Sunil Gawde

Sunil Gawde is an Indian artist born in 1960. A graduate of Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art in Mumbai in 1980, he received the Charles Wallace Prize awarded by the British Council in 1995-1996 and spent a year in an artist residency at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.

Sunil Gawde entered the art world as a painter. His abstract paintings, in a very neat and refined style, testify to a meticulousness and precision that will be found in his sculptures and installations a few years later.

In 2005, he presented his first exhibition of sculptures, Blind Bulb ect. at the Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai. He therefore imposes what will be the guiding thread of his work: a philosophical art based on social reflection. Sculpture becomes his preferred mode of expression, allowing him to answer his questions about time, space, and the object.

Sunil Gawde’s art is defined by the recurring presence of paradox, both in plastic, semantic and visual terms. The bucolic register of the vocabulary used by the artist (butterflies, moon, hearts, etc.) contrasts with the raw and industrial materials he uses. For the work Virtually Untouchable, he creates a butterfly whose abdomen is a dagger and the wings are made of razor blades, as well as for the traditional Indian necklace, Virtually Untouchable III, exhibited in 2011 at the Paris exhibition – Delhi – Bombay at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and whose blades are now tinted red.

We also observe the artist’s particular interest in everyday objects. Modifying their texture, their size, or their context, he diverts and transforms them in order to erect them into powerful symbols.

The titles given by the artist to his works also play an important role, reinforcing the poetic register of his sculptures: Still Alive, Fly Away – Swim Closer, Alliteration… the latter having enjoyed great success at the Venice Biennale in 2009.

COMMENT

As an artist, my main interests are perception and reality. (…) My work is an effort to fill the void that separates them.

Perfection is very important to me; beauty is not.

In my eyes / For me / In my mind, the marriage of philosophy, aesthetic technique and materials is the foundation of my creative process.

For me, each work is an attempt to understand the contemporary world a little better, and to decipher its mysteries.

EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES

2017

‘id-od’ inner dimension—outer dimension, Galerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris, France

2016
id-od & other dimensions, Aico Gallery, New York, Etats-Unis
id-od & other dimensions, Double Square Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

2014
SPARCHA, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Allemagne

2012
Sunil Gawde, Galerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris, France

2011
Miniscule Marvel – Contemplate, Gallery BMB, Mumbai, Inde

2010
Alliteration, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde

2009
Alliteration, 53rd Venice Biennale, Italie

2008
Pulse Miami, Sakshi Gallery, Miami, Etats-Unis
Art Dubai 2008, Sakshi Gallery, Dubai, Emirats Arabes Unis

2007
SH Contemporary 07, Sakshi Gallery, Shanghai, Chine
Singapore International Art Fair 07, Singapour
Gulf Art Fair 07, Enrico Navarra Gallery, Paris/New York, Dubai, Emirats Arabes Unis

2005
Blind Bulb etc… – A Sculptural Installation presented by Sakshi Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, Inde

2002
8 Seconds Ahead of Time, Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore, Inde

2011
1mm, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde

1998
Oblique, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai. Travelled to Chennai, Baroda et New Delhi, Inde

1997
Radium Grass, Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow, Royaume-Uni
8th Asian Art Biennial, Dhaka, Bengladesh
9th International Triennial Artists Camp, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, Inde

1995
Prithvi Art Gallery, Mumbai, Inde
ABC Art Gallery, Varanasi, Inde

1994
Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata, Inde

1993
Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai en association avec la Jindal Art Foundation, Mumbai, Inde

1990
Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Inde

EXPOSITIONS DE GROUPE (sélection)

2016
The Journey is the Destination : The Artist Journet between Then and Now, The Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, Mumbai , Inde

2015
Our eyes, Double Square Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
Deconstructed Innings, National Gallery of Moden Art, Mumbai, Inde

2014
Noir & Blanc, Galerie Loft, Paris

2012
Group Exhibition, Gallerie Alternatives, Gurgaon, Inde
Looking Back, Looking Forward, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde

2011
Group Exhibition, Galerie Alternatives, Gurgaon, Inde
Review, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde
Paris – Delhi – Bombay …, Centre Pompidou – Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris, France
Pause: A Collection, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde
Tech-Cut-Edge-Revelations, Ashna Gallery, New Delhi, Inde

2010
A Collection, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde
Scratch, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde
Finding India – Art for the New Century, MOCA Taipei, Taiwan
Finding India, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde
Third Dimension, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde
Clouds Power of Asian Contemporary Art, Soka Art Center, Pékin, Chine
ARCO 09, Madrid, Allemagne
53^rd Venice Biennale, Venise, Italie

2008
Mutant Beauty, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi, Inde
Point and Line to Plane VI, Gallery Beyond, Mumbai, Inde
Pulse Miami, Miami, Etats-Unis

2007
10 light years, Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi, Japon
Collective Intent 3, Gallerie Alternatives, Gurgaon, Inde
Frame/Grid/Room/Cell, Bodhi Art Mumbai, Mumbai, Inde
Group Show | Summer 07, Gallery Espace, New Delhi, Inde
Palette Summer, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, Inde
Art on the Corniche, organisé par la Galerie Enrico Navarra et Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, ,Abu Dhabi, Emirats Arabes Unis
SHContemporary, Shanghai, Chine

2006
Gallery collection, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde
Bombay: Maxiumum city, Lille, France
Made by Indians, Saint-Tropez, organisé par la galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, France

2005
Are We Like This Only ?, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, Inde
Young Masters, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, Inde
Span, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde

2004
Palette Summer 2004, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, Inde
Subtley-Minimally, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, Inde
India, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde
Bombay x 17, Ruia House, Mumbai; Kashi Art Centre, Kochi, Japon

2003
National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai, Inde
Viart Gallery, New Delhi, Inde
Rain, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Inde

2002
Creative Space, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, organisé par Sakshi Gallery, Inde
50 years celebrations at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Inde
Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Mumbai, Inde

2001
Architect and Artist – Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai 50 years celebrations at ‘Palette 2001, Indian Contemporary Artists at The Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, Inde

2000
Memos for the new Millennium from Artists of a Moulting World, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Mumbai, Inde
Memoirs For the Past Image of the Present and Picturing the Future, The Fine Art Company, Mumbai, Inde

1999
Legatee, The Fine Art Company, Mumbai, Inde
Exhibition of Works by Contemporary Artists to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of Sir. J.J. Parsee Benevolent Institution, Mumbai, Inde

1998
Indian Contemporary Art, collection de M. Harsh Goenka presenté en association avec Bayer, Allemagne

1997
Vision Recaptured, British Council Art Gallery, New Delhi, British Museum, Londres, Royaume-Uni

1996
Art for Heart’s Sake, Sotheby’s, Mumbai, Inde

1993
Dew Drops, Emerald Isle Gallery, Kolkata, Inde

1992
Nest for Sparrow, Sparrow at Artists Centre, Mumbai, Inde

1982
Four Young Contemporaries, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Inde