Alwar Balasubramaniam

Alwar Balasubramaniam (born 1971), also known as “Bala,” is an Indian artist works in a variety of mediums such as sculpture, painting and printmaking. His work, ranging in subjects from the body and its material relationship with the world to the shadow of a shadow, has been the subject of international acclaim, and has been featured in museums and exhibitions worldwide.

Alwar Balasubramaniam
Born1971 (age 51–52)
Tamil Nadu, India
NationalityIndian

Career

Bala was born in Tamil Nadu, India. He earned a BFA from the Government College of Arts, Chennai in 1995. He began his formal training with a focus in printmaking and continued to take courses after his graduation at the Edinburgh Printers Workshop (EPW),[1] the Universität fär angewandte Kunst Wien, Vienna where his early work focused on prints and paintings. His work took a turn after his time at the MacDowell Colony residency in Massachusetts. It was here that he ban working increasingly in sculpture and installation in the early 2000s. He was attracted to its multi-dimensionality and has since gained much recognition as a sculptor.

Bala’s first solo exhibition in the United States took place at Talwar Gallery in New York City in 2002. On display were sculptures cast from his own body, monoprints, and a heat sensitive work that revealed itself only at a certain temperature. Bala’s works begin with a questioning of perception and end with a new understanding of what we previously knew. He handles his strong conceptual groundwork with a playfulness in execution. He has shown his works at Talwar Gallery in New York and New Delhi throughout his career.

Other notable showings include Sk(in)[2] at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.[3] For this exhibition, Bala created a massive steel sculpture to sit outside. It is not solid, but composed of delicately welded steel pieces that create an image suggestive of a tree trunk, or the human heart itself. The interior component to the piece engages with the walls in three parts, Wound, Hidden Sight, and Untitled. The works all focus on the reversibility of skin, its position on the exterior of a body or and object yet it points to the interior and depth within. Bala has also been involved with notable group exhibitions such as the 50th Anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Contemplating the Void in 2010[4] and On Line at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2010–2011.[5] These highly respected museums invited artists from around the world who were known for their innovation and transformative artworks.

Bala’s works have been exhibited in museums, art festivals, and galleries worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), New York, NY;[6] The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY;[7] The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC;[8] Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY;[9] Mori Art Museum, Japan;[10] Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi, India;[11] Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington;[12] Essl Museum, Austria;[13] 1st Singapore Biennale;[14] École des Beaux Arts, Paris, France;[15] National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia;[16] and the 18th Biennale of Sydney, Australia.[17] Bala has been a guest lecturer at the Art Department of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and a featured speaker at TED.[18]

Work
Hold Nothing (2012) at The Phillips Collection in 2022

Bala prefers to be known simply as “a person who creates art.” He focuses on what needs to be expressed and the materials best suited to do so, rather than defining himself by a material and creating work accordingly.

Similarly, Bala's work, unlike that of many of his contemporaries, largely eschews references to contemporary social or geographic realities – a fact that many critics cite as the reason for his belated international acclaim, especially in comparison with artists whose "Indianness" appears more overtly in their work.[19] Bala's work, by contrast, is centered on the body and its relationship to the material world, focusing especially on the intangible elements – light, air, shadow – that structure physical experience.[20] Bala’s artwork represents the questions that he asks about himself and the particularities of our world. He asks questions about the subjectivity of our perception, our faith or disbelief in the invisible, and the stance our bodies have in relationship to our selves and our world. His artwork also provides certain understandings of these questions. He plays with our perceptions, our preconceptions and others us a new way of looking at things. In a similar way, many of Bala's works deal with Energy – that invisible yet absolutely fundamental animating force of life. While his earlier works often referred to energy in a visually symbolic manner, eventually energy became more of a latent presence in Bala's work – a force connoted rather than denoted, known only by its effects. The dynamic installations of Energy Field (2009) or Link (2009), for example, physically manifest the presence of forms of energy, even while masking their origin – confusing and teasing the viewer and underscoring the myriad non-visible forces at work in the physical world.

Body as Shell (2011-2015) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022

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.[21] Many of his sculptural series that have included casts from himself, focusing especially on the skin as the literal and metaphorical boundary that separates the inside from the outside, the seen from the hidden, the self from the exterior world. In an early work, Self in progress (2002), for example, a life-sized seated figure cast from his own body, appears rooted within a wall. The figure is caught midway at this transitional threshold, entering from one side of the wall and emerging from another, with a non-visible head apparently stuck inside the wall. The sculpture seems an audacious pronouncement of the will of man, which grants the ability to saturate matter and makes nothing beyond reach or inert. For a passing moment, there seems to exist a connectedness between all things animate and inanimate; the art and the space it inhabits become one. As the artist once remarked, "We usually seek clarity in details while the entire picture may be blurred. To me life is not about clear moments but seeking clarity in life as a whole.

Selected exhibitions

[22]

Solo exhibitions
2023
Talwar Gallery, Mirror on the ground, New Delhi, India[23]
2019
Talwar Gallery, Becoming Nature, New York, NY, US[24]
2018
Talwar Gallery, Liquid Lake Mountain, New Delhi, India[25]
2016
Talwar Gallery, Rain in the midnight, New York, NY, US[26]
2015
Talwar Gallery, layers of wind, lines of time, New York, NY, US[27]
2012
Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US
Talwar Gallery, Nothing From My Hands, New Delhi, India[28]
The Phillips Collection, Sk(in), Washington DC, US[29]
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[30]
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[31]
2022
Talwar Gallery, From Three, Two, New York, NY, US[32]
2021
Talwar Gallery, as the wind blows, New York, NY, US[33]
2019
Arvind Indigo Museum, Alchemy: Explorations in Indigo, Ahmedabad, India[34]
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[35]
2012
18th Biennale of Sydney, all our relations, Sydney, Australia[36]
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[37]
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[38]
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

Education

1995 – Bachelor of Fine Arts, Government College of Arts, Madras, India 1998 – EPW (Printmaking) Edinburgh, UK 1999 – Universität fur Angewandte Kunste (Printmaking) Wien, Austria

Awards and grants
2008
Featured Speaker at TED Conference, Mysore, India
Guest Lecturer, Department of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
2006
Sanskriti Award, India
2001
Kunstlerdorf's fellowship, Schoppingen, Germany
Fundacio pilar I Joan Miro's Award, Spain
1999
UNESCO – ASCHBERG Bursaries for Artists in Residency at Vienna, Austria
1998
Residency at the MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire, United States
Grapheion Review Award in International Print Biennial, Prague, Czech Republic
1997
The Charles Wallace India Trust Arts Fellowship Award, United Kingdom
Junior Fellowship from Government of India
Grand prize in 4th Bharat Bhavan International Print Biennial, Bhopal, India
The Charles Wallace India Trust Arts Fellowship Award, United Kingdom
1996
2nd Egyptian International Print Triennial Award, Giza, Egypt
1995
3rd Sapporo International Print Biennial Sponsor Award, Sapporo, Japan
Research Grant Award from Lalit Kala Academy, India

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[39]
2007 – (In)visible. With an essay by Sharmini Pereira, 2007.
2005 – Transition and Transformation. University Gallery, Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts. With essays by Loretta Yarlow and Deepak Talwar, 2005.[40]

References
  1. "Edinburgh Printmakers". Edinburgh Printmakers. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  2. "Alwar Balasubramaniam – Exhibitions – Talwar Gallery". www.talwargallery.com. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  3. "A. Balasubramaniam". www.phillipscollection.org. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  4. "Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum". Guggenheim. 27 April 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  5. "On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  6. "Body as Shell". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  7. "ON LINE: DRAWING THROUGH THE TWENTIETH CENTURY". Talwar Gallery. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  8. "INTERSECTIONS: A. BALASUBRAMANIAM". The Phillips Collection. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  9. "Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum". Guggenheim Museum. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  10. "MORI ART MUSEUM [Chalo! India]". www.mori.art.museum. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  11. "narrating from the museum archives and collection: TEN YEARS OF KNMA". Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  12. "CITY DWELLERS: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM INDIA". Seattle Art Museum. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  13. "Home". sammlung-essl.at. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  14. "Singapore Biennale (Singapore)". Biennial Foundation. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  15. "École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts". www.beauxartsparis.fr. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  16. "Alwar Balasubramaniam: by Zehra Jumabhoy". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  17. "Biennale of Sydney". Biennale of Sydney. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  18. "TED INDIA: Alwar Balasubramaniam: Art of Substance and Absence". Talwar Gallery. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  19. Zehra Jumabhoy, "A. Balasubramaniam," Artforum, December 2009.
  20. Brienne Walsh, "Alwar Balasubramaniam," Modern Painters, November 2012.
  21. Ella Datta, "The Inner of the Outer," Art India, 2009.
  22. "Alwar Balasubramaniam – Artists – Talwar Gallery". www.talwargallery.com. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  23. "Mirror on the ground, « TALWAR GALLERY".
  24. Talwar Gallery, Becoming Nature, New York: 2019.
  25. Talwar Gallery, Liquid Lake Mountain, New Delhi: 2018.
  26. Talwar Gallery, Rain in the Midnight, New York: 2016.
  27. Talwar Gallery, layers of wind, lines of time, New York: 2015.
  28. Talwar Gallery, Nothing From My Hands, New Delhi: 2012.
  29. The Phillips Collection, Sk(in), Washington D.C.: 2012/
  30. "Fundació Miró Mallorca". miromallorca.com (in Catalan). Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  31. "Pour, Tear, Carve, The Phillips Collection". Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  32. "From three, two,« TALWAR GALLERY".
  33. "as the wind blows,« TALWAR GALLERY".
  34. Arvind Indigo Museum, Alchemy: Explorations in Indigo, India: 2019.
  35. "CCAD Presents WALL, Feb. 21–April 4, 2013". 17 May 2013. Archived from the original on 17 May 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  36. "Sydney's SEO Pages – Search Engine Optimization & Webdesign | bos18". Sydney's SEO Pages. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  37. "Where in the World | Devi Art Foundation". www.deviartfoundation.org. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  38. "Aar Paar – Public Art Exchange project between India and Pakistan". aarpaar2.tripod.com. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  39. Archive, Asia Art. "A. Balasubramaniam: (In)Between". aaa.org.hk. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  40. "Transition and Transformation: A. Balasubramaniam and Ranjani Shettar". fac.umass.edu. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
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