bose krishnamachari

“Bose Krishnamachari, born in 1963, in Kerala studied for his BFA in Painting from Sir.J.J.School of Art in Mumbai and MFA from the Goldsmiths College, London. Well known for his various experimental works, Bose initially worked on abstracts and later turned towards more conceptual ways of expressing himself including experimentation with second hand books. During the mid nineties he turned towards making portraits of internationally acclaimed artists to prove that painting as a traditional medium was not dead while also trying to engage him self with museum discourse by creating paintings and curating shows. He ‘de-curated’ himself and then went on to curate several path-breaking shows including ‘Bombay Boys’, ‘Double-Enders’, ‘KAAM’, ‘Maarkers’ and ‘Soft Spoken’. Bose Krishnamachari has participated in several international shows and camps and his work can be seen in major collections in India and abroad.

Anupa Mehta responds to Bose’s works:

The French artist Christian Boltanski once remarked: "The task is to create a formal work that is at the same time recognized by the spectator as a sentimentally charged object. Everyone brings his own history to it." Possibly Bose Krishnamachari's current project as an artist too is to present the viewer with a trigger point of images/icons that can, (along with the formal construction of painting/installation), function as symbolic devices with which to speak of an entire culture, its shifting mindsets and, its eclectic borrowings.  His work, thus reinforced by a `here and now' understanding and awareness of contemporary culture, borrows effortlessly from various disciplines, including literature and design, and time periods.
 
Interestingly, Bose pays as much attention to form as he does to conceptual and/or contextual concerns. Startling planes of flat color juxtaposed against skilful, almost photographic, representations of identifiable persona, imbue the work with an 'international' sensibility. Bose admits to combining western image-making techniques (such as the installation) with the vernacular, in a bid to arrive at an idiom that is entirely contemporary and brisk. In an earlier interview, he has said: "I refine my color to brightness. I have learnt this usage from the alternately subdued and lavish color codes of Indian ceremonies and ritual performances; the costumes, the gestures of enactment..." The current body however, brings with it a whiff of minimalism. There is little room for excess. But the minimalism is effective.