Participants & Contributors / 2017

YOUNG SUBCONTINENT 2017

Curator
Riyas Komu

Curatorial Advisors
Amrith Lal
Dr. C. S. Venkiteshwaran

Curatorial Assistant
Anuj Daga

Resource People
Afghanistan: Omaid Sharifi, Baqar Ahmadi
Bangladesh: Samdani Foundation, Ruxmini Choudhury, Farzana Ahmed
Bhutan: Kama Wangdi
India: Sharhad Haneef
Nepal: Sangeeta Thapa, Roshan Mishra, Hitman Gurung & Artree
Srilanka: Thamotharampillai Sanaathanan, Packiyanathan Ahilan, Ruhanie Perera

Seminar Participants
Amrith Lal, Dr. C. S. Venkiteshwaran, Omaid Sharifi, Kama Wangdi, Saif-ul-Huq Omi, Sangeeta Thapa, Thamotharampillai Sanaathanan.

Installation
Sanjay Nair, Komu studio manager
Dhananjayan Kuttappan, Installation
Sanjay Kothari, Photokina
S K Kotian, Framemaker

Young Subcontinent Artists
Shreya Shukla, Baroda
Umesh P K, Baroda
Jagadeesh Rao Tammineni, Vishakhapatnam
Biju Ibrahim, Kochi
Aditi Shankar Sharma, Bhopal 
Sajad Malik, Srinagar
Karan Shreshtha, Mumbai / Kathmandu
Sunita Maharjan, Kathmandu
Sheelasha Raj Bhandari, Kathmandu
Kiran Maharjan, Kathmandu
Ahmed Rasel, Dhaka
Reetu Sattar, Dhaka
Vijitharan Mariyathevathas, Jaffna
Nadya Bhimani Perera, Colombo
Sounthiyas Amarathaas, Jaffna
Jasmine Nilani Joseph, Vavuniya
Tashi Dendup & Ugyen Samdrup, Thimphy
Yeshi Pelden, Thimphu
Zimbiri Dechen, Thimphu 
Latifa Zafar Attaii, Kabul
Sher Ali, Kabul


Artist Biographies


Aditi Sharma
Bhopal, India (b. 1990)


Aditi Sharma (b.1990) grew up in Madhya Pradesh, India. She is intrigued by the art of narration with photography and its evasive nature. She finished her Masters in Photography from the National Institute of Design, Gujarat, India in 2017. At present, she is based in New Delhi.


Ahmed Rasel
Dhaka, Bangladesh (b. 1988)


Ahmed Rasel (b.1988, Barishal) is a faculty member of the Dhaka-based photography institute, Counter Foto. He earned a Masters in Bengali Literature from the University of Dhaka (2013) with the ambition of becoming a poet, before realizing that photography could better blend his poetic feelings with his inner vision, memory, and personal history. Rasel is a visual storyteller. He presents the world as a continuation of the great human story, intertwined with his personal experiences. His work has been published in Trouw, Private Magazine, F-stop magazine, Clove Magazine and The Daily Independent, among others, and exhibited in photo festivals in Bangladesh and India. He is one of the finalist of Samdani Foundation Art Award 2018.


Biju Ibrahim C P
Kerala, India (b.1982)


Biju Ibrahim is a self-taught photographer with over seven years of experience. Specialized in architectural photography and has a special interest in documenting local cultures and traditions. Over the photography career, pictures have been published in various national magazines and have worked with renowned photographers during multiple projects. From Himalayas in the north to Thiruvannamalai in the south, he has traveled extensively across the country reflecting on architectural marvels while unearthing traditional roots of diverse locale through photography and film. He has worked as Assistant Director and Assistant Screenwriter for award winning Malayalam feature films and is a member of Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA).


Jagadeesh Rao Tammineni
Andhra Pradesh, India (b. 1988)


Born in 1988, J D Rao Tammineni pursued his BFA in printmaking from Andra University, Vishakapatnam. He went on to his MVA in printmaking from M S University, Baroda. Tammineni has been teaching at the Govt. Of National Capital Territory of Delhi College of Art New Delhi and has been a Guest Faculty, Assistant Professor in Print Making Department during 2016-17. He is working at the Department of Fine Arts Andhra University as a Teaching assistant since 2017. Jagadeesh has participated in a number of shows, camps and residencies including ‘The Emergency Canvas II’ at the Indian Art Museum in Korea (2013), ‘Between the Lines’ group show NGMA Bangalore and Mumbai (2013), 57th Lalit Kala Akademi National Exhibition at Lucknow (2016) and many more. He is a recipient of numerous awards in printmaking in India.


Jasmine Nilani Joseph
Vavuniya, Srilanka (b. 1990)


Jasmine Nilani was born in Jaffna in 1990 and studied BFA at the University of Jaffna. After her graduation, she worked as a temporary lecturer at the University. Jasmine has been exploring drawing in pen and ink over a few years now and she finds pleasure in narrating stories through depiction of objects and architectural elements. Her first ambitious exhibition ‘Self Portrait’ was held in 2017 January at Saskia Fernando art Gallery, Colombo. Her subsequent works have been shown at the Human Rights Arts Festival on December, 2017 at JDA Pereira art gallery as well as Dhaka Art Summit 2018. Currently she lives and works in Jaffna.


Karan Shrestha
Kathmandu/Mumbai, Nepal/India (b. 1985)


Karan Shrestha’s work overlays encounters in physical landscapes over that of mental maps of people and spaces he comes across so as to examine and restructure notions of the ‘present’. His practice incorporates drawings, sculpture, photography, film and video. With stories of every day and every people, his work seeks to blur opposites that build and define our individual and collective identities, presenting them as flawed, and effectively human. In short films and videos such as Abarohan (2013), ‘let’s build a home mother’ (2015), ‘padkincha barood’ (2016), and the photo-essay Waiting for Nepal (2011 – 2012), he investigates parallels between the political climate and social fabric of the new Nepal that was declared a secular, federal republic in 2007. In ‘My friends I lost to imagination’ (2012 – 2015) - a suite of twenty ink drawings, he references melancholia and how in fantasy, emotions morph into landscapes.


Kiran Maharjan
Kathmandu, Nepal (b. 1990)


Kiran Maharjan (H11235) is a street artist whose works revolves around the idea of contrast and contradiction. Maharjan completed his BFA degree from Kathmandu University centre for Art and Design in 2014. His work can be seen in the streets of Nepal and also in Denmark and Finland. He has exhibited his work in major art galleries in Nepal and also in alternatives venues in the country. He was also one of the exhibiting artist for Kathmandu Triennale, 2017.


Latifa Zafar Attaii
Kabul, Afghanistan (b. 1994)


Born in 1994 in Ghazni, Afghanistan. Migrated to Quetta Pakistan in 1999. She did her BFA from Beaconhouse National University of Lahore Pakistan. She has participated in several collective exhibitions in Pakistan, Iran, Dubai and Afghanistan.


Mariyathevathas Vijitharan
Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka (b. 1985)

Mariyathevathas Vijitharan graduated with a BFA from the University of Jaffna in 2014. His works are the experience of civilians of the Vanni in the north of Sri Lanka during and post war. He did his first exhibition in 2013 for the Asian Art Archive and Raking Leaves project. In 2015 he displayed his works in a group show called 'Seven Conversations' at the Saskia Fernando gallery. He participated and displayed his works in Colombo art biennale in 2016 December and displayed in a group show in 2017 April Alcon Gallery in New York. Currently he lives and works in Kilinochi, Sri Lanka.


Nadya Bhimani Perera
Colombo, Srilanka (b. 1981)


Born in 1981 Nadya Perera is an independent researcher and film maker from Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 2003 she enrolled in a film appreciation course at the National Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), while she was an undergraduate at the University of Pune, India. In 2008 Nadya got the opportunity to work as assistant and translator to Italian director Uberto Pasolini (Producer 'Full Monty') in his directorial debut ‘Machan’ shot in Sri Lanka and Germany. Her documentary film ‘4th of February’ (2014) focuses on women who left Sri Lankan shores to work as housemaids in the Middle East. The film attempts to critically examine the complex realities and perceptions surrounding Sri Lanka's largest foreign exchange earners and was nominated for Sunila Abesekera Human Rights Award at the Agenda 14 Short Film Festival, 2014, Sri Lanka. The film was screened at festivals in France, USA and India.


Sajad Malik
Srinagar, India (b. 1987)


Sajad studied at the Institute of Music and Fine Arts in Srinagar and currently works as Daily Editorial Cartoonist of the Greater Kashmir Newspaper and its Urdu-edition Uzma. He has designed the cover for Combat Law – International Human Rights Magazine and worked as a cartoonist-animator and designer for Doordarshan in Kashmir and Al-Safa newspaper. He has been invited to show his work by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust in an international film festival about peace and conflict. In August 2008, Sajad participated in the South Asian Cartoon Congress organized by Himal South Asia Magazine in Kathmandu. His film ‘Kashmir in Black and White’ showed at a national students film festival organized by Anhad, an NGO in Gujarat and Kashmir. His work was also exhibited in an international exhibition at the Zemex Museum organized by the Iran Cartoon House. Publications include ‘Identity Card’, a non-fictional graphic novel and ‘Snowmen and Kalashnikovs: An anthology of dispatches from Kashmir’ (being published by Picador, UK in 2009). Also under publication is ‘Terrorism of Peace’ a non-fictional graphic novel.


Shahnaz Zarin Sattar
Dhaka, Bangladesh (b. 1981)


Reetu Sattar is a Dhaka-based theatre actor, director and performance artist working with performativity, video, text and objects. Her time-based work explores presence and absence, memory, loss, resilience and the ephemerality of existence. She is interested in the similarities, overlaps and clashes of forms in theatre and performance art and the relationship between the body and ego. Sattar plays with the traditional tropes of theatre through the voice, conversations, sound, props, costume and sculptural elements.


Sheelasha Rajbhandari
Kathmandu, Nepal (b. 1988)


Sheelasha Rajbhandari (b. 1988) is interdisciplinary artist based in Kathmandu. Rajbhandari completed her MFA in sculpture from Tribhuvan University’s Center Department of Fine Arts in 2014 after receiving her BFA from Kathmandu University’s Center for Art and Design in 2010. Her mixed media installations explore the parallel - yet, often contradictory - existence of traditional beliefs and historic ideas with contemporary events and evolving lifestyles. Rajbhandari is a co-founder of and the sole woman artist in the artist collective, Artree Nepal, established in 2013. She worked as an instructor of Sculpture at Lalit Kala Campus, Tribhuvan University from 2012 to 2014. Rajbhandari was artistic director or 12 Baishakh -Post Earthquake Community Art Project 2015.



Sher Ali Hussaini
Kabul, Afghanistan (b. 1983)


Sher Ali Hissaini Born in 1983 in Afghanistan, 1992 – 1997 Sher Ali received his first art attended Art High School of Kabul in 1997-2003. 2009-13 he has done his BFA at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Pakistan on a South Asia foundation scholarship. His works were exhibited in Kabul Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sweden, Australia, Hong Kong and Tehran. His works are rooted in poetry, culture and the he works with installations, performances, videos, painting and sculpture.


Shreya Shukla
Baroda, India (b. 1993)


Born in 1993, Shreya is Currently a Master's final year student at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University, Baroda, Shreya's works attempt to document and archive herself through self portraitures. She has participated in different exhibitions in India and has been the recipient of the best artist award at the Student’ biennale 2016 at Kochi.


Sounthiyas Amarathaas
Srilanka (b. 1976)

Sounthiyas Amarathaas is Sri Lankan Tamil. He is a visual artist and has keen interest in drawing and painting. Amarathaas has acted as an independent journalist during the war time. He was a 'photo journalism' lecurer earlier, and has taken a lot of photographs during Sri Lankan civil war. He has published a poem book and a photo book, besides, a lot of his war photographs are published in various magazines. His Solo photo exhibition was called 'Living Moments'. He has worked in many films and now into independent film ventures. Currently he lives in Switzerland.


Sunita Maharjan
Kathmandu, Nepal (b. 1986)


Sunita Maharjan is a visual artist and art educator based in Kathmandu. She is one of the founder members of Srijanalaya, Non for Profit Organization dedicated in Art and Education, and Co-Founder of Drawing Room KTM, Artist run studio and learning space in Kathmandu. She has participated in several art exhibitions, workshops and residencies. Few of her selected exhibition are Kathmandu Triennale 2017, 1st and 2ndKathmandu International Art Festival (2009,2012), Locus of continuity (2009) organized by Siddhartha Art Gallery in Hotel Annapurna, and “Structural Space” (2010) in Kathmandu Contemporary Arts Center. She holds a BFA in Painting from Kathmandu University Center for Art and Design and MFA from Tribhuvan University.


Tashi Dendup & Ugyen Samdrup
Thimphu, Bhutan (b. 1988)


Thimphu Bhutan based contemporary artists ‘Twinz’ - the twin brothers Tashi Dendup and Ugyen Samdrup completed their BFA from the Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, India. Twinz do contemporary realistic portraits. They have similar techniques hence they work together on their paintings. They are working on their next exhibition to be held in January, 2018 at Bikaner House, Delhi and is inspired by spiritualism, teachings of Vajrayana Buddhism and shamanism which connects humans to nature and all creations.


Umesh P K
Calicut, India (b. 1984)


Born and brought up in Kerala, Umesh P K graduated in painting from College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum, in 2006 and a masters from Central University of Hyderabad in 2008. Umesh PK draws his artistic imageries from a world of mythopoeia. His effort is in creating visual works that transcend the limits of reason and structural limitations of language to allow viewers to find their own reality. His first solo show entitled “Excavated Memories” was exhibited at Contemplate art gallery in Coimbatore in 2015.


Yeshi Pelden
Thimphu, Bhutan (b. 1991)


Yeshi Peldhen studied painting from the National Institute for Zorig-Chuksum (the painting school) in capital city Thimphu. His interest in paintings is to study the modes in which drawing and paint comes together. During his six years at the National Institute for Zorig-Chuksum he has served in various capacities, one as an Institute councilor during my final year in the institute. Yeshi graduated in 2014 from and since then working with one of his Institute's teacher. In 2017 he exhibited at Neru Wangchuck Culture Centre, Indian Embassy.


Zimbiri
Thimphu, Bhutan (b. 1991)

Zimbiri, born and raised in Bhutan, finished her undergrad from Wheaton College, MA, with a double major in Economics and Fine Arts. She is currently working as the marketing director for Zimdra foods Ltd. and working on her art as well. Her first exhibition, Faces, was the first female solo exhibition in Bhutan. It was about people and their way of coping with society by wearing different ‘Faces’. ‘Found Icons’, her second solo exhibition, is a series of paintings that are an exploration of traditional Bhutanese paint, saa-tshen, and other traditional arts. She is very passionate about taking the traditional techniques and icons of the past and bring it to the present.








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