Meera Sethi

Foreign Returned explores South Asian identities through time and space while making specific references to Canada, India and Australia. Using vibrant colour and bold pattern, this new work offers a contemporary interpretation of iconography from 16th to 19th century Indian miniature paintings. Meera Sethi is an Indian born artist, based out of Toronto.

Manish Arora + Amrapalli

Manish Arora's collaboration with jewelry house Amrapalli features signature colourful pieces in gold with a lot of in lay and enamel work. Beautiful yet quirky pieces. Love love love it. Find it here.

Tobias Mergerie

Final Cut , a collection of skateboards hand carved in wood by craftspeople from Mahim, Mumbai, is the brainchild of German curator Tobias Megerle. Each piece is one of a kind, probably not very functional but extremely cool. This ones for the collectors! via CNN

Alexander Kori Girard

Found these incredible mixed media works by American artist Alexander Girard via the superb fly . I'm tempted to do this to the thousands of old photographs that are gathering dust in my grandparents' home. More here.

Dezer, Migwel & Keflione

Three Graffiti artists from France were witness to the 60 hour siege in Mumbai and wanted to pay homage to the soldiers who lost their lives. They re-scheduled their plans and ended up in Delhi, where they were 'donated' a wall by the Religare Arts Initiative. The artists waited to have their spray cans flown in from Paris before they began rendering this historic piece of work. Image credit: Sahar Zaman. More here.

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.

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."

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.

Space Invader

The mysterious masked rebel artist strikes India , decorating the already colourful walls with his signature space invader tiles - a pixelated tribute to first generation arcade games. More info here. Via *pmh.

Kevin Cyr

These automobiles were painted from sketches Brookyn based artist Kevin Cyr made during his trip to India. While he painted the trishaws true to form , he super imposed them with American ads. Via my love for you.

Forest Pottery Studio

Born in Hamburg , Germany ; Ange Peter moved to Pondicherry, India at the age of two. Peter studied ceramics under the tutelage of the renowned Ray Meeker. Her works are heavily influenced by Japanese interpretation of clay as well as her inherent spiritual upbringing.

Maite Delteil

French born artist Maite Delteil is better known in India as Sakti Burman's wife and Maya Burman's mother. Curiously, she has used her daughter as a take-off for one on canvases, which depicts a sleeping woman who draws the viewer into the dream world of the painter. Apart from the canvases that portray female figures, Maite Delteil depicts trees teeming with birds and laden with fruit. Her work is also strongly influenced by the Indian Mughal miniatures.Images from here.

Tommy

My friend Vindy (who is a regular reader of this blog, thanks!) was the one who told me of Tommy's mad photography skills.I have the pleasure of knowing both these very talented/interesting people but it's not often you know your friends have all these tricks up their sleeves !

When Tommy sent me the pictures from his trip to Rajasthan , I was spoilt for choice. I had no idea how I would only pick 4 , but it had to be done. Tommy is a Nordic lad whiling away his time in a Graphics Design course in Singapore. He'd much rather travel the world , taking pictures that document the evidence of human existence. He's interested in the whole sensory experience but believes taking pictures is the closest he can come to remembering the moment . He also has a penchant for world cinema and the most insanely spicy food there is.

Hopefully this post will give Tommy the good sense to start his own blog / website where we can all live vicariously through his many adventures.

INTERVIEW : Chris Haughton

Chris Haughton is an absolutely delightful being, but let's get to that part later. As far as credentials go , he is a graphic designer & freelance illustrator whose brilliant & original work earned him a spot on the top 100 designers list compiled by TIME magazine.

Chris Haughton has been involved with fair Trade organisation People Tree , who produce their design oriented goods (t-shirts,stationery, housewares) in developing countries such as India, Bangladesh, Indonesia etc. I was hoping to quiz Chris on his Indian connection & it's relevance to the work he does. He was kind enough to indulge me:

MC: Your designs get screen printed onto T-shirts in India, have you ever been here or met the people who make them?

CH:I have actually been to India three times now, I love India! Unfortunately I never made it to meet the actual artisans yet, the first two times I was there I was just backpacking around and I hadn’t started working with People Tree, and the last time it was a bit of a rush.

I have met many of the people who have set up the workshops when they come to London and they have a lot of stories about their projects, they are doing really great work there. It makes all the difference to think you are doing work for projects and companies you really agree with.

MC: Do you take any design influences from Indian culture? what are they?

CH: I really love Indian folk art, Madhubani and Warli paintings and also a lot of the textiles. When I was in 3rd year in college I went backpacking around India for the summer and when I came back I went through a phase of being really crazy about Indian folk art. I bought a lot of books on Indian painting and textiles, it was very fresh and inspiring for me to see that then. I go to the British Museum and the V&A in London when i feel burnt out, they have some really nice work

MC: Who are your favourite artists/illustrators/designers ?

CH: I like a lot of folk art mainly and get a lot of inspiration from visiting museums in London. David Shrigley's work is always outstanding, also I really like Sara Ogilvie, Neal Layton and Tom Gauld. Michel Gondry and Traktor have done some great short films and videos. I worked for a year at a very good London animation studio a few years ago (Studioaka) and was very lucky to meet some really inspiring animators and designers in there. Grant Orchard, Ben Bocquelet and Steve Small are all doing really amazing work.

MC: Do you really , honestly love vegetable fried rice?

CH:Not really actually... I've gone right off it! I was living in Hong Kong when i set up the site(vegetablefriedrice.com) .I was living in a youth hostel and i had no money at all and I'm vegetarian so it was a running joke that the only thing i cooked or was seen to eat was vegetable fried rice.