VIRAJ NAIK

Today's world is fascinating   and  a vast range of  subjects are open to artists  to   communicate  and explore  as an individual process. My work is a combination of human,  animal, mythic and artificial elements. Hybridization is the constant rotation, which evolves to self-mutation and construction. The over all process is a transformation of existence to the presence of imagination.

The classical period and Greek mythology inspire me to create space for images to spring and enliven the spirit of forms visualized into pictorial religion. In our own nation the moral values in the stories of “panchatantra” question human psychology. The given opportunity in this world is to learn and endeavour to be innovative and create lasting values.  The soft and sharp contours of pencil  are juxtaposed with involvements at its deepest level . Nothing becomes inferior to the surroundings but results in creating new compositions.

The self-transformation is in constant motion towards new visuals carved on to the pictorial space. This way of employing “pencil” as mediator  to visualization and pictorial space thus begins  the hybridization of all living and non-living elements in my work. The  universe is filled with amazing objects and living beings that lead me to try and activate  both a hallucinatory intensity and the shock of epiphanies. 

Zakkir Hussain

What I want to explore is the possibility of an art practice within the bounds of a system in which reality is always a preordained subject that imposes itself on life. To expose the real hidden by this already ‘programmed’ reality, I take recourse to the conjoining of banal images (eg., trees, birds, male and female body parts, houses). What happens in truth is not a metamorphosis of these images- instead, I work with the visual chemistry effected by this grafting together of something like the stump of a tree, birds, house, partial human torso or some other conflicting image. These conjoined imageries are used deliberately to indicate some discarded, hidden situations and aspects of reality. The repetition of certain images [tree, bird] in my paintings may be read by a viewer generally as related to environmental issues, but this does not appear to be adequate to me. Ecological issues are related to the totality of life. The complexity of human life cannot be reduced to any singular aspect. I think that the problems that are reflected in the environment are part of the complexities in the social and inner aspects of man that he has to face. I use such images to mark the violence that man unleashes against man.  

Bio Data

VIRAJ NAIK

Date and place of birth      :    27^th September 1975, Penha de franc, Goa.

Qualification                      :   M.F.A- University of Hyderabad-2000.

                                              B.F.A-Goa University-1998.                                                                                      

Solo show      

2006              :   Lalit Kala Akademi (Gallerie Nvya), New Delhi.

2004              :   Museum Gallery (Pundole art gallery), Mumbai.

2003              :   Galeria Cidade de Goa.

Group show       

2006              :   “Strangeness” Anant art gallery, Kolkata - 2006.

                         “Portugal through the eyes of goan artist” Consulado 

2005              :   Geral de Portugal, Goa

                     :   “Divine inspiration”-Mumbai

                     :   “Project on theatre and visual art” Goa

2004              :   “Once upon a time” Goa, Mumbai, Baroda

2003              :   Lalit kala Akademi, New Delhi

2000              :   Minaaz art gallery, Hyderabad

1997 & 1998   :   Goa kala academy, Goa

                         And other places in India.

Scholarship and awards   

State art awards- 1997 & 2000.

AIFACS state awards- 1997, 2000 & 2002.

Merit scholarship-University of Hyderabad –1998

Hyderabad art society-Gold medal - 2000,

Nokia arts award-Asia Pacific - 2000,

S.L.Parasher Gold medal-University of Hyderabad -2000,

Young artist scholarship- Ministry of culture - 2001,

Honourable mentioned-Fundacao Oriente - 2003,

Silver medal- Avantika, New Delhi - 2005.

Participated in printmaking and painting camps at Bangalore, Mumbai, Goa, Daman and Hyderabad on invitation.

Lectured as a guest faculty in Sarojini Naidu School of fine arts, University of Hyderabad.

*********

Zakkir Hussain

Born in 1970 in Kerala, Zakkir joined Samskara – an alternative cultural center Eramalloor in 1987 – 90, obtained BFA from the college of Fine Arts, Trivandrum (1994) and MFA from the faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U., Baroda (1997). He is recipient of Lalit Kala Akademi Award (2000) and IFACS award (2001). He has exhibited at solo shows in Bangalore, Contemporary art gallery, Kochi., and at group shows at The Guild, Zen studio gallery among others.