The Frey Norris Gallery will present the American debut solo exhibition for Indian artist Shalinee Kumari. Shalinee Kumari hails from a remote village in one of India’s poorest and most rural states, the Mithila region of Bihar. For centuries the women of Mithila have traditionally adorned their homes with wall paintings, in preparation for engagements, weddings, and births. Kumari continues and expands upon this tradition by depicting current world events as she learns of them through her primary connection to the outside world—the BBC piped into her local café. She focuses on three primary global subjects: capitalism, terrorism and environmentalism—all through her vibrantly colored paintings on paper.
The eldest of four daughters, at twenty three years of age, Kumari was to be promised into marriage but denied her family’s wishes to pursue a career in art. To date, she has received grants from the East West Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and others to pursue her career enabling her to attend a local art school, to exhibit and lecture in Delhi, and ultimately, to leave India for the first time to attend her first solo exhibition at Frey Norris Gallery in San Francisco.
Kumari may be the first artist of this Mithila region to tackle contemporary subjects. The Berkeley Art Museum, the San Francisco Asian Arts Museum and the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles are all advocates, collectors and exhibitors of the work itself.
A 20-page catalogue is available with an essay by David Szanton, the former Director of International and Area Studies at UC Berkeley, a social anthropologist with a long interest in art history and the relationship between art and social change.link
Showing posts with label Mithila Region. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mithila Region. Show all posts
Friday 29 May 2009
Sunday 12 April 2009
BJP engaged in 'savarna' mobilisation
The spectre of former JD(U) leader and Bihar CM Jagannath Mishra is haunting NDA, specially BJP, in the Mithila region. Aware of the possible subversive or negative impact of the quitting of JD(U) by Mishra, the state BJP has engaged itself in active mobilisation of the "savarna samaj (upper caste sections)" in the region in favour of NDA.
The region accounts for three parliamentary constituencies -- Darbhanga, Madhubani and Jhanjharpur. While BJP is contesting Madhubani and Darbhanga seats, the Jhanjharpur seat has gone to JD(U). Incidentally, Mishra, in the past, has contested the Jhanjharpur seat, though unsuccessfully. Yet, the damage that he could cause is very much on the radar of NDA, specially BJP. It has been assumed that the adverse impact of the move of Mishra on NDA would be immediate. The poll would be held in the second phase.
Mishra had aired his concerns on the devastations wrought by the Kosi floods in the five districts, and had also queered the pitch for CM Nitish Kumar. Later, he quit JD(U), while his son Nitish Mishra, a JD(U) aspirant for the Jhanjharpur seat, resigned from the council of ministers. Senior Mishra cosied up to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, and also announced to support any candidate who could strengthen secular and democratic traditions.
BJP, in effect, has taken to damage control exercise. In less than a week, two of its state leaders -- former state president Tara Kant Jha and the party's state spokesman Vinod Narayan Jha -- have aired their concerns on the region to influence the voting behaviour of the people, specially the upper caste sections. While Tara Kant Jha, among other things, recently pointed to the contribution of NDA in securing recognition for Maithili language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, Vinod Narayan Jha, after a week long tour of the region, reiterated it on Saturday.
He dubbed Mishra as "swayambhu neta (self-proclaimed leader)". Due to his new association with Lalu and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan, he also called Mishra Lalu's "guru" and "chaaraa ghotaale ka humsafar", and put him as "naya humsafar" of Ram Vilas Paswan! He, finally, lambasted Mishra for claiming that the honeymoon of Brahmins (Maithil) with NDA in the Mithila region was over, and also blasted UPA.
"Not only the Brahmin community of the region, but all other sections are solidly behind NDA," Vinod Narayan said, adding: "Brahmins, in particular, constitute the intelligentsia. They have always longed for development and law and order, which the state NDA government has given in the last three and half years. This section is positively oriented towards NDA." link
The region accounts for three parliamentary constituencies -- Darbhanga, Madhubani and Jhanjharpur. While BJP is contesting Madhubani and Darbhanga seats, the Jhanjharpur seat has gone to JD(U). Incidentally, Mishra, in the past, has contested the Jhanjharpur seat, though unsuccessfully. Yet, the damage that he could cause is very much on the radar of NDA, specially BJP. It has been assumed that the adverse impact of the move of Mishra on NDA would be immediate. The poll would be held in the second phase.
Mishra had aired his concerns on the devastations wrought by the Kosi floods in the five districts, and had also queered the pitch for CM Nitish Kumar. Later, he quit JD(U), while his son Nitish Mishra, a JD(U) aspirant for the Jhanjharpur seat, resigned from the council of ministers. Senior Mishra cosied up to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, and also announced to support any candidate who could strengthen secular and democratic traditions.
BJP, in effect, has taken to damage control exercise. In less than a week, two of its state leaders -- former state president Tara Kant Jha and the party's state spokesman Vinod Narayan Jha -- have aired their concerns on the region to influence the voting behaviour of the people, specially the upper caste sections. While Tara Kant Jha, among other things, recently pointed to the contribution of NDA in securing recognition for Maithili language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, Vinod Narayan Jha, after a week long tour of the region, reiterated it on Saturday.
He dubbed Mishra as "swayambhu neta (self-proclaimed leader)". Due to his new association with Lalu and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan, he also called Mishra Lalu's "guru" and "chaaraa ghotaale ka humsafar", and put him as "naya humsafar" of Ram Vilas Paswan! He, finally, lambasted Mishra for claiming that the honeymoon of Brahmins (Maithil) with NDA in the Mithila region was over, and also blasted UPA.
"Not only the Brahmin community of the region, but all other sections are solidly behind NDA," Vinod Narayan said, adding: "Brahmins, in particular, constitute the intelligentsia. They have always longed for development and law and order, which the state NDA government has given in the last three and half years. This section is positively oriented towards NDA." link
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
