Alwar Balasubramaniam

Alwar Balasubramaniam (born 1971), commonly known as "Bala," is an Indian artist Known for his sculptures, paintings, and printmaking.

Early life and Education
Bala was born in Tamil Nadu, India. He obtained a BFA from the Government College of Arts, Chennai in 1995, initially specializing in printmaking. Following his graduation, he furthered his studies at the Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop (EPW) and the Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, Vienna, focusing on prints and paintings. Subsequently, his artistic direction evolved during his residency at the MacDowell Colony in Massachusetts, where he transitioned towards sculpture and installation work in the early 2000s.

Career
In 2002, Bala's inaugural solo exhibition in the United States was hosted at the Talwar Gallery in New York City. The exhibition showcased sculptures crafted from casts of his own body, monoprints, and a heat-sensitive artwork that unveiled itself only under specific temperatures. Bala's artistic exploration commences with an interrogation of perception, culminating in a redefined comprehension of preconceived notions. Infusing his works with a firm conceptual foundation, he exhibits a playful approach to execution. Over the course of his career, Bala has exhibited his creations at both the Talwar Gallery in New York and New Delhi.

Bala's noteworthy exhibitions include Sk(in) at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. For this showcase, Bala conceived a large-scale steel sculpture installed outdoors. Comprising intricately welded steel components, the sculpture evokes imagery reminiscent of a tree trunk or the human heart. Its interior elements, titled Wound, Hidden Sight, and Untitled, interact with the surrounding walls in three distinct sections. The artworks within the exhibition collectively explore the concept of skin's reversibility, its presence as an exterior covering juxtaposed with its allusion to internal depth. Additionally, Bala has participated in significant group exhibitions such as the 50th Anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Contemplating the Void in 2010, and On Line at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 2010–2011.

Bala’s works have been exhibited in museums, art festivals, and galleries worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), New York, NY; The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Mori Art Museum, Japan; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi, India; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington; Essl Museum, Austria; 1st Singapore Biennale; École des Beaux Arts, Paris, France; National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia; and the 18th Biennale of Sydney, Australia. Bala has been a guest lecturer at the Art Department of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and a featured speaker at TED.

Work




Bala's art typically doesn't reference current social or geographic settings. Critics say this contributes to his slower global recognition, especially compared to artists who highlight their cultural identity more prominently. Bala's artistic focus centers on the human body and its interaction with the material environment, particularly emphasizing intangible elements such as light, air, and shadow, which shape the perception of physical sensations. Bala's artwork explores existential inquiries concerning self and the complexities of our reality. His pieces delve into questions about the subjective nature of perception, the ambiguity surrounding beliefs in the unseen, and the relationship between our bodies and our environment. Through his art, Bala offers insights into these inquiries, challenging viewers' perceptions and introducing alternative perspectives. Additionally, many of Bala's compositions engage with the concept of Energy, the vital yet imperceptible force underpinning life. While his earlier works symbolically depicted energy, his later pieces suggest its presence indirectly, leaving its effects as the sole indication. Installations like Energy Field (2009) or Link (2009) physically manifest various forms of energy while obscuring their origins, highlighting the complex interplay of unseen forces within the physical realm.

Often using his own body as a basis for his sculptures, Bala engages in a profound, but not humourless, investigation into the metaphysics of selfhood.

Selected exhibitions

 * Solo exhibitions
 * 2023 : Talwar Gallery,  Mirror on the ground, New Delhi, India
 * 2019 : Talwar Gallery, Becoming Nature, New York, NY, US
 * 2018 : Talwar Gallery, Liquid Lake Mountain, New Delhi, India
 * 2016 : Talwar Gallery, Rain in the midnight, New York, NY, US
 * 2015 : Talwar Gallery, layers of wind, lines of time, New York, NY, US
 * 2012 : Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US
 * Talwar Gallery, Nothing From My Hands, New Delhi, India
 * The Phillips Collection, Sk(in), Washington DC, US


 * 2009 : Talwar Gallery, (In)between, New Delhi, India
 * 2007 : Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US
 * Talwar Gallery, (In)visible, New Delhi, India


 * 2005 : Van Every/Smith Galleries, Unfixed Being, Davidson, North Carolina, US
 * 2004 : Talwar Gallery, Into Thin Air, New York, NY, US
 * 2002 : Fundacio pilar I Joan Miro, Traces, Majoca, Spain
 * Talwar Gallery, New York, NY


 * 2000: Association Mouvement Art Contemporain, Chamalieres, France
 * The British Council, New Delhi, Inidia


 * 1999 : Die Kleine Galerie, Vienna, Austria
 * Carloz Ionzano Gallery, Cadaques, Spain
 * Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop, UK


 * 1998 : Taller Galleria, Cadaques, Spain
 * Art Inc., New Delhi, India


 * Selected group exhibitions
 * 2023 : The Phillips Collection, Pour, Tear, Carve, Washington, DC, US
 * 2022 : Talwar Gallery, '' From Three, Two, New York, NY, US
 * 2021 : Talwar Gallery, as the wind blows, New York, NY, US
 * 2019 : Arvind Indigo Museum, Alchemy: Explorations in Indigo, Ahmedabad, India
 * 2018 : FRAC Lorraine, You Remind Me of Someone, Metz, France
 * 2015 : The Phillips Collection, Intersections, Washington DC, US
 * 2014 : Seattle Art Museum, City Dwellers, Seattle, Washington, US
 * 2013 : Columbus College of Art and Design, WALL, Columbus, OH, US
 * 2012 : 18th Biennale of Sydney, all our relations, Sydney, Australia
 * Montclair Art Museum, Look Now, Montclair, NJ, US


 * 2011 : National Portrait Gallery, Beyond the Self, Canberra, Australia, and travel to
 * McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Australia,: Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia
 * Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Australia
 * Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Time Unfolded, New Delhi, India


 * 2010 : The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), On Line, New York, NY, US
 * Guggenheim Museum, Contemplating the Void, New York, NY, US


 * 2009 : Devi Art Foundation, Poddar Collection, Where in the World, New Delhi, India
 * 2008 : Mori Art Museum, Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art, Tokyo Japan and travel to
 * National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea
 * Essl Museum, Klosterneurburg, Wien, Austria


 * 2006 : Singapore Biennale, Belief, Singapore
 * 2005 : University of Massachusetts, Transition and Transformation, Amherst, MA, US
 * Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Indian Summer, Paris, France
 * Talwar Gallery, desi(re), New York, NY, US


 * 2001: 8th International Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt
 * Finding the Center at the Margins, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, India
 * 6th International Biennale of Drawing and Graphic Arts, Gyor, Hungary


 * 2000 : Aar Paar, Exchange exhibition between India and Pakistan
 * International Print Triennial, Cracow, Poland
 * 3rd International Triennial of Graphic Art, Bitola, Macedonia
 * 6th International Biennial of Miniature Art, Yugoslavia
 * 1st Cheju International Prints Art Festival, Korea
 * 5th Triennial Mondiale D'Estampes Petit Format, Chamalieres, France
 * 4th Muestra Latino Americana International Miniprint, Argentina


 * 1999 : 12th Norwegian International Print Triennial, Norway
 * Premio International Biella, Italy
 * 10th International Exhibition for Small Graphics, Lodz, Poland
 * 4th British International Miniature Print Exhibition, UK


 * 1998 : 1st International Print Triennial, Kanagawa, Japan
 * 7th International Triennial of Prints and Drawings, Vaasa, Finland
 * 2nd International Triennial of Graphic Art, Labyrinth, Prague, Czech Republic

Publications available

 * 2021 - Alwar Balasubramaniam, BALA, text by Vesela Sretenović, Alwar Balasubramaniam, and Deepak Talwar
 * 2009 – Alwar Balasubramaniam, (In)between, text by Deepak Talwar, Talwar Gallery
 * 2005 – Transition and Transformation. University Gallery, Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts. With essays by Loretta Yarlow and Deepak Talwar, 2005.