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August 1996, New York - Bose Pacia Modern gallery presents an exhibition of paintings by New Delhi artist Kavita Nayar entitled
"Kavita Nayar - Recent Paintings". The show will run from September 14 through October 24. The gallery is located at 580 Broadway, 2nd floor, in Soho. Gallery hours are Tuesday thru Saturday from 12-6 p.m. and by appointment. A reception will be held on Saturday, September 21 from 5-8 p.m. The public is invited.
On exhibit is a collection of recent canvases and works on paper as well as a striking new series of constructed, burnt paper objects sewn together with jute by New Delhi artist Kavita Nayar. These provocative works combining elements of text and imagery are inspired by 14th Century Indian palm leaf Jain manuscripts. Ms. Nayar's recent works are best described by Brian Catling of Oxford, England as containing "sensual energy that is fundamentally erotic first in the way it enraptures the eye and sumptuously floods our seeing with earthen colours set to smoulder and bruise with darker bloods and shadowed blues, a purple or a violent ochre setting contrast to singe any part of the picture that attempts to stay quiet. Secondly the subject itself, the figures that passionately meet and dance here are intimate; they embrace and swim in the act of transcendence. In this tantric field of ink or paint, they fuse and shudder revealing that they are ultimately human and vehemently spiritual."
Ms. Nayar has proven to be a major new talent in the burgeoning landscape of contemporary Indian art. She is widely acclaimed for her technical expertise in a variety of media. Her works contain layers of rich color and texture seamlessly fused to render subtle yet powerful compositions. Often depicted are sensual figurative images executed with tender grace and subtlety. Born in 1957, Ms. Nayar has functioned as woman, artist, wife, and mother in the middle class urban society of modern India. Perhaps not surprisingly she describes her work as exploring the absurdity and loneliness of the human enterprise and its continuing struggle to seek a solution to this despair. Examining the artists body of work, this solution appears to rest ultimately in the union and fusion of male and female.
Kavita Nayar received her BFA from Shantiniketan (Bengal) in 1979 and MFA from College of Art, New Delhi in 1989. She has been awarded numerous international grants and scholarships including the Merit Scholarship for five academic years (1974-1979) awarded by the University of Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan, the French Government Scholarship to study Lithography and Etching at Ecole des Beaux Arts and Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris (1985-86), and the Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship to work in Oxford (1995-1996). She has had numerous solo exhibitions both in India and abroad. This exhibition marks the artist's first solo exhibition in the United States.