Dialogues of a Story-Teller

Artist: N.S. Harsha

January 15, 2009 | 6.30 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

Based in Mysore, N.S. Harsha is an artist who draws from Indian art historical lineages and philosophy, interrogating the post-colonial predicament of belonging/non-belonging, of traditional and colonial heritages juxtaposed against the shifts of a globalized society. Graduating in Painting from the M.S. University of Baroda (1995), Harsha made a conscious decision to go back to his native city, Mysore, rather than migrate to the metropolitan art centres, positioning his artistic selfhood through the prism of his immediate locale. Over the last decade, he has created a wide genre of works including detailed figurative painting, miniature drawing, semi-abstractionist panels, community-based projects, and research-based and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Harsha’s art is intricately bound to his environment, keenly examining the registers of history, memory and subjectivity within the larger critique of imperialist manifestations and the politics of location. A skilled story teller, Harsha combines details of everyday life in his native India with world events and images that is publicized on the media.Revealing an interrogative and playful sensibility, Harsha is also interested in the creative connections between art and science, in the consciousness and thought processes that delineate creativity with his work crisscrossing in both the lab and the studio. .

N.S. Harsha has exhibited widely in India and internationally including the Singapore Biennale 2006; Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India, 2004, Crossing Generations: diVERGE, 40 years of Gallery Chemould, 2003, the 2nd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial 2002 and the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Arts, Australia 1999 among many others.He was also awarded the prestigious Artes Mundi Prize in 2008 and was also part of the major show ‘Santhal Family: Positions around an Indian Sculpture’  hosted by the Muhka Museum in Antwerp, 2008.

In this presentation, Harsha will present his studio-based works, community projects and site-specific works.