Carol Gracias, Bhavna Sharma at Volte Gallery solo show by Ranbir Kaleka

RANBIR KALEKA SWEET UNEASE 16 December 2010 to 15 February 2011 Volte Gallery Solo Show. Through the course of the show, Volte Gallery took the iconic works of Ranbir Kaleka to ARTSingapore 2011 and the India Art Summit 2011. Collectors, Artists, Gallerists and visitors alike were mesmerized with the unfolding mixed media stories of Sweet Unease. Audiences of both fairs were abuzz about the awe created by the videos projected on paintings that “come to life.”

Museums and collectors around the world picked up Ranbir’s works through these fairs. As closing day approaches, only a few editions of the works shown are available.

To celebrate the success of Rabir Kaleka’s Sweet Unease show, Tushar Jiwarajka and Beenu Bawa are hosting a Finissage Party at Volte Gallery on Tuesday February 15th, 2011. Bombay’s Artists, Collectors and Culturati will come together for a black tie event to tip a hat to the artist that awes.

Ranbir Kaleka’s works have achieved significant international saliency during the last decade: they have been exhibited in museum, biennial, foundation and gallery contexts in Venice, Berlin, Lisbon, Vienna, New York, Mexico City and Sydney, among other centres. Born in 1953, in Patiala, Kaleka was educated at the Punjab University, Chandigarh, and the Royal College of Art, London; he has lived and worked both in Britain and India. Across the three d,:cades of his artistic activity, he has produced both a remarkable body of paintings, vibrant with phantasmagoria and epic disquiet, as well as a body of trans-media works that combine conceptualist sophistication with a calibrated opulence of image.

‘Sweet Unease’ is Kaleka’s first solo exhibition in Bombay, and constitutes a major survey of a decade of his trans-media activity. The earliest darks shown here date back to the early 2000s; the latest were realized especially for this occasion. Those who have already savoured Kaleka’s art will find ‘Cul-de-sac in Taxila’ (the new, stand-alone avatar of the chapter titled ‘Man with Hammer’ from ‘Crossings’, a 2005 installation that mobilized a four- channel projection with corresponding acrylic paintings), as well as ‘Fables from the House of Ibaan’ (2007) and ‘He was a Good Man’ (2008). And while ‘The Kettle’ and ‘Sweet Unease’ (both 2010) embody Kaleka’s most recent inquiries, the early work, ‘Man with Cockerel’ (2001-02), is also on view in an enclosure parallel to the exhibition.

Available at: Volte Gallery, 2/19 Kamal Mansion, Above Hotel White Pear, Near Radio Club, Arthur Bunder Road, Colaba, Mumbai-S, Phone: 022 22041220, Monday to Saturday: 11:00 am – 07:00 pm