Book Launch - Sunil Gawde's participation in the 53rd Venice Biennale August 10, 2009

Book Launch - Sunil Gawde, to celebrate the artist's participation in the 53rd Venice Biennale, with essays by Ranjit Hoskote & Jitish Kallat. About Sunil Gawde: Sunil Gawde (born Mumbai, 1960) is one of the four Indian artists invited to participate in the 53rd Venice Biennale this year. Curated by the art historian Daniel Birnbaum, this edition of the prestigious Venice Biennale took as its theme, 'Fare Mundi' ('Making Worlds'). Responding to the curatorial proposal, Gawde presented a large sculpture-installation, 'Alliteration', which unites the world of machinery with the epic-scale workings of the cosmos. Sunil Gawde graduated in fine art from the Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art, Mumbai, in 1980. He received the British Council's Charles Wallace Award for 1995-1996, and spent a year as visiting artist at the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. Since 1990, Gawde has held 11 solo exhibitions of his paintings, sculptures, installations and composite works. Reflecting on the transition he has made in recent years, from a painter's studio practice to the collaborative workshop practice of a sculptor and installation maker, Gawde w rites: "An essential element of my sculptures is also the technical skill of the experts that I work with. While canvases are a solitary effort, science-based sculptural creations require a skilful combination of engineering and art. About the Authors: Jitish Kallat - has held more than 20 solo exhibitions of his work in leading galleries such as Gallery Chemould and Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai), Haunch of Venison (Zurich and London), Arario Gallery (Beijing and Seoul), Nature Morte (Delhi), among others. Kallat's work has been shown at museums, foundations and institutions across the world, including Tate Modern (London), Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin), the Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane), Kunstmuseum Berne (Berne), the Serpentine Gallery (London), the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Palais de Beaux-Art s (Brussels), Hangar Bicocca (Milan), the Busan Museum of Modern Art, the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (Oslo), Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie/ ZKM (Karlsruhe), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Oslo), the Arken Museum of Modern Art (Copenhagen), Institut Valencia d'Art Modern (Valencia), the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the Royal Academy of Art (London), the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), and the Gemeente Museum (The Hague), among many others. He writes frequently on the subject of contemporary art. Jitish Kallat lives and works in Mumbai, India. Ranjit Hoskote - is a cultural theorist, curator and poet. He is the author of 16 books. These include five collections of poetry, most recently Vanishing Acts: New & Selected Poems 1985-2005 (Delhi: Penguin, 2006) and Die Ankunft der Vogel (Munchen: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2006). He has also written six monographs on artists, most recently The Crafting of Reality: Sudhir Patwardhan, Drawings (Mumbai: The Guild, 2008). Hoskote has authored, with the German writer Ilija Trojanow, a history of cultural confluence, Kampfabsage (Munchen: Random House/ Blessing Verlag, 2007). Hoskote has collaborated with Atul Dodiya on an artist book, Pale Ancestors (Mumbai: Bodhi Art, 2008). Ranjit Hoskote and Hyunjin Kim co-curated the 7 th Gwangju Biennale (2008), with Artistic Director Okwui Enwezor. Since 1994, Hoskote has curated 17 exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. He was also co-curator of the trans-Asian collaborative project, 'Under Construction' (Tokyo and other Asian centres, 2001-2002). Hoskote was Fellow of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa (1995) and writer-in-residence at Villa Waldberta, Munchen (2003). He lives and works in Mumbai.

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