The work explores the constant tension between the aspect of light and dark, good and bad, relating the contemporary to the historic and the sacred to the profane, the signicance and history of painting as a system of representation, exposing how the materiality of paint can carry and convey meaning.
Necessitating a slowed-down process of looking, the intensely worked surfaces are delicate and luminous, expanding and reforming found imagery through studied formal approaches.
The work weaves multiple narratives that are based on pre existing imagery culled from a variety of sources, including early renaissance painting, l’m stills, personal photography, historical events and news media.
The palette is restricted to a monochromatic format which is suggestive of a blurry recollection of a fading memory, their quiet and restrained apprearence however belies an underlying moral complexity, they engage equally with questions of history and it’s representation as they do with quotidian subject matter.
The constant battle for power, land and identity of the supressed are the primal source of inspiration for these works.
I would here like to quote a poem by the German poet “Rainer Maria Rilke”
You darkness from which I come,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence out the world,
for the fire makes a circle
for everyone
so that no one sees you anymore.
But darkness holds it all:
the shape and the flame,
the animal and myself,
how it holds them,
all powers, all sight —
and it is possible: its great strength
is breaking into my body.
I have faith in the night.
R. Magesh
Name: R. Magesh
Date of Birth: 04. 06. 1987
Contact Number: 96019 28676
Email: r.mageshart@gmail.com
Website: www.mageshart.com
B.F.A (Painting), Govt. College of Fine Arts, Chennai, 2008
M.V.A (Painting), (Gold Medal), from Faculty of Fine Arts M.S.University, Baroda, 2012
Solo show
“Masked Realities” at Ashvita Art Gallery, Chennai, 2010
Selected Group shows
“Art Mumbai, 2024 by Palette Art Gallery, Mumbai
Tales/Tails of Imagination, at Palette art gallery, New Delhi 2024
“From Field to Frame”, at Conflictorium Museum, Ahmedabad, 2024
“Con/temporality” curated by “The Arts Family London”, at gallery 079 stories , Ahmedabad, India. 2024
India Art Fair, 2024 by Palette art gallery, New Delhi
“Chennai Biennial” 2024, by Inko centre at Lalit Kala akademi, Chennai.
“Busan International Art fair”, South Korea 2023, by Inko centre, India
“Indo Korea exchange Exhibition at Jeju Island” South Korea, 2023 by Inko centre, India
“The Baroda Annuelle” 2023, at the Gallery White, Baroda
“Art Mumbai” 2023 , by Palette art gallery
“The Far Edge of the Frowning Forest” 2023, at Gallery Splash, Gurgaon
“India Art Fair” 2023, by Palette art gallery, New Delhi
“Mind Medium Material” 2022, at gallery 079 Stories , Ahmedabad
“A Melange” 2022 , at palette art gallery, New Delhi
“India Art Fair” 2022, by Palette art gallery, New Delhi
“62nd National Exhibition of Art” 2022, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
“Imagining a Forest” 2022, at Conflictorium Museum of Conflicts, Raipur
“From where all that sweat” 2022, at Amuseum Gallery of Modern Art, Trivandrum
Fragments of Imagination 2021, at Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi
“Traversing into insights” 2020 , at Gallery Sumukha , Bangalore
“India Art Fair” 2020 , by Palette art gallery , New Delhi
“Persistence of Memory” at Gallery Art Positive , New Delhi 2019
“Songs of Soil” at Palette art gallery , New Delhi 2019
“India Art Fair” , By Palette art gallery , New Delhi 2019
“Imagining a Forest” at Conflictorium museum, Ahmedabad 2018
“Everything is Black and White”, at Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2018
India Art Fair 2014 – 2018, by Palette Art gallery, New Delhi
“Long Story Short” at Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2017
“Lucid Dream” at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 2017
Inaugural show 2016, Nazar Art Gallery, Baroda
Vadfest 2015, Back to College, at Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U, Baroda
Art Fair at “The Oberoi” by Palette Art Gallery New Delhi, 2014
“Break Out” at Red Earth Gallery, Baroda, 2013
“Art Chennai” at ‘The Grand Hyatt’ by Ashvita Art gallery, Chennai, 2013
“Intimate Divine” at Ashvita Art Gallery, Chennai, 2013
“Art Makers Circa 2012” at Gallery Exhibit 320, New Delhi
“Visual Discourse 2012” at Ludhiana by Gallery Exhibit 320
“Ashvita Artist’s Residency Programme” group show at
Ashvita gallery, Chennai, 2011
“Art Chennai” at Ashvita Art Gallery and at Taj Coromandel, chennai, 2010
platform 15 2009 at contemporary art space, New Delhi
platform 15 2009 at chitrakala parishath, Bangalore
platform 15 2008 at Lalit Kala Academy, Chennai
Post Graduation Gold medal in Painting from the M.S.University, Baroda 2012
National Scholarship, Lalit Kala Academy, 2010
Best Artist Award from Sarjan Art gallery, Baroda, 2012
“Art and Ecology” residency at Space Studio, Baroda 2019
Lalit Kala Academy National Mural Camp at Chennai, 2017
“Variations” National Camp at Chennai, 2007
