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Born
in Mangalore, Sudarshan Shetty completed his B.F.A. at Sir J.J. School of
Arts, Mumbai (1980 – 85) and received his Fellowship at the Kanoria Centre
for Arts, Ahmedabad (1989-91). Well -known in India, South East Asia
and Europe, he has participated in a series of prestigious shows at
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (1997), Paris (1998), the Tate Modern,
London (2001).
Sudarshan
Shetty is currently based in Mumbai. Though formally trained in painting
Sudarshan Shetty progressively became interested in sculpture and
installation. His works reflect various facets of contemporary urban life
superimposed with each other, which forms an impressive combination of the
representational and the abstract. Shetty has been regularly creating
artworks since 90s and mostly works on sculpture and installations. His work
envisions a lyrical world full of playfulness and freedom liberated from
political issues. It displays an intriguing combination of the
representational and the abstract.
The
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum invited Sudarshan Shetty for the series of
exhibition, 'Contemporary Asian Artist' in September 2001. In the
exhibition, the installation consisted of chairs, a desk, boats, stringed
instrument, airplane, all with mechanical device and movable. In the
installation composed of those objects 'For Here or To Go', Shetty created a
new kaleidoscopic story. In the 'Amusement Parlor' created by him,
anticipation for future possibilities as well as anxieties for irrationality
and unknown precincts, or eeriness behind contemporary society and
amusements were projected.
The
artist strives to escape from the social framework, and at the same time,
tries to collect scattered fragments of daily life. Through the process of
editing and applying these (fragments), he superimposes various facets of
contemporary society. In fact, though formally trained as a painter, Shetty
progressively became interested in sculpture and installation, and began to
combine his paintings with found objects that he painted. In 1996 he
attended a sculpture workshop in Scotland that resulted in a spontaneous
showing of swiftly executed watercolors; sketches in which the predominant
leit motif was that of a carrier bag embellished by whimsical images and
memories of the surroundings. His art-world reflects contemporary urban
life. By stimulating the memories of people's childhood and their
playful-mind filled with curiosity, he cleverly escapes from the globalism
that homogenizes the world and innocently plots to overthrow the value
system led by politics and the economy.
He
is also attracting a great deal of public attention as one of the leading
artist in the Indian art scene internationally. He participated in the
'Private Mythology: Contemporary Art from India' (Tokyo) in 1998, 'Kwangju
Biennale' (Korea) in 2000, and 'Century City' (UK) in 2001. Among his major
art exhibitions are III Biennale of Indian Art, Roopankar Museum, Bhopal
(1990), Solo show at the Holland Art Gallery, Rotterdam (1993), 'Paper
Moon', solo show at Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai (1995), Tryst with Destiny',
Singapore Art Museum (1997), 'Art in the World', hosted by Beaux Arts
Magazine, Paris (1998) and 'Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern
Metropolis', Tate Modern (2001).
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