvases, 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. The resulting works explore the duality of metal and its ability to convey strength and permanence, yet in the same instance, capture the fleetingness of light and the transitory nature of all things.

Miya Ando has a Bachelor of Arts degree in East Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and attended Yale 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 shown worldwide, including at the de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, California; in a show curated by Nat Trotman of the Guggenheim Museum; and in an exhibition at the Queens Museum, New York. In 2015, a largescale installation, Emptiness the Sky (Shou-Sugi-Ban), was included in Frontiers Reimagined, a collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale.

Miya Ando has produced numerous 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 recently nominated for a DARC Award in Best Light Art Installation. Awards include the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2012.

Born in Los Angeles, 1978 | Lives and works in New York

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Kurenai Crimson, 2015, aluminum, dye and resin on urethane, 36 x 36 inches/91.5 x 91.5 cm 5

Ephemeral Lavender 2, 2014, urethane and pigment on aluminum, 36 x 36 inches/91.5 x 91.5 cm 6

Autumn Orange Gold Shift, 2015, urethane, pigment and resin on aluminum Alucore, 36 x 36 inches/91.5 x 91.5 cm 7

Fuyu Winter Blue Green, 2015, urethane, pigment and resin on aluminum, 36 x 36 inches/91.5 x 91.5 cm

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Hamon 2.4.6, 2016, pigment and urethane on aluminum, 24 x 48 inches/61 x 122 cm 10

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Hamon 40.40.6, 2015, urethane and pigment on aluminum, 40 x 40 inches/101.6 x 101.6 cm 12

Winter Indigo, 2015, urethane and pigment on aluminum, 36 x 36 inches/91.5 x 91.5 cm 13

Perception Yellow Gold Faint Green Shift 2.4, 2016, urethane and pigment on aluminum, 24 x 48 inches/61 x 122 cm 14

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Left: Shiki 2 #27, 2015, pigment, urethane, resin and dye on aluminum, 12 x 12 inches/30.5 x 30.5 cm Right: Shiki 2 #21, 2015, pigment, urethane, resin and dye on aluminum, 12 x 12 inches/30.5 x 30.5 cm 16

Left: Shiki 2 #41, 2015, pigment, urethane, resin and dye on aluminum, 12 x 12 inches/30.5 x 30.5 cm Right: Shiki 2 #28, 2015, pigment, urethane, resin and dye on aluminum, 12 x 12 inches/30.5 x 30.5 cm 17

Left: Shiki 2 #22, 2015, pigment, urethane, resin and dye on aluminum, 12 x 12 inches/30.5 x 30.5 cm 18

Evanescent Tides Study 1, 2015, urethane, pigment and resin on aluminum,12 x 12 inches/30.5 x 30.5 cm 19

Perception Silver Gold 4.2, 2016, pigment and urethane on aluminum, 48 x 24 inches/122 x 61 cm

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ALFRED O & ISABEL AQUILIZAN The husband-and-wife team of Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, who emigrated from the Philippines to Australia in 2006, addresses themes of displacement, change, memory and community. Their large-scale installations often reflect their own migratory experiences, while conveying points of exchange and communication that extend beyond borders.

The duo focuses on both individual narratives, as well as on relationships with the “other� in a new environment. They often collaborate with young people and migrants. For the 2009 Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, the Aquilizans produced an enormous suspended sculpture titled In-Flight (Project Another Country). The work comprised hundreds of tiny planes made by hand from found objects by children and adults during the course of the exhibition. The lyrical sculpture Last Flight, made of used rubber slippers, echoes similar themes of journey and a bittersweet desire for a new life.

The Aquilizans have shown their work at The Drawing Room, Manila; the 50th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, 2003; the 5th Gwangju Biennale, 2004; the 15th Biennale of Sydney, 2006; the Singapore Biennale 2008; the Liverpool Biennial 2010 held at Tate Liverpool; and the Sharjah Biennial 11, 2013.

Alfredo Aquilizan, born in Cagayan Valley, Philippines, 1962 and Isabel Aquilizan, born in Manila, 1965 | Live and work in Brisbane

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Last Flight, 2009, used slippers and metal stand, 107.3 x 77.2 inches each/275 x 198 cm 23

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. His most recent series, Water, begun in 2007, is his largest and most ambitious project to date. It documents the scale and impact of manufacturing and human consumption on the world’s water supplies. In 2015, Colorado River Delta #2, one of the works from this series, was included in Frontiers Reimagined, a collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale.

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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Polders, Grootschermer, The Netherlands, 2011, chromogenic color print, 48 x 64 inches/122 X 162.5 cm 25

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.

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 shows include 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, 2015. Chotvichai was a featured artist in Thailand Eye at the Saatchi Gallery, London, which closed in January 2016.

She currently has a solo exhibition on view at Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Chelsea.

Born in Bangkok, 1986 | Lives and works in Bangkok

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Collapse, 2013, c-type print and hand-cut paper, 29.9 x 54.3 inches/76 x 138 cm, edition 1 of 3 27

Phassa (Touching), 2015, c-type print and hand-cut canvas, 38.9 x 44 inches/99 x 112 cm 28

Desolation, 2015, c-type print and hand-cut canvas, 43.5 x 44 inches/111 x 112 cm 29

Blinded, 2015, c-type print and hand-cut canvas, 30.2 x 43.5 inches/77 x 111 cm

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Consciousness, 2013, c-type print and hand-cut paper, 51.2 x 49.6 inches/130 x 126 cm

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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 painting Every Breaking Wave (1) was included in Frontiers Reimagined, a collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale.

Born in Tehran, 1972 | Lives and works in Tehran and Paris 34

Untitled, 2014, pen and varnish on canvas, 50.4 x 57.5 inches/128 x 146 cm 35

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 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; 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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Blue Jean Blues-Playboy, 2012, digital print, 39.4 x 39.4 inches/100 x 100 cm, edition 2 of 5 37

Drunken-Absolut Vodka, 2011, digital print, 82.7 x 47 inches/210 x 120 cm, edition 1 of 5

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ANISH KAPOOR British-based Indian artist Anish Kapoor is considered one of the most influential sculptors of his generation. He is best known for his monumental site-specific works that challenge the viewer’s notion of gravity, depth and the perception of space. Although his works range vastly in scale, medium and subject matter, they all have an uncanny ability to both permeate and transform a space by altering our perception of the physical world.

Born in Bombay to parents of Punjabi and Iraqi-Jewish heritage, Kapoor moved to London in the mid-1970s to study art. He began to garner critical recognition in the early 1980s for his biomorphic installations made from natural materials such as granite, limestone and marble impregnated with vibrantly colored hues of raw, powdered pigment.

In 1990, Kapoor was the first Indian-born artist to represent Great Britain at the Venice Biennale.

His installation Void Field, a grouping of roughly hewn sandstone blocks, each with a black pigmentfilled hole atop the surface, explored the concept of negative space and alluded to dualities of a spiritual nature—earth and sky, light and darkness, matter and space. Kapoor continued to expand on the idea of the void throughout the 1990s with series of works constructed to appear as though they dissolved through floors or retreated into walls. By dramatically playing with depth perception, Kapoor summarily redefined the relationship between viewer and object.

Anish Kapoor has exhibited extensively across the globe, including solo shows at the Tate in London; Kunsthalle Basel; the Haus der Kunst, Munich; and in 2015, a major survey of his work was presented at the Palace of Versailles. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Premio Duemila prize, which he received for his work in the 44th Venice Biennale, the Turner Prize (1991) and the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for sculpture (2011). Public collections include the Tate Gallery, London; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Born in Bombay, 1954 | Lives and works in London

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Untitled, 2005, bronze with gold patina, 24.5 x 4.75 x 9 inches/62 x 12 x 22.5 cm 41

ANSELM KIEFER Paris-based German artist Anselm Kiefer produces visually complex paintings and installations that explore themes of religion, myth and history. Initially educated in law, Kiefer decided to switch his studies to art in 1965. He attended the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe and in 1970, he moved to Düsseldorf, where he studied informally under renowned conceptual artist Joseph Beuys.

Critically engaging with Germany’s fascist past, Kiefer’s work aims to challenge the myth and bigotry of the Third Reich. He is perhaps best known for his large-scale paintings into which he incorporates text and iconography that reference figures, events and places of both historical significance and European folklore. This symbolic imagery becomes an encrypted visual vocabulary through which the artist confronts Germany’s dark history and divisive cultural legacy.

Layers, both in terms of history and medium, are central to Keifer’s work. For his paintings, he combines copious applications of pigment with a wide range of found materials, including lead, dirt, sand, straw, dried flowers and broken glass. This highly textural approach extends to his installations and sculptural works, which are often exposed to the elements or subjected to acid and fire—an allusion to the processes of time and the sequence of life, death and decay.

Kiefer’s work has been shown throughout the world including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Art Institute of Chicago; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; and the Fondation Beyeler, Basel. Recent comprehensive surveys include the Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2015, and the London Royal Academy of Arts, which mounted the first British retrospective of the artist’s work, in 2014.

Major collections include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Tate Modern, London; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Australia; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Born in Donaueschingen, Germany, 1945 | Lives and works in Paris 42

Die Klugen Jungrauen, 2007, mixed media, 112.5 x 55.5 x 9 inches/285.4 x 140.7 cm 43

TAY E B A B E G U M L I P I 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.

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.

Tayeba Begum Lipi completed a Master of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka, in 1993. In 2000 she was an artist-in-residence at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. She was awarded a Grand Prize at the 11th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 2003, Dhaka; and was the commissioner for the Pavilion of Bangladesh at the 54th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, 2011; and one of the curators for the Kathmandu International Art Festival 2012. Lipi has exhibited at Alliance Française, Paris and the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts, Dhaka. She also participated in the 14th Jakarta Biennale 2011, the Colombo Art Biennale, 2012, Sri Lanka, and Dhaka Art Summit 2012.

Her work is currently on view in Artist as Activist: Tayeba Begum Lipi and Mahbubur Rahman at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.

Born in Gaibandha, Bangladesh, 1969 | Lives and works in Dhaka

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Comfy Bikinis, 2013, brass safety pins covered with electroless nickel immersion gold, stainless steel and glass, 14.2 x 35.8 x 48 inches/36 x 91 x 122 cm

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Trapped - 5, 2013, stainless-steel razor blades and exposed drawing on mirror-polished stainless steel, 29.9 x 29.9 inches/76 x 76 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, 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 Dripping - Lie, 2015, stainless steel, 51.2 x 39.4 x 39.4 inches/130 x 100 x 100 cm 49

HAS S A N M AS S OU DY Classically trained calligrapher Hassan Massoudy inscribes oversized letters in vibrant colors on paper or canvas to create visually compelling works that bring traditional Arabic script into a contemporary context. Massoudy sources words from Eastern and Western authors, poets and philosophers. He selects a passage, which he writes at the bottom of a sheet of paper, then extracts a single word, enlarging it to monumental proportions over the entire surface of the paper.

In accordance with tradition, Massoudy makes his own tools and inks, but breaks from the Arabic custom of using only black ink by incorporating a bold palette of blues, greens, yellows and reds. Although executed with the utmost control, his letters are gestural, fluid and charged with energy, as he skillfully transforms the written word into a pictorial element.

Massoudy studied classical calligraphy in Baghdad. He moved to France in 1969, continuing his education at the L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

He has shown his work at The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.; the British Museum, London; Musée d’Avranches, France; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Abbaye de Trizay and the Palais des Congrès de Grasse, France. His work is in the collections of The British Museum, London; Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore; and Musée du Quai Branly, Paris. He has also shown at Sharjah Biennale 11, 2013 and in 2015, two of his works were included in Frontiers Reimagined, a collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale.

Born in Najaf, Iraq, 1944 | Lives and works in Paris

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Untitled, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 29.5 x 21.7 inches/75 x 55 cm 51

RICARDO MAZAL 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 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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Septembre 18.15, 2015, oil on linen, 50 x 54 inches/127 x 137.25 cm 53

Bhutan PF 31, 2016, oil on linen, 40 x 42 inches/101.6 x 106.7 cm 54

Bhutan PF 30, 2016, oil on linen, 40 x 42 inches/101.6 x 106.7 cm 55

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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A young monk runs along a wall over his peers at the Shaolin Monastery in Henan Province, China, 2004, digital c-print, 40 x 60 inches/101.6 x 152.4 cm 57

Kashmir Flower Seller, 1996, digital c-print, 30 x 40 inches/76.2 x 101.6 cm 58

Jodhpur Fruit Vendor, India, 1996, digital c-print, 30 x 40 inches/76.2 x 101.6 cm 59

ROBERT POLID ORI Robert Polidori’s atmospheric photographs of building—exteriors and interiors—altered by the passage of time and the people who have lived in them are investigations into the psychological implications of the human habitat. He has shot all over the world: decaying mansions in the formerly splendid metropolis of Havana, the colonial architecture of Goa and urban dwellings in China and Dubai among other countries.

Polidori’s career as a fine-art photographer began in the early 1980s when he gained permission to document the restoration of the Palace of Versailles. Since then, he has returned to the palace several times to take more pictures, and in each one, his conception of rooms as metaphors and vessels of memory is evident. His tonally rich and seductive photographs are the product of long hours waiting for the right light, careful contemplation of the camera angle and a keen sociological understanding of place. Polidori uses large-format sheet film, which he believes produces superior images to digital photography.

Robert Polidori won the World Press Photo of the Year Award in 1998 and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography in 1999 and 2000. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York commissioned him to photograph New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and exhibited those photographs in 2006. In 2015 his triptych Favela Rocinha #1, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which highlights the fact that most of the world’s growing urban population lives in self-constructed cities, often on squatted land, was shown as part of Frontiers Reimagined, a collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale. He has published eleven books and his work is in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.

Born in Montreal, 1951 | Lives and works in New York

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Salle de Crimee Sud, (98) ANR.02035, Salles de l’Afrique, Aile du Nord - 1er etage, Chateau de Versailles, Versailles, France, 2007, archival pigment inkjet print, 50 x 60 inches/127 x 152.4 cm, edition 9 of 10 61

Salle St Cyr et de Madame de Maintenon, (89) ANR.02.007, Salles du XVII, Aile du Nord - 1er etage, Chateau de Versailles, Versailles, France, 2008, archival pigment inkjet print, 50 x 60 inches/127 x 152.4 cm, edition 1 of 10

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Alvares Residence, Entrance Vestibule, Margao, Goa, India, 1998, 2002, archival pigment inkjet print, 50 x 40 inches, edition 1 of 10

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S O HA N QA D R I 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; died 2011 | Lived and worked in Copenhagen and Toronto

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Arti IV, 2008, ink and dye on paper, 55 x 39 inches/139.7 x 99.1 cm 67

Griha, 2009, ink and dye on paper, 55 x 39 inches/139.7 x 99.1 cm 68

Uma IV, 2010, ink and dye on paper, 39 x 27.5 inches/99 x 69.9 cm 69

Aloka IV, 2007, ink and dye on paper, 55 x 39 inches/139.7 x 99.1 cm

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Nitya, 2008, ink and dye on paper, 55 x 39 inches/139.7 x 99.1 cm 72

Tara IV, 2007, ink and dye on paper, 39 x 27.5 inches/99 x 69.9 cm 73

SY E D HA I DE R R A Z A Known for his dynamic acrylic and oil paintings rendered in vibrant hues, Sayed Haider Raza is one of the India’s most eminent living artists. Although based in France for nearly sixty years, Raza has maintained a strong connection to India, creating a distinctive modernist visual language evocative of his heritage.

Raza grew up in a rural village in Barbaria, Madhya Pradesh, and studied painting at the J. J. School of Arts, Mumbai. In 1947, the year of Indian independence, Raza and five other artists formed the Progressive Artists Group, a movement that pushed back against the academic realism of the Bengal School, establishing a new, modernist language that embraced traditional Indian painting while also acknowledging the groundbreaking artistic movements in Western Europe and the United States.

In 1950, Raza arrived in Paris to study at École Nationale des Beaux-Arts after receiving a scholarship from the French government. Influenced by a strong connection to nature and inspired by Western artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, Matisse and Cezanne, Raza focused on landscapes, with early works informed by memories of India and the pastoral villages of France. He experimented with a variety of Modernist styles and over time his lush, expressionist landscapes became more and more abstracted, evolving into rough-hewn geometric forms defined through intense use of color. In 1956, Raza became the first non-French artist to receive the Prix de la Critique award, a pivotal point in his career that garnered international recognition and lead to an invitation to participate in the Venice Biennale in 1956 and the Bienal de São Paolo in 1958.

By the 1970s, Raza grew restless and after returning to India on several occasions, he sought to reaffirm his ties to his homeland, which resulted in a dramatic shift in his aesthetic and thematic oeuvre. Raza’s later works evolved from expressionist to geometric abstraction, exploring elements of Indic poetry, music and philosophy—in particular, the concept of the bindu, a source of spirituality in Hindu culture, which became a central motif in his work for over four decades.

Sayed Haider Raza has participated in numerous exhibitions around the world, including at the Queens Museum, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Jane Voorhese Zimmerli Art Museum, New Jersey; the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; and a retrospective at the Musee de Menton, Palais Carnoles, Paris, in 1991. His work is included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi and the Musee National d’Art Moderne, Paris.

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Born in Babaria, Madhya Pradesh, 1922 | Lives and works in Delhi

Tiryak, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 59 x 12 inches/150 x 30 cm 75

SE BAST IÃO S A L G A D O 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 images on display come 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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Yali Man, West Papua, Indonesia, 2010, gelatin silver print, 68 x 50 inches/180 x 125 cm 77

Herd of Buffalos, Kafue National Park, Zambia, 2010, gelatin silver print, 68 x 50 inches/180 x 125 cm

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Marine Iguana, Galรกpagos, Ecuador, 2004, gelatin silver print, 36 x 50 inches/91.5 x 127 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-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 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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Cliff #27, 2015, acrylic and natural pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 68.9 x 37.75 inches/175 x 96 cm 83

Waterfall, 2014, acrylic and fluorescent pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 102 x 76.3 inches/259 x 194 cm 84

Waterfall, 2012, natural, acrylic pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 44.25 x 63.75 inches/112 x 162 cm 85

Waterfall, 2012, natural pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 102.25 x 78.75 inches/260 x 200 cm

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C H U N K WA N G Y O U N G Although Chun Kwang Young began his career as a painter, he started to experiment with paper sculpture in the mid-1990s and over time his work has evolved in complexity and scale.

The development of his signature technique was sparked by a childhood memory of seeing medicinal herbs wrapped in mulberry paper tied into small packages. Chun’s work subtly merges the techniques, materials, and traditional 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.

Born 1944 in Hongchun, Korea | Lives in works in Seongnam, Korea

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Aggregation 15 - DE081 Blue, 2015, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 67.3 x 54.7 inches/171 x 139 cm 89

Aggregation 07 - 135, 2007, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 67.3 x 54.7 inches/171 x 139 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 Registrar: Julia Occhiogrosso Designer: Russell Whitehead Contributing editor: Kieran Doherty

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.