Valsan Koorma Kolleri
dal 20/3/2007 al 11/5/2007
Segnalato da
20/3/2007
Valsan Koorma Kolleri
Talwar Gallery, New York
In his works the artist integrates materials of disparate origin, allowing their associations to compose meaningful tales. His juxtapositions document the relationships between materials and shapes and imply the possibilities of re-contextualizing objects. On view sculptures and drawings.
Newclearage: Retrospective as Artwork
Talwar Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of drawings and sculptures by Valsan Koorma Kolleri. The exhibition will be open to the public March 21 through May 12, 2007. This is the first time the artist’s works are on view in the United States.
Mark-making, whether intentional or incidental, indelibly etches the age and experiences of an object on its surface. Valsan Koorma Kolleri, whose sculptures incorporate found objects and discarded prefab materials, interprets these notations as archaeological evidence testifying to the material’s history and exposures, ultimately imbuing his artworks with deeper contextual and conceptual value. In this way, each work becomes a retrospective in itself, documenting the metamorphosis of utilitarian utensils into meaningful, autonomous shards that mend the past to the present. Conceptually influenced by his materials, Kolleri is formally inspired by their inherent qualities.
On view are sculptures in which Kolleri integrates materials of disparate circumstance and origin, allowing their associations to compose meaningful and textured tales. His juxtapositions of rough, ferric laterite stones with corroded metal and glass beads embedded in hand woven chaos of copper wire recognize the intrinsic complementary relationships between the materials and shapes, and imply the limitless possibilities of re-contextualizing objects.
The poetry in his reclamation exists in the aesthetic qualities and cultural functions of his chosen media. In How Goes the Enemy (1999-2000), the artist weaves salvaged clock springs into twin cylindrical forms. The material’s previous function as a meter of duration and the ubiquitous rust on the surface suggest that it is a casualty of Time, the omnipotent and inescapable adversary. Rather than challenging it, Kolleri collaborates with age and environment to create sculptural living artifacts, whose raw components perpetually mature as surrounding conditions change. Such vulnerable responsiveness creates a unity with Time, symmetrical to Kolleri’s own sentiments toward memory and physiological continua.
Valsan Koorma Kolleri was born in Pattiam, Malabar in 1953. He has a Bachelor’s from the College of Art & Crafts, Madras, and a Master’s from MS University, Baroda, where he was also a faculty member in the Fine Arts Department. He also studied at the Ecole Nationale Superior des Beaux Arts, Paris. Kolleri has participated in solo and group shows and lectured throughout India, Europe and the United States. His awards include the Kerala Lalit Kala Academy Award (1983), the National Academy Award (Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1990), and the Sixth Bharat Bhavan Biennale of Indian Contemporary Art Grand Prize (1996). In 2004 his exhibition Retrospective as Artwork was curated by Grant Watson at The Project, Dublin, Ireland.
Valsan Koorma Kolleri lives and works in Kerala, India.
Talwar Gallery
108 East 16 Street - New York