FIRST SOLO MUSEUM SHOW OF INDIAN ARTIST SHILPA GUPTA DEBUTS AT THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER
FIRST SOLO MUSEUM SHOW OF INDIAN ARTIST SHILPA GUPTA
DEBUTS AT THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER
February 20 – May 2, 2010
Cincinnati, OH–The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), located in the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, announces the opening of Shilpa Gupta: A Bit Closer, February 20, 2010. This is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition and it runs until May 2, 2010.
Shilpa Gupta is emerging as one of the most important female artists living and working in India today. Considered a pioneer of new media art, she tackles deep-seated issues such as cultural and political divides (or similarities), religion, commerce, and terrorism. Her insightful and straightforward approach to such complex issues has won her the acclaim of international critics and curators alike. Gupta has garnered a great deal of recognition with appearances at venues such as Tate Modern and the New Museum’s inaugural The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, but the Contemporary Arts Center is the site of her premiere solo show. Raphaela Platow, the Alice & Harris Weston Director and Chief Curator of the CAC, states “Shilpa Gupta’s exhibition is another example of the Contemporary Arts Center’s continued commitment to provide our community with a window, and personal connection, to the global art world. This also marks the first solo show of an Indian artist at the museum, which is extremely exciting. It further illustrates the diversity of art and discourse visitors can experience here, which is imperative to our mission at the CAC.”
Shilpa Gupta: A Bit Closer, curated by Curatorial Assistant Justine Ludwig, melds new work with signature pieces from the artist’s young career. Known for her interactive focus, much of Gupta’s early work was performance and web based. As the artist’s career started to develop, she remained committed to interactivity but explored other media such as photography, video, and sound installation. One exciting example of new work debuting with this show is the photographic series I Want to Live with No Fear. This series actually will be created during opening weekend, with Contemporary Arts Center visitors playing a starring role. Gupta will invite museumgoers leaving the CAC to take a balloon printed with “I Want to Live with No Fear.” The artist will photograph the participants as they travel in public, and the resulting pictures will become a permanent piece in this show and move on to other exhibitions as well.
Though Gupta makes breakneck transitions between disparate media, a constant is that her work encourages the questioning of assumptions and biases about how we live and our place in the world. Although often her pieces comment on particular conflicts or locales, they transcend those specifics and touch on themes universal to mankind and relevant in all our lives. By providing viewers with thought-provoking messages and the opportunity to connect with global concerns in a more personal way, Gupta challenges observers to be active participants in creating her work anew each time it is encountered. Ludwig comments, “Using elegant visual poetry to pose difficult questions, Shilpa Gupta has the unique ability to change the way we look at everyday life.” And Platow explains, “Her work has a poignancy that stirs deep-set emotions within all of us. We are eager to introduce Shilpa and her art to Cincinnati.”
A Special Thank You
CAC Exhibition Sponsor: James A. Miller
Fine Arts Fund Corporate Partner: P&G
About the Artist
Shilpa Gupta, born in 1976, lives and works in Mumbai. Her work has been shown at Tate Modern and Serpentine Gallery in London, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon, Daimler Chrysler Contemporary in Berlin, Mori Museum in Tokyo, Queens Museum in New York, Tamayo Museum in Mexico City and Chicago Cultural Center. She was included in the 2009 inaugural The Generational: Younger Than Jesus at New Museum in New York.
Opening Celebrations
Friday, February 19 at 8pm
Free and Open to the Public