India Art Fair - 2024

Galerie Isa is delighted to participate in the 15th edition of India Art Fair 2024. On display are works by Maha Ahmed, David Brian Smith, Ian Davis, Santiago Giralda, Gregor Hildebrandt, Idris Khan, Ian Malhotra, Eeman Masood, Anoushka Mirchandani, Annie Morris, Emilie Pugh and Ricky Vasan. Aligned with Galerie ISA’s philosophy, these artists hail from diverse origins and reflect various global influences in their works.

Figuration takes new form with artists Ian Davis, Anoushka Mirchandani and Ricky Vasan as they bring forth their individual experiences of assimilation and integration in very disparate ways. While Mirchandani and Vasan both illustrate self-portraiture elements evident in their works, a move away from reality to a more surreal state, is ongoing in Ian Davis’ eerily prescient dystopian visions. The featureless groups of individuals in standardized work uniforms serve as placeholders referencing a bureaucratic society and explore concepts of labour, ritual, and power.

Ian Malhotra explores the transmission of 21st century landscape imagery using Binary and Morse code and line drawings, often mimicking digital methods of reproduction through labour intensive analogue processes. Experimenting with landscapes in a more classic form, are Santiago Giralda and David Brian Smith. For Giralda’s paintings, it’s the merging of photography and memory is crucial in order to observe how the urban context has transformed and adapted the natural landscape. His paintings throw into question the place that nature occupies today in the sprawling urban jungle. David Brian Smith focuses on the genre as a way of connecting to his family history. The genesis for his process was born out of what Smith describes as ‘a longing to explore’ and to address issues of cultural as well as social belonging. His vibrant compositions suggest an adventure, one filled with excitement, intense experiences and a visual fiesta of colours and rich, vibrant patterns.

Nature and the tradition of miniature painting play are beautifully showcased in Eeman Masood and Maha Ahmed’s intricate works. Masood’s ode to a post-pandemic optimism, pushes the boundaries of the classic art form, combining it with contemporary material and techniques. While Ahmed, creates a mythical, fantastic world, layered in ruminations of introspection and identity.

Layering is a signature of Idris Khan’s meditative works (as is repetition and erasure to create something completely new). He looks to the history of art and music as well as to some of the most significant philosophical and theological texts to which he responds to with his own writings which are then repeatedly stamped throughout his work in geometric shapes.

Spirituality and interconnectedness of all living beings is at the heart of Emilie Pugh’s practice that draws on systems of belief. Using a wide range of mediums and processes, including unconventional method of mark-making, she layers artworks to challenge the static form.

Dynamism is the very crux of German artist Gregor Hildebrandt’s works that span collage, painting and sculpture that are deeply entrenched in music, cinema and subversive cultures. Using vinyls, cassettes, and magnetic tapes, Hildebrandt’s works defy definition, relying on viewers to create their own experience. And finally, Annie Morris, will present one of her towering three ball stack sculptures. These totemic pieces appear to defy gravity, reaching majestically for the sky. The softly rounded, feminine shapes both arrest and delight the viewer in a manner that doesn’t detract from the fragile appearance of the uniquely placed combination of balls.

Priyanka R Khanna