NS Harsha: Upward Movement, Victoria Miro
Radical Indian artist NS Harsha returns to Victoria Miro gallery with a new series of paintings that are all about soaring ascent
Mooing Here and Now, 2014 (detail)
Artist NS Harsha is one of the most important Indian artists around, working in a variety of mediums that question the Indian and western art canon. His decorative style and reworking of the Indian miniature style has won him favour with the contemporary art world and in 2008 he won the coveted Artes Mundi prize.
Victoria Miro, London exhibition 2015
NS Harsha returns for his second solo exhibition at the Victoria Miro Mayfair outpost with a series of paintings all about the idea of ascent. Expect to find humans, animals and strange hybrids all soaring physically and metaphorically towards spiritual transcendence in this contemporary art exhibition. Footprints along the canvas also suggest the literal movement of Harsha's characters along an upward journey. You'll recognise Harsha's traditionally flat style, with strong, decorative background colours and repetitive visual cues that seem like musical intonation. These works have something of the wild 15th century painter Hieronymus Bosch, with his ridiculous and violent images of purgatory, about them. And Samuel Beckett's absurdist play Waiting for Godot is also certainly one of Harsha's inspirations.
NS Harsha | Berlin
NS Harsha's Victoria Miro show follows on from his installation Tamasha (2013), where life size langur monkeys climbed a building in the Berlin suburb of Mitte, their tails intertwined. Look out for the langur and cows, which are venerated in Hindu culture, as reoccurring themes in Harsha's work as he mocks the industrial dairy farms of Mysore, Southern India and Germany. Curiously both Mooing Here and Now and Only Way is through Milking Way have the action interrupted by a charging elephant, inspired by the moment in India when two wild elephants went on a rampage in 2011.
Harsha's paintings have all the visual intensity of Indian life, matched with a fervent understanding of contemporary issues and western art. Complex and rich in cultural meaning, Harsha is worth a look for anyone interested in Indian art in London.
Victoria Miro, London exhibition 2015
NS Harsha returns for his second solo exhibition at the Victoria Miro Mayfair outpost with a series of paintings all about the idea of ascent. Expect to find humans, animals and strange hybrids all soaring physically and metaphorically towards spiritual transcendence in this contemporary art exhibition. Footprints along the canvas also suggest the literal movement of Harsha's characters along an upward journey. You'll recognise Harsha's traditionally flat style, with strong, decorative background colours and repetitive visual cues that seem like musical intonation. These works have something of the wild 15th century painter Hieronymus Bosch, with his ridiculous and violent images of purgatory, about them. And Samuel Beckett's absurdist play Waiting for Godot is also certainly one of Harsha's inspirations.
NS Harsha | Berlin
NS Harsha's Victoria Miro show follows on from his installation Tamasha (2013), where life size langur monkeys climbed a building in the Berlin suburb of Mitte, their tails intertwined. Look out for the langur and cows, which are venerated in Hindu culture, as reoccurring themes in Harsha's work as he mocks the industrial dairy farms of Mysore, Southern India and Germany. Curiously both Mooing Here and Now and Only Way is through Milking Way have the action interrupted by a charging elephant, inspired by the moment in India when two wild elephants went on a rampage in 2011.
Harsha's paintings have all the visual intensity of Indian life, matched with a fervent understanding of contemporary issues and western art. Complex and rich in cultural meaning, Harsha is worth a look for anyone interested in Indian art in London.
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| What | NS Harsha: Upward Movement, Victoria Miro |
| Where | Victoria Miro Mayfair, 14 St George Street, London, W1S1FE | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Oxford Circus (underground) |
| When |
26 Mar 15 – 25 Apr 15, Tuesday - Saturday 10.00am - 6.00pm |
| Price | £Free |
| Website | Click here for more details |