Paintings by Josh P.S. August 24, 2009

Paintings by Josh P.S. Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Delhi-based artist Josh P. S. This is his first solo in Mumbai and will include nine large scale oils on canvas. The paintings of Josh P.S. explore the relationship of images to both history and memory, as well as how they function in the construction of identities, both personal and collective. By recycling old photographs from India's Colonial Era and of key events in the formation of the independent nation, Josh renders physical legendary moments that seem both distant and mythic. His paintings are large and precisely detailed while their monochrome palette creates the effect of an oscillating and ghostly image that the viewer struggles to decipher. We are confronted to both identify and then ascribe meaning to these figures, events and landscapes we see before us, in the process becoming aware of how these meanings may be pre-determined or even clichd. We ask ourselves if this perception is our own or of a collective inheritance; does free will even come into play with this game of cognition? And what of the individual's experience (the place of the artist) in the larger construction of state-hood, cultural patrimony and political exigencies? His paintings question the intersection of art and politics and ask if there may be 'missing links' between our contemporary reality and the historical events that have shaped it. A digital catalogue accompanies the exhibition; it will be available on line to view as well as to download. Josh P.S. was born in 1974 in Kerala, where he received his BFA in Painting from the College of Fine Arts in Trivandrum . He received his MFA in Painting in 1999 from Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi , where he continues to live and work. He has held solo exhibitions of his work at Nature Morte in New Delhi (2007) and Bose Pacia in Calcutta (2008). His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions at Vadhera Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Rabindra Bhavan, Art Inc. and Travancore House in New Delhi and Avanthay Contemporary in Zurich .

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