Sunil Gawde

Sunil Gawde is an Indian artist born in 1960. A graduate of Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art in Mumbai in 1980, he received the Charles Wallace Prize awarded by the British Council in 1995-1996 and spent a year in an artist residency at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.

Sunil Gawde entered the art world as a painter. His abstract paintings, in a very neat and refined style, testify to a meticulousness and precision that will be found in his sculptures and installations a few years later.

In 2005, he presented his first exhibition of sculptures, Blind Bulb ect. at the Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai. He therefore imposes what will be the guiding thread of his work: a philosophical art based on social reflection. Sculpture becomes his preferred mode of expression, allowing him to answer his questions about time, space, and the object.

Sunil Gawde’s art is defined by the recurring presence of paradox, both in plastic, semantic and visual terms. The bucolic register of the vocabulary used by the artist (butterflies, moon, hearts, etc.) contrasts with the raw and industrial materials he uses. For the work Virtually Untouchable, he creates a butterfly whose abdomen is a dagger and the wings are made of razor blades, as well as for the traditional Indian necklace, Virtually Untouchable III, exhibited in 2011 at the Paris exhibition – Delhi – Bombay at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and whose blades are now tinted red.

We also observe the artist’s particular interest in everyday objects. Modifying their texture, their size, or their context, he diverts and transforms them in order to erect them into powerful symbols.

The titles given by the artist to his works also play an important role, reinforcing the poetic register of his sculptures: Still Alive, Fly Away – Swim Closer, Alliteration… the latter having enjoyed great success at the Venice Biennale in 2009.

COMMENT

As an artist, my main interests are perception and reality. (…) My work is an effort to fill the void that separates them.

Perfection is very important to me; beauty is not.

In my eyes / For me / In my mind, the marriage of philosophy, aesthetic technique and materials is the foundation of my creative process.

For me, each work is an attempt to understand the contemporary world a little better, and to decipher its mysteries.

Solo exhibitions

2017

‘id-od’ inner dimension—outer dimension, Galerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris, France

2016

id-od & other dimensions, Aico Gallery, New York, USA

id-od & other dimensions, Double Square Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

2014

SPARCHA, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany

2012

Sunil Gawde, Galerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris, France

2011

Miniscule Marvel – Contemplate, Gallery BMB, Mumbai, India

2010

Alliteration, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

2009

Alliteration, 53rd Venice Biennale, Italy

2008

Pulse Miami, Sakshi Gallery, Miami, USA

Art Dubai 2008, Sakshi Gallery, Dubai, UAE

2007

SH Contemporary 07, Sakshi Gallery, Shanghai, China

Singapore International Art Fair 07, Singapore

Gulf Art Fair 07, Enrico Navarra Gallery, Paris/New York, Dubai, UAE

2005

Blind Bulb etc… – A Sculptural Installation presented by Sakshi Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India

2002

8 Seconds Ahead of Time, Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore, India

2011

1mm, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

1998

Oblique, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai. Travelled to Chennai, Baroda and New Delhi, India

1997

Radium Grass, Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow, UK

8th Asian Art Biennial, Dhaka, Bangladesh

9th International Triennial Artists Camp, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, India

1995

Prithvi Art Gallery, Mumbai, India

ABC Art Gallery, Varanasi, India

1994

Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata, India

1993

Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai en association avec la Jindal Art Foundation, Mumbai, Inde

1990

Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, India

Group exhibitions (selection)

2016

The Journey is the Destination: The Artist Journey between Then and Now, The Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, Mumbai, India

2015

Our Eyes, Double Square Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

Deconstructed Innings, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India

2014

Noir & Blanc, Galerie Loft, Paris

2012

Group Exhibition, Gallerie Alternatives, Gurgaon, India

Looking Back, Looking Forward, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

2011

Group Exhibition, Galerie Alternatives, Gurgaon, India

Review, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

Paris – Delhi – Bombay …, Centre Pompidou – Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris, France

Pause: A Collection, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

Tech-Cut-Edge-Revelations, Ashna Gallery, New Delhi, India

2010

A Collection, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

Scratch, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

Finding India – Art for the New Century, MOCA Taipei, Taiwan

Finding India, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

Third Dimension, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

Clouds Power of Asian Contemporary Art, Soka Art Center, Pékin, Chine

ARCO 09, Madrid, Allemagne

53^rd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

2008

Mutant Beauty, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi, India

Point and Line to Plane VI, Gallery Beyond, Mumbai, India

Pulse Miami, Miami, USA

2007

10 light-years, Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi, Japan

Collective Intent 3, Gallerie Alternatives, Gurgaon, India

Frame/Grid/Room/Cell, Bodhi Art Mumbai, Mumbai, India

Group Show | Summer 07, Gallery Espace, New Delhi, India

Palette Summer, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, India

Art on the Corniche, organisé par la Galerie Enrico Navarra et Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, ,Abu Dhabi, UAE

SHContemporary, Shanghai, China

2006

Gallery collection, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

Bombay: Maximum city, Lille, France

Made by Indians, Saint-Tropez, organisé par la galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, France

2005

Are We Like This Only ?, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India

Young Masters, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, India

Span, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

2004

Palette Summer 2004, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, India

Subtly-Minimally, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, India

India, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

Bombay x 17, Ruia House, Mumbai; Kashi Art Centre, Kochi, Japan

2003

National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai, India

Viart Gallery, New Delhi, India

Rain, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India

2002

Creative Space, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, organisé par Sakshi Gallery, India

50 years celebrations at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, India

Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Mumbai, India

2001

Architect and Artist – Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai 50 years celebrations at ‘Palette 2001, Indian Contemporary Artists at The Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India

2000

Memos for the new Millennium from Artists of a Moulting World, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Mumbai, India

Memoirs For the Past Image of the Present and Picturing the Future, The Fine Art Company, Mumbai, India

1999

Legatee, The Fine Art Company, Mumbai, India

Exhibition of Works by Contemporary Artists to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of Sir. J.J. Parsee Benevolent Institution, Mumbai, India

1998

Indian Contemporary Art, collection of Mr. Harsh Goenka, presented in association with Bayer, Germany

1997

Vision Recaptured, British Council Art Gallery, New Delhi, British Museum, London, United Kingdom

1996

Art for Heart’s Sake, Sotheby’s, Mumbai, India

1993

Dew Drops, Emerald Isle Gallery, Kolkata, India

1992

Nest for Sparrow, Sparrow at Artists Centre, Mumbai, India

1982

Four Young Contemporaries, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, India