Subodh Gupta
About
Subodh Gupta is a highly acclaimed Indian contemporary artist. Born in 1964, he hails from Khagaul in Patna, Bihar. He immaculately knits highly unconventional imaginings with public mythologies and rituals.
Through his work, he has tried to capture different types of mundane materials and common objects that we usually overlook. He has in particular certain motifs and merchandises of India, such as cow dung, milk buckets and kitchen utensils, forming them in diverse materials and blending them into assemblages that time and againraisequestion to the present state of India’s ever-changing society, voyage, and repercussionsofquickly globalizing society.
Education & Work
He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from College of Arts & Crafts in Patna between 1983–1988, before relocating to New Delhi where he currently lives and works. Trained as a painter, he undertaken various experimentation with different formsof media.
Subodh Gupta’s work predominantly includes sculpture, installation, painting, photography, performance and video. He is happy married to artist BhartiKher.
He is mainlyacknowledged for combiningrun-of-the-mill objects that are omnipresent throughout India, such as the steel tiffin boxes used by millions and millionsof people to carry their mealsand thali pans, bicycles, and milk pails.
He has actively participated in various solo exhibition, including Everything is Inside', National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi; 'Recent Works', Gallery Ske, Bangalore; What does the vessel contain, that the river does not', Hauser and Wirth, new York; 'Spirit Eaters', KunstmuseumThun, Switzerland; 'The Imaginary Order of Things', Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Malaga, Spain; 'Line of Control', KiranNadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi; A Glass of Water', Hauser and Wirth, New York; Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland; Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland; Hauser & Wirth Outdoor Sculpture: Subodh Gupta’, Hauser & Wirth Outdoor Sculpture Southwood Garden, St.James’s Church, London; Oil on Canvas', Nature Morte, New Delhi; 'Et tu, Duchamp?', KÖR am Kunsthalle Wien project space Karlsplatz, Vienna, Austria; Take Off Your Shoes and Wash Your Hands', Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland; School', Hauser and Wirth, Old Bond Street, London; 'Faith Matters', Pinchuk Art Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine; AamAadmi (Common Man)', Hauser & Wirth, London; 'Bhandarghar', Gallery Continua, Italy; Line Of Control', Arario Gallery, Beijing; There Is Always Cinema', Galleria Continua, Italy; Gandhi’s Three Monkey’s’, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; ‘Idol Thief’, Galerie In Situ Fabienne Leclerc, Paris; Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata and The Way Home’, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, to name a few.
Some of the selected group exhibition wherein Subodh Guptashowcased his paintings includes Adventures of Truth’, FondationMaeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, France; 'Ashes and Gold – A World’s Journey', MARTa Herford, Herford, Germany; 'Beijing Online Inlive 10 Hands 100 Fingers', Galleria Continua, Beijing; World Beats: Global Contemporary Art', Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis; Masterclass', Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi; Against All Odds: A Contemporary Response to the Historiography of Archiving Collecting, and Museums in India', Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; Monumental', Walsh Gallery, Chicago; Looking Glass: The Existence of Difference', Twenty Indian Contemporary Artists presented by Religare Arts Initiative, New Delhi in collaboration with American Centre; British Council; Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi; 'All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: Indian Contemporary Art in Global Times', Lakeeren, Mumbai; All India Drawing and Craft Exhibition, Gandhi Sanghralaya, Patna and All India Youth Festival, Roorkee University, Roorkee, Uttar Pradesh, to name a few.
He has even participated in a joint exhibition organised at Centre A, Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Art, Vancouver, Canada.
Apart from this, he has enthusiasticallycontributed in The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989', Smart Museum of Art at University of Chicago, Chicago; Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012, Kochi; Massive/Intensive: Contemporary Art from India', Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel; 'Camulodunum', Firstsite, Colchester; Homespun', Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi; Paris – Delhi – Bombay’, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Artzuid 2011’, Avenues of Berlage’s Plan-Zuid, Amsterdam, Netherlands; In Praise of Doubt’, Punta dellaDogana, Venice, Italy; FIAC 2010', Paris represented by Hauser and Wirth, Gallery Continua and In Situ Fabienne Leclerc; 'Indian Focus: Artistes IndiensContemporainsdans la Collection de Claude Berri’,Espace Claude Berri, Paris; Heavy Metal: On the Inexplicable Lightness of a Material’, Kunsthallezu Kiel, Kiel, Germany and Kwangju Biennale 2000, Asian Section, South Korea, to name a few.
Awards and Accolades
Distinguished contemporary artist from India, Subodh Gupta has been honored with the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in the year 2013 and 2004. In 1997, he was conferred with Emerging Artist Award, Bose Pacia Modern, New York as well as UNESCO-ASHBERG Bursaries for Artists, at Gasworks Studio, London. He won1st Prize by M.F.Husain at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, in All India Painting Exhibition in 1996. He earned Research Grant Scholarship from Lalit Kala Akademie, New Delhi in 1990-91. Again, he was bestowed with Students grant scholarship, Govt. of Bihar, Patna, in 1987-88.