|
|
Valsan Koorma Kolleri
|
|
|
Valsan Koorma Kolleri came to Madras to study in 1971 at a time when the sculptor Dhanpal headed the College of Arts and Crafts; and a Artists' Village, under the guidance of K.C.S. Panicker offered several possibilities for practicing artists to continue working without the anxiety of having to find other means of physical sustenance.
Working initially with the geometrical abstraction which originated from the study of the human body in its...
Read More
Valsan Koorma Kolleri came to Madras to study in 1971 at a time when the sculptor Dhanpal headed the College of Arts and Crafts; and a Artists' Village, under the guidance of K.C.S. Panicker offered several possibilities for practicing artists to continue working without the anxiety of having to find other means of physical sustenance.
Working initially with the geometrical abstraction which originated from the study of the human body in its structural configuration and in movement, Kolleri would cast plaster and concrete in single and multiple modules, later assembling them into totemic formats which created a startling dialogue between the primitive and the urban. Subsequently, in the late 80's and 90's, he cast two significant bodies of work in bronze, with fragments of organic and geometrical forms, braising the pieces together in the manner of sculptural collage, and in the process combining brass pots, machine parts and other finds gathered during forages among the assorted scrap in the junkshops situated in the older quarters of Madras.
From the late 90's he moved quite naturally into the area of environment and architecture, via projects conceived by local municipalities or private organizations which promoted the idea of incorporating sculpture into recreational spaces. In Subhash Bose Park in Kochi, for example, he used the stucco technique to build a central skeletal pyramid surrounded by smaller units, spaces in which visitors to the park could recline or dream.
The range of materials which he now uses has widened to include wood, leather, bones, hair, nests and hives, things which have been outgrown or discarded, having aged or lost their value in the quest for novelty. Turning loss to advantage, he creates a theatre where these things are reinstated, pending further use; by virtue of their relationship to their surroundings, they encompass a space which far exceeds their immediate limits.
Kolleri has an affiliation with working processes which marginalizes any message that stands apart from the act of putting a piece together. As he asserts, concept apart, the placement of the object or the angle of inclination which it finally assumes is in fact the sculpture, the instant of intervention creating a value hitherto non - existent.
Read Less
Born
1953
Pattiam, Malabar
Education
1985-86 Ecole Nationale Superior Des Beaux Arts, Paris
1976-79 Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
1971-76 College of Art and Crafts, Chennai
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2007 ‘Pillar to Post’, Bodhi Space,...
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2007 ‘Pillar to Post’, Bodhi Space, Mumbai
2007 ‘New Clearage: Retrospective as Artwork’, Talwar Gallery, New York
2006 ‘New Clearage: Retrospective as Artwork’, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi
2005 ‘Retrospective as Artwork’, Colab Gallery, Bangalore
2005 ‘Retrospective as Artwork’, B.Q. Gallery, Koln, Germany
2004 ‘Drainage: Rain Harvesting Sculpture’, Khoj, New Delhi
2004 ‘Retrospective as Artwork’, Project Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2003 ‘Draw’, National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad
1998 ‘Draw’, Art Inc. Gallery, New Delhi
1998 ‘Sculpture Show, Egmore Museum, Chennai; Alliance Francaise, Bangalore
1998 ‘Sculpture Age’, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
1990 ‘Bronze Age’, Center for Contemporary Art, Delhi
1989 ‘Stone Age and Bronze Age’, British Council Gallery, Chennai
1986 ‘This Time Ceramics’, Sakshi Gallery, Chennai
Selected Group Exhibitions
2011-12 'Back to School: Baroda 1979-89', Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2011 'Back to School: Baroda 1979-89', Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi
2009 'Zip Files', Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2008 'Urgent Conversations', Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre and Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi
2008 'Santhal Family: Positions Around an Indian Sculpture', in association with Bodhi Art, and supported by the British Council, Kunststiftung NRW and the Provence of Antwerp at Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (MuKHA), Belgium
2008 ‘Frontlines: Notations from the Contemporary Indian Urban’, BodhiBerlin, Berlin
2008 ‘India Crossing’, Studio La Citta, Verona
2007 'Pursuit Sculpture', Galerie 88, Kolkata
2005 ‘Double Enders’, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore, Durbar Hall, Kochi
2005 ‘Negotiating Matters’, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi
2005 ‘Temptations and Temperaments’, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi
2005 ‘The Inverted Tree’, Threshold Gallery, New Delhi
2004 ‘Anticipations’, Fine Art Resource, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2000 ‘Global View’, Fine Art Resource, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1995 Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
1994 Easel Art Gallery, Chennai
1993 ‘Art Is Not a Hidebound’, Alliance Francaise, Chennai
1993 ‘Souvenirs D’en France’, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1992 ‘Parallel Perception’, Sridharani Gallery, New Delhi
1992 ‘Rim bound : An Indian Summer’, Traveling Show, organized by Alliance Francaise, Chennai at Hyderabad, Pondicherry, Chennai and Besancon
1992 Bggung Mit Den Andern, Kassel, Germany
1992 Kerala Lalit Kala Academy, Calicut and Cannanore
1991 ‘Touchstone’, Sakshi Gallery, Chennai, Bangalore
1987 Salon De mai, Grand Palais, Paris
1985 Co-organized Contemporary Miniatures, Cholamandal artist Village, Park Sheraton, Chennai and Kerala Kala Peetham, Kochi
1984 Kerala Lalit Kala Academy, Calicut and Cannanore
1981 Show of Sculptors, organized by Sculptors Forum of India, Chandigarh Museum and All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS), New Delhi
1973 ‘Envelope’, Russian Consulate, Chennai
Joint Exhibitions
2014 'The Shape Things Will Take', with Puneet Kaushik at Gallery Espace, New Delhi
1992 Cite Internationale Des Art, Paris
1990 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1990 Alliance Francaise, Chennai
Participations
2012-13 Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012, Kochi
2011-12 'Shadow Lines: India Meets Indonesia', part of Biennale Jogja XI at Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta
2008-09 ‘Expanding Horizons: Contemporary Indian Art’, Traveling Exhibition presented by Bodhi Art at Ravinder Natya Mandir, P.L.Despande Kala Academy Art Gallery, Mumbai; Sant Dyaneshwar Natya Sankul Art Gallery, Amravati; Platinum Jubilee Hall, Nagpur; Tapadia Natya Mandir Sports Hall, Aurangabad; Hirachand Nemchand Vachanalay’s, Solapur; Acharya Vidyanand Sanskrutik Bhavan, Kolhapur; PGSR Sabhagriha, SNDT, Pune; Sarvajanik Vachanalaya Hall, Nasik
2007-08 ‘Kashi 10 Light Years – Anniversary Show’, Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi
1987 Festival of India, Russia
1983 Annual Exhibition, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1981 National Exhibition, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1979 National Exhibition, Kerala Lalit Kala Academy, Kerala
Honours and Awards
1996 Sixth Bharat Bhavan Biennale of Indian Contemporary Art Grant...
1996 Sixth Bharat Bhavan Biennale of Indian Contemporary Art Grant Prize
1992 International Fellowship Award and Visitor ship in Visual Arts, MAAA and USIA
1990 National Academy Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1986 French Government Scholarship to study at Ecole Nationale Superieure Des Beaux Arts and to work as a resident artist at The Cite Des Art
1986-87 French Governments Grant to Visit Documenta , Kassel
1984-86 Outstanding Junior and Senior Fellowship for Artist in the Field of Plastic Art, Ministry of Education, New Delhi
1983-84 Kerala Lalit Kala Academy Award, Kerala
Read More Read Less
|
Q. Could you say something about early encounters with teachers at the College of Arts and Crafts in Madras?
P. Janakiram was the Head of the Department of Sculpture. Metalwork was one of my subjects, and he was working with the same material and techniques. He would beat sheet copper on a slab or a pillow, and he showed me the possibility of how when you work on the negative side, the positive side responds in...
|
|
Read More
|
|
Q. Could you say something about early encounters with teachers at the College of Arts and Crafts in Madras?
P. Janakiram was the Head of the Department of Sculpture. Metalwork was one of my subjects, and he was working with the same material and techniques. He would beat sheet copper on a slab or a pillow, and he showed me the possibility of how when you work on the negative side, the positive side responds in unseen ways which you have to learn to visualize. I thought it very interesting as a sculptural value, though most of the people who worked with this technique used it in a very frontal manner. Santanaraj showed me something similar. On a white canvas or paper, when you draw a diagonal line, many things happen. The whole space changes, a positive and a negative are created, a line and two divisions are created - so many things are happening simultaneously. It was important for observing and understanding the abstraction which was very much there in art in Madras.
Q. You had said once that the angle at which you place an object could turn it into sculpture.
Anything can be turned into sculpture. But to reach that level you need a certain amount of concentration. It is not only the angle, material also provides another quality to it. A hundred people might be using the same material but each person's level of understanding is different. A sculptor is someone who is able to convert and express this understanding.
|
|
Read Less
|
|
|
|
|
|
PAST AUCTIONS
Showing
4
of
21
works
PAST StoryLTD AUCTIONS
Showing
4
of
17
works
EXHIBITIONS
Showing
4
of
4
works
Need help? For more information on Indian Art, please see our Art Guide. For help
with buying through Saffronart please click here. If you have any other questions, please contact us.
|