Mistake
9 December 2009 – 15 January 2010

The December exhibition of the INDA Gallery features the works of Chintan Upadhyay, the Mumbai (Bombay until 1996) based artist. The artist, who completed his MFA from M.S. University, Baroda in 1997, exhibits his works in Budapest for the first time.

Chintan has earned an international fame for the past few years and exhibited in a number of solo and group shows nationally and internationally. He has been trying to understand and showcase the different aspects of cultural hybridism through his works. He has developed a particular language over the years and is one of the few contemporary artists who has remained consistent with exploring a single language of art completely his own.

Over the last few years Chintan Upadhyay has been depictingimages of babies in his work. These babies are usually male and have Indian miniatures painted on them. They have very exaggerated features, however each one of them has a very expressive and emotive face. In a way the images of the futuristiclooking babies that point beyond reality and have miniature paintings depicted on them, speak of today's societies in which we follow a mishmash of ideas and conventions part our own and part borrowed. In fact the boundaries between the two are blurring by the day, giving rise to issues of mutation, identity, proprietorshipand culture.

In Mistake Chintan has looked at mutation in a more pictorially direct manner, the babies are physically transformed or mutated. They are a visual reflection of genetic mutation, which in itself is a matter of grave concern and debate, but Chintan does not view mutation as an isolated occurrence, rather, as a phenomenathat is sweeping all over the world and into our psyche. At the same time the works also reflect on the mutation of our ideas and culture.

Apart from his main practice, Chintan has also established an Artists' Initiative programme called Sandarbh. Started in 2003, the aim of this organisation is to encourage artists to work in context with their surroundings through residencies and workshops. Sandarbh is a non-commercial organisation and through its programmes not only has it consistently contributed to the arts but has also managed to spread awareness about contemporary art practices in rural India.

The INDA Gallery would like to express its special gratitude to István Erőss artist, whose organising work made it possible to arrange a group exhibition of Indian works on the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, along with Chintan's single exhibition.

Brigitta Muladiart historian

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