Space118 Fine Arts Grant: 2021-22
Space118 invited applications from artists all across India for a production grant towards the realisation of an ongoing or a newly conceived project. The grant also entailed two online mentorship sessions (plus a review session) with a senior or mid-career artist who the Jury deems suitable for them. Apart from the grant bursary and the mentorship sessions, the recipients will also be getting a chance to exhibit their work through a ‘Virtual Open Studio day’ that will be available to access on Space118`s social media handles – Facebook and Instagram.
Grant amounts awarded were between INR 15,000/- to Rs. 1,00,000/-. The proposed budget was vetted by the JURY MEMBERS consisting Lekha Poddar-Collector, Mortimer Chatterjee-Gallerist and Curator, Shilpa Gupta-Artist and Space118 in consultation with the selected grantee before the commencement of the grant.
The MENTORS for the year 2021-22 were Jitish Kallat, Anurupa Roy, Rohit Saha, Suresh BV, Sree Banerjee Goswami, Atul Bhalla, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, Bharat Sikka
The following are the Space118 Fine Arts Grant Winners: 2021-22
Divya Singh’s (b.1995, New Delhi, India) practice is primarily rooted in painting and explores themes such as isolation, experience, memory, and mortality – emanating largely from a poetic engagement with Time. Divya has completed her MFA from Shiv Nadar University, 2018 and her BFA from College of Art, New Delhi, 2016. Mediums such as photography, writing, cinema, and painting are at the center of her language as a practitioner and have featured as important categories of both work and interest. These varied elements come together within the work and can be seen most distinctly in the artist books made by her, as well as found imagery which accompanies the paintings and other media during exhibitions. She is currently working with instant film/polaroid, paintings, video, and text.
Naman Shrivastava (b.2000, Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India) is pursuing a BA LLB degree in Law from Prestige Institute of Management and Studies, Department of Law, Indore (Madhya Pradesh). He is currently working and experimenting with archives of his family images, installation, and photography, and working on long-term projects. His work revolves around memory and time. As a law student, he is interested in public issues and hopes that his formal education will catalyse his photography skills.
Sarmistha Bose (b.1991, West Bengal, India) completed her BFA in Painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan (2017), and MFA in Printmaking from Department of Fine Arts, SN School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad (2019). She has participated in various exhibitions throughout the country, including the Hyderabad Literary Festival in collaboration with Goethe-Zentrum Hyderabad (2021), India Art Fair, New Delhi (2019), Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (2018), AIFACS, New Delhi (2017), etc. She has been awarded the Inlaks Fine Art Award (2019), Kala Sakshi Memorial Trust Award (2018), Kalanand Award from Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation (2017, 2016), and Merit Scholarship from Visva Bharati (2015), among others. She received a special mention in Forbes India in 2020.
MM Shashwath (b.1992, New Delhi, India) is a contemporary installation and sculpture artist with a practice based around site specific artwork and found objects. Shashwath has completed his Masters Degree in Contemporary Art Practice – Srishti Institute, Bangalore 2016-18, his Masters Certificate in Transdisciplinary Arts – Angewandte Kunst, Vienna 2017-18. He holds a Post Grad Diploma in Art & Design – Srishti Institute, Bangalore 2015-16 and a Bachelors in Communications & Journalism – Amity University 2011-14. When he isn’t in the field working on a project or collaborating with other creatives, he works out of his studio in New Delhi creating small sculptures, digital content, and paintings. His work is inspired by an intersection of conceptual art and dadaism with a strong design influence. Shashwath’s message through his work is about being more conscious of the world around you and learning to look at the same thing through different lenses.
Tapan Moharana (b.1989, Odisha, India) is a multidisciplinary artist who received his MFA in Sculpture from Rabindra Bharati University, 2013. His artistic practice engages and questions the notion of land, displacement, and the politics of ecology. Moharana’s current practice influenced and developed through amalgamations of various local and indigenous art forms like shadow play and shadow theater in his neighborhood.
Anirudh Shaktawat (b. 1999, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India) has completed his BFA 2021 from Chicago, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, based out of the Southern Aravalli Ranges of Rajasthan, India. Anirudh works with building materials that engage in mediation of heat, moisture, and light, and his compositions bounce between the bodily, domestic, and environmental scales. Embedded in research on devotional practices and conceptions of nature, his works question, and aim to dissolve, material and spatial boundaries.
Neha Kudchadkar (b. 1982, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) is a visual and performing artist. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London, and the Faculty of Fine Art, MSU, Vadodara, and has been a student at the Golden Bridge Pottery, Pondicherry. Her work has been shown as part of group shows at the Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center, Tel Aviv, Project 88, Mumbai, Law Warschaw Gallery, St Paul and Centre d’art Neuchâtel, Switzerland. In 2019 she had a solo exhibition – All That is in This Thing – at Display, Berlin. She is a recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship and the Junior Fellowship, Government of India. She is a co-curator of the Indian Ceramics Triennale. Neha is a founding member of beej, a performing arts collective in Mumbai.
Shashank Peshawaria (b. 1993, Amritsar, Punjab, India) received an MA in Contemporary Art Practice (Moving Image) from the Royal College of Art, London in 2017. His work has been part of exhibitions at BFI Southbank, London, Conflictorium, Ahmedabad, The Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford, and Doomed Gallery, London, among others. It has also been published by Victoria and Albert Museum, London and The Guardian.
Jury Members for Space118 Fine Arts Grant: 2021-22
Lekha Poddar
Born in 1950 in Calcutta, Lekha Poddar is a philanthropist, business woman, and an art collector. Lekha harnessed her passion for Contemporary Art, together with her son Anupam. They established Devi Art Foundation, in 2005. Their collection of Contemporary Art ranges from India, South Asia, Central Asia and Iran. There is also a substantial collection of Verancular Art. From 2008 untill 2020 the Foundation, has held at least 18 major exhibitions, most of them from their collection.
Mortimer Chatterjee
Mortimer Chatterjee received his MA in the History of Indian Art and Architecture from SOAS, London, and co-founded Chatterjee & Lal with his wife, Tara Lal, in 2003. Based in Mumbai’s Colaba art district, the gallery is focused on contemporary art and historical material. In 2010, Chatterjee co-authored a publication on the art collection of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), along with curating an exhibition of that collection at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai. He is currently editing a major publication on modern and contemporary art from the Indian subcontinent, due to be published in 2021.
Shilpa Gupta
Shilpa Gupta studied at the Sir J. J. School of Art (Sculpture) has had solo shows at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst in Arnhem, Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, OK Center for Contemporary Art in Linz and Arnolfini in Bristol and has participated in biennales in Venice, Berlin, Kochi, Lyon, Gwangju, Havana, Yokohama, Liverpool amongst others. Her work has been shown in Moma, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New Museum, Devi Art Foundation, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Mori Museum.
