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February 23, 2007- March 17, 2007
Reception: February 22, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Prabir Purkayastha
Bodhi Art
535 W 24th StIt is with great pride that Bodhi Art presents ‘Ladakh,’ an exhibition of photographs by Prabir Purkayastha. During the past fourteen years, Purkayastha has journeyed endlessly through the wilderness of Ladakh, which lies at the northern tip of India, and captured powerful images of the last bastion of ancient Tibetan culture. The powerful images of the landscape, sometimes juxtaposed with the people, are passionately crafted and speak volumes of a magical way of life which has changed little through the centuries. It is this age-old tapestry that Purkayastha reverently reveals in his collection of works on display at Bodhi Art. The gallery is located at 535 West 24th Street on the 4th Floor, in the heart of Chelsea, New York City. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm and by appointment. There will be an opening reception of the show, along with the release of a coffee-table book called Ladakh, with the artist on Thursday, February 22nd, 2007.
Purkayastha evocatively frames a meditative study of a Ladakh that he loves and continually tries to understand. “Ladakh connects with me at a very emotional and spiritual level. I can spend a lifetime in there," says the artist. In this collection, his photography occupies the interstitial space between documentation and the more expressive, imaginative arts. Though some landscapes seem to be from another world, they hold the tangible warmth of human presences: the people themselves often seem inseparable from the shadows and topography that frames them. Eminently theatrical, the air heavy with anticipation, each image, imbued with an air of spiritual rooted-ness and ancient wisdom, appears to hold a secret waiting to be discovered.
'Ladakh' took almost a decade to photograph. This primitive land of wind-swept plateau and snow-scarred deserts is spread across the towering citadels of the Great Himalayan and Karakoram ranges. Countless visits - throughout all the seasons - and endless days of traveling across the length and breadth of the land covering thousands of kilometers on foot, jeeps, trucks and horsebacks help create the pictures. The collection of works gently erases your sense of time and self, and you become one with this pilgrim as Purkayastha travels through this enchanted land.
In 2006, Purkayastha had a show titled ‘Zendo’ at Bodhi Art, Mumbai, where it received tremendous response. The ‘Ladakh’ show includes the landscapes from ‘Zendo’ as well as new works of the Tibetan culture and the people. “Photography has always shared a close association with art, and has now gained wide acceptance internationally as a viable art form. Photographic prints have been valued on par with mainstream art. While in India, fine art photography is still considered to be in its nascent stages, works like ‘Ladakh’ form a part of a newer body of photography that has surpassed these old fashioned categories,” says Mr. Amit Judge, Founder of Bodhi Art
In total, there will be 45 photos on display of which 25 are new images which were not a part of the Bombay show. “Photography in India has matured to a level where, the marriage of evolved aesthetic sensibilities and the informed use of advanced technology gives us photographic prints that rightfully occupy the strata of any conventional art form. We are keen to push photography as a good and affordable investment for budding art collectors in the United States,” says Karen Stone Talwar, Gallery Director, Bodhi Art, New York.
Besides having participated in group shows sponsored by Fuji Films in New Delhi, Purkayastha’s works have also been showcased at the Photokina Fair (2002), in Cologne, Germany. He won the India Habitat Award for Best Photography Exhibition in 2002. His solo show at the Visual Arts Gallery, New Delhi received much critical acclaim. Purkayastha has traveled to Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Germany, UK, Canada, and the United States. In 2004, he conducted lecture-demonstrations in a number of cities in California, detailing the process involved in compiling his body of Ladakh images. His photo essays have been featured in many leading dailies and magazines.
In 2005, he published his coffee-table picture book, Ladakh. The launch of Ladakh coincided with his presentation at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. In 2006, Ladakh won the silver at the Regional SAPPI awards, in Jakarta; it was also selected in July 2006 as the 'Book-of-the-Month' by UK's Outdoor Photography magazine. Purkayastha’s Ladakh portfolio recently won the international Spotlight Award in B&W Photography Magazine. He currently lives in Gurgaon, India.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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