Ankon Mitra in collaboration with Apparao Galleries presents a significant paper art, design and architecture exposition titled On Paper Of Paper. Mitra, a sculptor and architect curates paper works of over 70 artists from across the country in a first-of-its-kind exhibition in India and at India Design ID.
The works are of artists who sculpt and manipulate paper, architects crafting models and designers experimenting with unconventional expressions. The exhibition’s theme is Paper-Dashavatār (कागज़ – दशावतार), and it draws inspiration from Lord Vishnu’s metamorphoses in Vedic lore.
The exhibition will include works by:
- Artists who predominantly work with sculpting and manipulating paper/paper based materials to create paper murals, 3D sculptures and installations.
- Paper ‘studies’ and ‘experiments’ by artists & designers whose final outcomes are usually in other materials.
- Architects who work prominently with paper to create works of significant scale or paper models of built and unbuilt architectural proposals.
- Designers who create very unconventional and interesting products and expressions with paper.
Curatorial Note:
“Anyone who has ever worked with paper knows that it is an incredibly versatile material to play and immerse with. There are hundreds of ways in which paper can be moulded and manipulated. The kind of things paper can transform into, perhaps no other material familiar to humans can. I have invited participants of this exhibition to think of this versatility of paper while imagining or creating their work for the exhibition. All of the participants of this exhibition are well known for their particular expression, style and the specific techniques that they employ in expressing their art with paper.
This brief urges them to push their technique to the next level. Would the artist like to combine a well established technique in their work with a new experimental one? Or perhaps tread on new ground altogether? Would the artist like to combine paper with another material which plays a supporting role but brings out a quality of paper as yet hidden? As Lord Vishnu in our lore transforms from a fish to a turtle to a half-lion-half-man onwards and upwards through the Dashavatara evolutionary chain, the artists are asked – What is the next evolutionary or revolutionary step in their practice?”
Participating Artists
| Abhimanyu Singh + Shilpi Dua (Hexpressions) | Inku Kumar + Vijay YVCS | Radha Pandey |
| Abhishek Chakraborty | Janaki Lele | Ravikumar Kashi |
| Abhishek Dutta + Naman Shroff | Jenny Pinto + Oorja Design + Radeesh Shetty | Sabera Akbary |
| Aditi Anuj | Joseph Wu + Mark Curtis Hughes | Sachin George Sebastian |
| Anaksha Patil | JV Calanoc + Stevi Fiona Benson | Sachin Tekade |
| Ankon Mitra | Jwalant Mahadevwala (andblack design studio) | Sara Rayo + Merav Peleg |
| Anna Vilsboell | Kumaresan Selvaraj | Saravanan Parasuraman |
| Anais Herd Smith + Michael Vellignette | Kunal Kundu | Shalini Mithal (Knots and Crosses India) |
| Ayush Jain | Manas Joshi | Shantamani Muddaiah |
| Bandana Jain | Manish Nai | Shirley Bhatnagar + Jayant Sankrityayana |
| Bharati Pitre | Marina Adamova (Talamaska) + Naomi jo Kandall | Shubhra Chaturvedi |
| Bibhu Nath | Margaret Ross Smith + Liz Sofield | Srinia Choudhury |
| Chetnaa | Martant Khosla + Gunjan Gupta | Swapna Khade |
| D Dhasan | Neerja Chandna Peters | Takbir Fathima |
| Debashish Mukherjee | Neeta Premchand | Uurmi Bhatia |
| Deeptashree Saha (Wood Labs Bengaluru) | Nitant Hirlekar (Pixelkar) | Vaishali Rastogi |
| Anesh Selvaraj | Olie-Living-Lighting (Amrita & Olie) | Vanshika Agarwala Rathi |
| Gayatri Halder | Parth Kothekar | Vasanth Packirisamy (Studio Firki) |
| Hari and Deepti | Patitapawan Kulu Ojha | Youdhisthir Maharjan |
| Himani Batra | Piyusha Patwardhan | Yuvan Bothysathuvar |
| Himanshu Agarwal (Orukami) | Praful Dash | Ziya Tarapore |
About Ankon Mitra
Ankon Mitra is a trained architect and practices as a sculptor. He has built an international reputation as a pioneer of the folding technique through his diverse projects. Recipient of the All-India Gold Medal for Sculpture from the Prafulla Dahanukar Foundation in 2018 and the Lexus Design Award for Craft Design in 2020, his work has been exhibited in India, Italy, France, UK, USA, Japan, the Netherlands, Brazil and China. He is a member of the Indian Institute of Architects, the British Origami Society, Origami USA, and the Sculpture Network in Europe. His work was showcased at the Arte Laguna in Venice and the CODA Museum in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands in 2021. His sculptures and installations are part of public developments and private collections (outdoor as well as indoor) globally. A TEDx speaker and a warrior for ‘making connections across disciplines’ with his brainchild – ‘Oritecture – Origami + Architecture’, Mitra shares a unique vision of a universe forming and dissolving from acts of folding.
About Sharan Apparao
Sharan Apparao has been associated with the visual arts for over three and a half decades, working primarily with art from India. Educated in the Fine Arts department of Stella Maris College Chennai, she went on to sharpen her education by studying Arts at Harvard University, Luxury Management at IIMA, and at ESSEC University in Paris, and also began her career early on at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. This amalgam of training and exposure helped her develop her own individual style to bring in a big difference to her business of art with Apparao Galleries. Having worked with renowned artists early on in her career inspired her to make Indian art popular overseas, at a time when it was hardly known. Today, she spreads knowledge on ancient Indian crafts and arts through lectures, workshops and international art tours that she orchestrates with global artists and scholars.
Visit the exhibition at India Design ID 2024 from 15-18 February 2024, at NSIC Grounds, Okhla, New Delhi.
