User:Lakeeren

LAKEEREN - The Contemporary Art Gallery

Lakeeren Gallery, owned by Dr. Arshiya Lokhandwala is located in Mumbai, India showcases avant–garde contemporary art practices from India and its sub-continent, with a special emphasis for curating and presenting art that is reflective of the zeitgeist. The gallery embraces a theoretical underpinning that informs the artistic practices that it exhibits. Lakeeren represents Anita Dube, Sharmila Samant, Surekha and Waqas Khan, who work with various issues including feminism, environment, geo-politics and post-colonial. The gallery exhibits work of all media including painting, video, installation, sculpture and site-specific work.The founding director and curator is Arshiya Lokhandwala, a graduate from Goldsmiths College, (MA in Curating, 2000) and a PhD from Cornell University in History of Arts, 2010. She continues her gallery practice as well as functions as an independent curator and art historian.

Although Lakeeren Gallery physically closed its doors in 2003, as Arshiya Lokhandwala had decided to pursue a PhD at Cornell University in History of Art (poised with a degree in Creative Curating from Goldsmiths College, London, 2001), the gallery opened an “intellectual” space that would undertake to expand its art historical and curatorial enterprise oeuvre to also include global art practices in its agenda. This expanded vision of the gallery could be interpreted in extending Lakeeren’s “lines” as connecting nodes, or in the words of philosophers Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, to be considered within “rhizomatic” frame of reference to establish new relationships outside predictable connections in a global art space.

This allowed the dismantling of relationships that are questionable and that no longer work such as the genres of art and ghettoization of art as a national project. It further extended this rhizomatic way of thinking to allow cross-overs that intersect many aspects of the various practices as a gallerist, curator and art historian creating a unique “third space” that allows a Gallerist to engage and push these areas to another level of interaction.

Lakeeren Gallery Artistʼs represented:

Anita Dube

Sharmila Samant

Waqas Khan

Nandita Kumar

Chitra Ganesh

Shadi Gjadhirian

Shilpa Mayenkar

Surekha

Vandana Jain

Shaurya Kumar

Latest Exhibitions:

'''History is … ''' Jan 15 -Mar 31, 2015

History is … is an exhibition based on the premise of Walter Benjamin’s Theses on the

Philosophy of History (XVI) where he suggests “History is the subject of a structure whose

site is not homogenous, empty time, but time filled by the presence of the now. [Jetztzeit].

The same leap in the open air of history is the dialectical one, which is how Marx understood

the revolution.”[1]

In this exhibition each artist’s respond their own understanding of time and temporality

within their practice. In shifting from Benjamin’s proposition of continuous time made up of

identical and interchangeable units such as minutes, seconds, hours and days to messianic

time or “historic time” which is ruptured with intensive experience filled with the presence of

the “now” combines experiences of immediacy and eternity. In this exhibition each of the

artist’s through his/ her work seeks to find this moment through their work.

'''Space Phrases | Parul Gupta | ''' November 13- January 10, 2015

In Space Phrases, her debut solo show in Mumbai, Gupta exhibits her recent

drawings,photographs and video. Her enquiry slides from line as a language in itself, to the

line becoming the medium to engage with the shifting dynamic of space. The medium of line

converses with the space both by recognising its existing architectural alignment, as well as

finding newer sites of subtle insertions and realignments from within.

Gupta’s enquiry in regards the line started with witnessing her fallen hair, as organic line,

and therafter building  comparisons with straight lines drawn by pen on wall. While the line

drawn by hair didn’t find its way further, the straight line went on responding to architectural spaces

andother built spatial ambiences. This process led her engagement to travel from the paper

and enter into different kind of spaces, through site responsive drawings and installations.

Parul Gupta was born in Delhi (1980) and graduated from Nottingham Trent University, UK

with MA Fine Art in 2011. She has been part of various group shows and Site Specific Projects

including Sarai Reader 09 at Devi Art Foundation (2012), Kona Alternative Space (2013),

Khoj International Artist Association (2013) and Art Chennai (2014).

E S C A D A Paintings and Drawings  by Shilpa Mayenkar

October 9 -November 15, 2014

The exhibition Escada, a debut show by Shilpa Mayenkar examines a deep-rooted historical,

cultural, social relationship between Goa and Portugal. A resident of Goa herself, the artist

seeks to understand the post-colonial linkages within the current onslaught of globalization.

The title of the show Escada that in Portuguese means “staircase” is symbolic of striving

towards a better life. The artist investigates what this means given that Goans today have the

opportunity to apply for a European Union passport. Does moving to Europe signify an

improved life?

Mayenkar in this show revisits her colonial roots using routes and cartographies to make

visible the breath of the Portuguese empire, using the ant as a leitmotif witnessing a part of

her history. As with any colonization which ends in massacre and clashes with the local,

inevitably a cultural exchange also takes place. ​C​ashews were introduced from Brazil, blue

tiles called Azul​ejos​ gained prominence, as did the making of the exquisite lace that came

from Europe to Goa. Also mosaic titles made from broken china b​r​ought from Macau ​as

ballast were ​dumped on the shores of Goa becoming a common sight in households. Goa

finally gained independence from the Portugal​ ​in 1961, but was only officially admitted to

Indian statehood as late as 1987.

Today, one sees the reverse process of colonization (aka globalization) when Goan nationals

migrate to Portugal aspiring for a better future. The artist questions if this does make for a

better life, and if it is easy for an individual to move to other country leaving behind their

cultural roots and family? Escada is an attempt to understand the complex history and legacy

of the Portuguese colonization in India within our changing world today.

Chitra Ganesh |Drawing from the past

24th july- 30th September 2014

In this very unique site-specific installation Drawing from the Present, Chitra Ganesh for the

first time presents an immersive environment of wall drawings that address her ongoing

interest in Science fiction, mythology and time travel. This exhibition comprises new imagery

made by the artist responds to architectural elements from the gallery and the city of Mumbai

brings to focus the idea of circular time or mythic time that allows us to engage beyond the

chronology of linear narrative of history.

Lakeeren Gallery : Past Exhibition History

THE OTHER (INDIAN) STORY Anita Dube,Tushar Joag, Monali Meher, Kausik Mukhopadhyay, Pushpamala N, Sharmila Samant,Mithu Sen,Surekha,Justin Ponmany,Darshana Vora July 08, 2009

SLEEPING AT LAKEEREN 16th November, Monday 2009

'''ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR: INDIAN CONTEMPORARY ART IN GLOBAL TIMES''' Atul Dodiya, Sheela Gowda, Subodh Gupta, N. S. Harsha, Jitish Kallat, Kausik Mukhopadhyay, Justin Ponmany, Sharmila Samant, T V Santosh. 17 December 2009, 30 January, 2010

PUNCTUM PART 1 A Critical Look at The Body in South Asian Photography Sheba Chachi, Tejal Shah, Anita Dube, Hetain Patel 22 February – 9 April 2010

PUNCTUM PART 2 A Critical Look at Landscape in South Asian Photography Sreshta Premnath, Sharmila Samant, Prajakta Potnis, Gauri Gill, Yamini Nayar, Sonia Khurana 15 April – 20 May 2010

INDIAN LIFE: AM ARCHEOLOGY OF CHANGE Shaikat Surai and Sanjay Singh August 7 – September 30, 2010

EVEN INFINITY TAKES TIME Waqas Khan September 24th – October 23rd 2010

KAL / TOMORROW Anita Dube November 27th 2010 – January 31st 2011

'''AGAINST ALL ODDS: A CONTEMPORARY RESPONSE TO THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ARCHIVING, COLLECTING AND MUSEUMS IN INDIA''' Lalit Kala, Delhi Amar Kanwar, Atul Dodiya, Archana Hande, Bose Krishnamachari, CAMP, Dayanita Singh, L.N.Tallur, Mithu Sen, Nikhil Chpora, N.S. Harsha, Pushpamala. N, Raqas Media Collective, Sharmila Samant, Sheba Chhachi, Sudarshan Shetty, Subodh Gupta, Surekha, Tushar Joag, Vivan Sundaram, Vivek Vilasini November 2010

THE SECOND SEX : FEMINIST PHOTOGRAPHY ON THE CUSP Anita Dube, N. Pushpamala, Vidya kamat, Surekha 22nd June – 22nd July, 2011

THEY SAID IT WAS LOVE… Imran Quershi & Atif Khan 27th November – 31st December 2011 ZARINA HASHMI : ANAMNESIS 1970 – 1981 Zarina Hashmi 25th February – 30th April 2011

WINDING TIME: OBJECTS, DRAWINGS AND VIDEO ART Ritesh Ajmeri 8th September – 9th October 2011

LISTEN TO YOUR EYE... Sharmila Samant 12th January – 6th February 2012

'''THE LOST MUSEUM THE FATE OF WORLDʼS GREATEST LOST TREASURES''' Shaurya Kumar February 9 - March 31, 2012

CARDINAL MERIDIANS: NEW GEOMETRIES OF THE INFINITE April 12th –May 31st June 2012 Amina Ahmed, Bindu Mehra, Fariba Alam, Nandita Kumar, Seher Shah RESEARCH POD @ LAKEEREN Grants Building, 2nd Floor, Opposite Basilico Restaurant, Arthur Bunder Road, Colaba, Mumbai 400005. T: + 91-22 65224179, E-mail: lakeeren@hotmail.com, www.lakeerengallery.com July 29th – August 29th, 2012

THE INVISIBLE HAND GUIDES US ALL TO OUR GAINFUL END Vandana Jain September 6th – October 14th, 2012

DANCE OF THE RETINA Waqas khan November 8th - December 31st, 2012

LABYRINTHS…. Anita Dube January 5th – February 15th 2013

OFFERING Photographic Works by Anita Dube March 13th - 29th, 2013 EYE ETC… Anita Dube January 10th – 9th March 2013

UNCOMFORTABLY NUMB INVESTIGATING THE UNCANNY IN CONTEMPORARY TIMES Prajakta Potnis, Raqs Media Collective, Shilpa Gupta May 2nd - 31st, 2013

MISS BUTTERFLY Shadi Ghadhirian September – November 2013 TRANSCEDENTAL EVOCATIONS : CONTEMPORARY ART FROM MEXICO Ale de la Puente, Armando Miguelez, Erick Meyenberg, Lorena Mal, Maximo Gonzalez, Roberto de la Torre 28 November 2013- 20 January 2014.

LeT tHe bRAinFly: IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENT Nandita Kumar March 6- June 30th, 2014