Art Exposure’s ‘Miracle of Absence’

Art Exposure, a prominent modern and contemporary art gallery, announced the opening of its new address in Kolkata. Led by its visionary founder-director, Somak Mitra, the gallery is set to redefine the city’s cultural landscape by bringing a fresh perspective to modern and contemporary art. The inaugural exhibition, ‘Miracle of Absence,’ curated by Gayatri Sinha draws from a couplet by the famed 19th-century poet, Mirza Ghalib, that reads: “The Miracle of your Absence is that I found myself while searching for you.” The exhibition will continue from 26^th September- 30^th November 2024.

One of the last great poets of the court of Bahadur Shah Zafar, Ghalib lived a tempestuous life and witnessed the fall of the last remnants of the Mughal empire. In his work he wrote of his love for the city of Kolkata, where he spent two years, trying to make a living. In our times, Ghalib has been revaluated for the modernity of his thought, and his spirit of existential inquiry.

The 12 participating artists in the exhibition have responded to the theme with explorations of the precarity of life, expressions of desire, and humour at human waywardness. Drawing on a spectrum of concepts and manifestations from the metaphysical to the domestic, the selected works address a range of media from large-format painting to sculpture. The participating artists include Abir Karmakar, Amitava, Anandajit Ray, Baaraan Ijlal, Buddhadhev Mukherjee, Chittrovanu Mazumdar, Gigi Scaria, Mithu Sen, Ratheesh T., Ricky Vasan, Shambhavi Singh, and T. Venkanna.

The new gallery space spanning two floors and 7,000 sq ft. is a landmark in exhibition design, created by Archipelago a young design practice based in Kolkata. Set in Kolkata’s iconic Lake Terrace area, it is conceptualised within a retrofitted volume of an old load-bearing building. The distribution of the amenity spaces within the gallery is done in a way that the two floors are a little diverse, one of them being expansive while the other is crafted into a few interconnected spaces entangled by an interesting circulation.

While Ghalib’s life as an exemplar serves as a valuable narrative, this exhibition ‘The Miracle of Absence’ as Art Exposure’s inaugural show in Kolkata seeks to focus on the concept of ‘absence’ as a creative condition. Akin to an empty studio, a blank page or the void of consciousness, absence is regarded as a ‘miracle’ of self-realisation. As in the case of Ghalib, absence, or a void,  serves as a space of existential inquiry, about the nature of one’s art and oneself. 

In an efficiency-driven economy, the absence of stillness, silence or a void may be wasteful. Nevertheless, absence engenders longing and can create a remembrance of what is missing or hidden. Writing about his dream-like walks through the city of Berlin at night Walter Benjamin wrote about the ghost-like figures of history that seemed to appear before him. Hence, the artist/writer constructs a narrative about the self, which can be performed, inserted and visibilized. This gesture may choose a language that is at once concrete and abstract. Just as we ‘draw’ the figure of Ghalib through his verse, we read the artist through her uses of the figural, the abstract, and the absent.

The lofty volumes have been fabricated with the concept of background architecture where it can dynamically adapt itself for each new exhibition. In sync with the world trending towards IOT, the lighting system in the gallery is a discrete system, where each lighting component is individually addressable without any physical signal conductor and no central processor. The lighting design is by the New Delhi partnership of Lirio Lopez.

With its new space, Art Exposure aims to place Kolkata on the global art map by offering a dynamic platform for South Asian and international artists. The gallery aims to host innovative exhibitions, programs, and collaborations, fostering an inclusive art ecosystem that inspires both the local community and art enthusiasts. By curating exceptional exhibitions and supporting local talent, the gallery is committed to nurturing creativity and establishing itself as a leading cultural hub in the region making it a must-visit for art lovers in Kolkata and beyond.

Image – Birthday Flowers. Oil and Wax on Canvas, 48×40 in, 2024, Ricky Vasan; Courtesy – Gallery Art Exposure

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