Presented as part of his Contract Review toward Tenure in the Department of Printmedia. All faculty, students and staff are invited.
In this talk towards his tenure, Shaurya Kumar will focus on some of his latest projects and studio practice. Continuing with his interests in art that is lost, destroyed, looted and/or marginalized, his recent work examines how our understanding of history, culture and religion is constantly reinterpreted and distorted. Employing diverse sets of tools, media, techniques and processes including print, drawing, sculpture and installation, Kumar’s oeuvre focuses on a phenomenological understanding of object and space, while revealing a labor-intensive process in his art making. Synced to the vicissitudes of time and organic growth, drawing inspiration from classical texts and poetry to new media and ethnographic studies, his work addresses the loss of ‘aura’ when the ‘original’ is transformed in its meaning and narrative due to transposition, marginalization and destruction. His work addresses the new world of non-objects and questions the role of individuals and institutions that assign them their new meaning.
Q&A to follow.
A native of Delhi, India where he studied printmaking and painting at the College of Art; Shaurya Kumar graduated with his MFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2007. Since 2001, Kumar has been involved in numerous prestigious research projects, like “The Paintings of India” (a series of 26 documentary films on the painting tradition of India); "Handmade in India" (an encyclopedia on the handicraft traditions of India); and digital restorations of 6th century Buddhist mural paintings from the caves of Ajanta.
Kumar's work has exhibited widely across the US and in countries including India, Taiwan, China, Poland, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, U.K., Norway, France, Australia and Finland among many others. His works have been installed at venues including the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum (formerly Victoria & Albert Museum, Mumbai); Gallery Odyssey, Mumbai; UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque; SCA Contemporary, Albuquerque; Queens Museum, NYC; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Lakeeren Gallery, Mumbai; Artifact Gallery, NYC; LACDA, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Georgia; Schneider Museum of Art, Oregon; Charleston Heights Art Center, Las Vegas; TamTam Gallery, Taiwan; Guanlan Printmaking Base, China among many others.
Shaurya Kumar currently lives and works in Chicago, IL and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
