Harikrishnan Panicker

Harikrishnan Panicker is a Denver based Digital Artist originally from Mumbai. Although his area of expertise is graphic art, his backlit paper sculptures speak of a precision that belie a digital artist. This nimble fingered dreamer draws his inspiration from his father and wife , who are both captivating storytellers. His pieces are created and executed to the soothing sounds of sufi music.

Of his work he says,"I think I make really fresh and interesting pieces of art. I have a digital art background and my earlier days were mostly working on the computer, My wife Deepti is the exact opposite, she hates using the computer to make art. She is the rebel, the explorer and I think that has definitely influenced how I work. We discovered working with paper and we kept evolving with the art. Its more tactile, handmade, has this raw quality to the art. We love the feel of paper. I personally like to be minimal with the art, and add that extra layer of complexity with use the lights. It has a lot of love, care and hard work in it and It makes someone looking at it happy ". Follow him on Thumbdemon

Rahul Sureka

Sometimes monkeying around leads to interesting things. Mumbai based designer Rahul Sureka developed Digital Kong during a single day illustration spree. Way cooler than my obvious pun. For more of Rahul's visual noise, go here .

Shilpa Chavan

Shilpa Chavan's look book has been lying in my inbox for over 2 weeks now and in trying to organise a perfect line up of posts , it kept getting pushed back. But here it is finally , I've added images of her Lakme Fashion Week show as well. A part of me is glad that I waited because she had on such gorgeous pieces during the show . It's so brilliant how she uses such regular everyday things to make these one off crafty almost sculptural pieces. I especially loved her shrugs one of which is pictured above. For those of you who are seeing her work for the first time , I urge you to spent some time at her website or a previous post on her here. You'll be blown away. Shilpa is based out of Mumbai & London. Images from Shilpa's Look book and here.

Shirley Bhatnagar

stoneware, slab forms, copper wire earthenware glazes screen, size:8 feet by 3 feet

Some incredible ceramic sculptures and installation by New York based artist Shirley Bhatnagar. Shirley is originally from Delhi and has a B.A in Design from NID, Ahmadabad. More from her portfolio here.

Ved Prakash Gupta

Ved Prakash Gupta is a recent post grad in sculpture from M.S. University,Vadodara ; yet his fibre glass sculptures possess the precociousness of someone who has a far too informed view of existing socio-economic hierarchies. Smug ,stocky and rather shady business men are accompanied by 'props' , some of them curiously hued red and white. While he isn't one for subtlety , he definitely succeeds at sarcasm, displaying an intensity that is amusing yet unnerving . Images from here.

Somapala Pothupitye Acharige

Pala Pothupitia grew up in a family of traditional craftsmen and ritual dancers in Deniyaya , Sri Lanka . Potupitya’s art is decorative and exotic. His works, though they are composed of very common and everyday kitsch material, are completed visual entities which present a sense of being recherché. This changing play of visualities is what makes his works ‘work’.

On one hand, they look like the headgear of ancient and traditional dancers, but closeup they are made of everyday kitsch . When these contradictory and competing visual metaphors are placed in a backdrop made of images of lions – as found in the national identity cards of the citizens of Sri Lanka – the entire visual text transforms itself into a comment/ critique on modernity, modernisation and being modern; or rather on the dilemma of being modern in Sri Lanka. from here.

Adeela Suleman

Pakistani artist Adeela Suleman uses mundane household objects to create her sculptural works. Suleman's metallic sculptures are made up of steel drain covers, tongs, nuts & bolts, measuring spoons and cooking utensils which she transforms into skeletal pieces , sometimes reminiscent of insects. Despite the metallic medium , the forms appear curvaceous and sensual. from here.

Ravikumar Kashi

Ravikumar Kashi was born in Bangalore in 1968. He completed his M.F.A. in Printmaking from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda in 1990. In 2001 he studied handmade papermaking under J. Parry at the Papermaking Resource, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow. The sculpture “Books” is a set of 30 books cast in paper pulp with text and images. “Painting has a different language. The medium of paper is personal and it allows you freedom. You also associate paper with writing which is why I chose to do paper sculptures,” says Kashi. Images from here.

Sangeeta Sandrasegar

Sangeeta Sandrasegar was born in Brisbane of Malaysian and Australian parents and has lived for most of her life in Melbourne.In exquisite wall-based cut-outs, which are often adorned with glitter and throw fantastical shadows, Sandrasegar revels in combining florid and erotic tales. Her sources are as diverse as traditional Indian miniatures, Japanese anime and contemporary political narratives. More here & here.

Sisir Sahana

Sisir Sahana was born in 1963 in Bankura, West Bengal. He studied art at Kala Bhavan, Santineketan, and holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Fine Art Degree in painting. Sahana also holds an Advanced Diploma in stained glass painting from Central St. Martin’s College of Art & Design, London. Sahana's 'paintings' are a result of processed glass where he layers, fuses and paints on them to achieve the sculptural outcome. Images from here.

Ruby Chisti

Ruby Chisti is one of the many Pakistani artists on the rise. Her soft sculptures , fashioned out of cloth , canvas , straw and cardboard. In an interesting way , she challenges the norms of art and art as an institution playing the hierarchy of sculpture and what it is usually made of - stone and wood.

Raghunadhan K

After studying sculpture at the Government College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum and while doing his post-graduation in the subject at the M.S. University, Baroda, K. Raghunadhan was one of the founder members of the Indian Radical Painters and Sculptors Association in 1987. Following a self-imposed hiatus of two decades, his first solo exhibition in 2006 drew gasps of admiration. His wonderfully bizarre sculptures drip with satire and humour. Images from here.

Sumakshi Singh

"Using the history and physicality of spaces as a springboard, my current work involves interventions that I find or create in the walls, floor and ceiling (often in sterile seeming urban environments). These subtle interventions occasionally house microcosmic activity in the form of synthetic, miniature structures of painted polymer clay along with moss, fungi, plants and other organic materials." Sumakshi Singh was born in New Delhi , India . She lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. More here.

Chintan Upadhyay

If you're part of the Indian Art circuit it's hard to miss these tricked out babies. They've been talked of , written about and featured in every relevant gallery or arts publication in the country. In a way , the bare bottomed clones seem to suit their name, Smart Alecs. These fibre glass sculptures painted on with scenes and motifs from the Kamasutra , are the latest and greatest of the eccentric Chintan Upadhyay's artistic offerings . Upadhyay was born in Rajastan and has a MFA from MSU , Baroda. The artist lives and works in Mumbai. More here.