desmond lazaro

"Desmond Lazaro's work straddles both worlds: the traditional pichhvai painter's and the contemporary studio artist's. The pichhvai tradition expects the art to be narrative, or to fulfil a devotional purpose. The modernist painter in Lazaro, however, is programmed to emphasise the individual, 'secular' image. In keeping the two worlds separate, and combining the stereotypes of both, Lazaro drives us to create a different point of view from which to appreciate his work. "

These paintings made me nostalgic for Pondicherry. Images and text from here.

Srila Mookherjee

Srila Mookherjee has the distinction of being India's first woman glass-blower, and her amazing repertoire is testimony to her passion for the medium and the art form. Srila trained in ceramics from NID, Ahmedabad and lives and works in Kolkata.

Shailesh Khandeparkar

Shailesh Khandeparkar had sent in some of his work and I thought they were quite interesting in that he uses a lot of traditional folk arts in a very unconventional medium and a commercial format. He works for O&M , Mumbai. Check out his work for WWF here.

Fawad Khan

Fawad Khan, Pakistani-American artist, debuted his solo show Fast Traveling Passenger, earlier this year. Khan’s exploding vehicles are painstakingly rendered central figures in his work. Imagined as war machines, they invoke the stories of their creation and lifespan, asking viewers to consider what has transpired in creating this scene of destruction.

Born on a Libyan military base where his father was a major in the Pakistani Army Medical Corp, Khan found himself to be fascinated with images from the oppressive and aggressively militaristic cultures of his past. 'Certainly media-saturation of the current war has contributed to my obsession' , says the artist. More here.

Wee Gallery

Wall Graphics

Wee Gallery is a line of learning tools for toddlers conceived by desi couple Surya and Dave- graphic designer and teacher respectively. The idea for these incredibly cute / innovative products came about when the couple learned that newborns can only see 12 to 15 inches away and are mostly taken with their parent's faces and black and white geometric figures. And so, Wee Gallery evolved with simple, bright illustrations of animals and birds. Check out more at their website.

Brown Girls

Brown Girls ; A not-so-politically-correct topical comic on South Asian women in the states , made an appearance in my inbox last week and I've been waiting for the next edition ever since. Brown girls appears every thursday on Devis with Babies , a blog written by sardonic duo Deepa Sood and Monica Mehta.

Cute illustration style . Definitely a staple for the sarcastic types. More here & here.

K K Raghava

I have ignored K K Raghava in the past. The reason being that I couldn't relate to his art or reconcile the work he was churning out with his page 3 personality . I didn't believe people when they told me he was talented , until now. His latest body of works , Drawn & Quartered made an appearance at Art Musings Gallery , Mumbai earlier on this month. He tackles the antithesis of beauty , drawing heavily from the kings of grotesque - Freud and Bacon. While the images are almost flat and illustration like in execution, they are much more perceptive and coherent than the cloudy watercolour works of his past. This might have something to do with Raghava returning to his cartoonist roots , a skill that first pushed him under the spotlight at age 17.

K K Raghava is 27 and works/lives in Bangalore and Boston. More here.

c-215 and Romanwyg

Stencil street art in India is not a regular sighting , so these captivating stencil illustrations on the gritty walls of Karol Bagh , Delhi come as a (ironically) breath of fresh air. The illustrations were done by famous albeit mysterious French artist c-215 and documented by Romanwyg.

In the words of photographer Romanwyg, "Sometimes threatened, usually uncomfortable with the large crowds that gathered for the spectacle of a couple of foreigners having strayed off the tourist trail somehow and ended up in their unimaginably poor district. These pieces were mainly for the children to see and enjoy, which hopefully you can see from the India Set, they did."

Manish Arora

I've always refrained from featuring designers like Manish Arora because it would just be too obvious to but after having seen pictures of his SS 09 collection , I couldn't resist. This man is pure genius . Yes, he is over the top and goes a little mad with his colours but he does it right and he does it well. Every piece is a work of pure genius .Although his silhouettes are unexceptional , the detailing is incredible. I view him as more of an artist and less as someone who merely fashions clothing .

His SS 09 collection Circus, showed at the Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week. Most of the images here are from the show at Paris where he debuted the collection last month. What do you guys think? Images from here & here.

Haathi Chaap

Haathi chaap is a line of paper based stationery goods made from elephant dung , a one-off idea that originated from founder Mahima Mehra's serendipitous trip to Jaipur. The dung undergoes a tedious process carried out mostly by hand, to finally become paper. It is safe, organic , eco-friendly and handmade. And no it doesn't smell and it has little elephant bum motifs all over it's products. I'm sold, bring on the poop paper!

Mumbai - A Laundry field

"In her new exhibition , Korean-born, globe-trotting artist Kimsooja explores the caste system in India through the use of colorful fabrics, photography, and a video installation. "

While the implications of this installation are of a sombre nature , my first unedited reaction to this was sheer amusement. I guess we don't take ourselves too seriously , which would explain why we wash our dirty laundry in public. Text from here. Images from here.

Ryan Paul Lobo

I stumbled onto photographer Ryan Lobo's work while looking at images from his exhibition The Wedding Season . I found his blog and then I found everything else that he has done. It's poignant , adventurous , melancholic , crazy and just basically brilliant. I've been hooked , your turn.

Lobo is a documentary film maker and photographer. He lives in Bangalore.

Ankur Khare

Ankur Khare's cats posses an eerie , unnerving wit about them that you expect from animals with oddly human characteristics. Ankur explores human relationships and pairing using the mysterious , mythological symbol of the cat. I love the use of colour , space , texture and pattern of these somewhat naughty paintings.

Ankur is from Delhi and is currently pursuing a diploma in design at NID, Ahmedabad.

Ekta Kaul

Ekta Kaul grew up in India and trained as a Fashion Designer at NID , Ahmadabad. She moved to the UK on a Textile Design scholarship offered by the British Council. She refers to her collection as a small universe of luxurious textiles. Kaul achieves the textural , tactile quality in her textiles using an array of surface design techniques like needle punching and printing. The collection uses a hand writing like stitching technique , creating lines that look like script.

Love the 'love letter' throw . More here.