Biography

Priti Kahar

India

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Collage, Installation

Gallery image

Born in 1979, Vadodara, Gujarat.
Lives and works in Baroda, India.

Myself Priti Kahar from Baroda (Gujarat), India, have completed Graduation (2003) and Post Graduation (2005) in Sculpture from The Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.University, Baroda. At present, I am working as a practicing Visual Artist in Baroda.

I work with different mediums exploring different techniques, mainly when it does not fall in the conventional methods of working.

At present, I am focusing on an idea of verbal illusion along with the play of visual Illusion on the perceptual ground, as I used the aspect of visual illusion in my past works. In my recent works I have continued the similar practice, where I have used a lot of commonly confusing words such as See and Sea, Tail and Tale, Pore and Pour, Break and Brake etc which has similar pronunciation yet a different meaning. Here I tried creating a play of Verbal Illusion, as earlier I tried with visual illusion, on both two and three dimensional surfaces, accompanied with commonly used objects of our daily life. Such as kitchen utensils, different types of tools I use in my studio etc. The objects and the words are hardly being noticed by us in our day to day life. I enjoy intervening of words on the objects drawn, which brings a kind of playfulness to my works.

As in one of my early projects titled Connect (Dis) Connect, I experimented with Canvases accompanied by an Installation of hanging number of plaster cast hands from the ceiling and the painted shadows on the floor.

Here I tried to create a play of illusion between real shadows and painted shadows. In paintings I used materials like wire as a part of the painted surface, as I was trying to connect it to an aspect of Optical Illusion and the canvases also had a running text connect (Dis) connect, where on one hand the focus is to connect the witness to the shadows created, and on the other side to Disconnect the witness when they realize the shadows are painted.

My academic training has been a remarkable practice for me to explore the creative phase of myself. This long span of time has been a great chance for me to experiment with several mediums and techniques. through this time, I was mainly concentrating on the medium part of sculpture, since that was my first phase of getting acquainted with new techniques in terms of managing the medium and using it to build a work of art, it is in fact a nice way to understand the behavior of available materials such as Plaster, Red clay (terracotta), Cement, Metal Casting, Direct Metal, Wood Carving, Stone Carving, Paper Cast, Pottery, etc. This was the time when all my present experiences were immensely getting transformed into my works.

I usually combine two or three mediums such as wood and metal, wood and fiber, metal and stone, paper collage on wood or fiber etc. which could be noticeably seen in couple of my recent works, mainly high relief sculptures as even collage works are quite fascinating for me as an expression. Here I have used the high quality eco solvent prints, which is processed using heat on fiberglass objects and wood. In most of my recent works text is playing a key role as I am using text comprising the commonly confusing words. I am using words as a running text, which creates a texture covering the surface of my sculptures.  And in paintings I used different rubberstamps as a tool to create text as a surface. Along with the text I also use tea wash, charcoal, acrylic, water color and ink on paper and canvases to create a large work in earthy colors.

Education:

2005 Master of fine arts Department of Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University. Vadodara.
2003 Bachelor of fine arts

Solo exhibitions:

2009. Solo Show at Qualcomm India, Mumbai
2007. “Connect (Dis) Connect” Solo Distplay at Kashi Visual Arts, Kerala, India

Scholarships and Awards:

2007. “Artist in Residence” at Kashi Visual Art, Kerala, India
2005. National Scholarship to young artiste in different cultural fields, Ministry of
Culture, Government of India, New Delhi, India
2005. Shilpadhara award, 45th Gujarat State Lalitkala Academy, Ahmedabad.
2003. ‘Prof. Shankho Chowdhary’ Merit Scholarship, Vadodara, India

Group exhibitions:

2011. ‘Banayan’ Art show, Gallery – Faculty of Fine Arts. MSU, Baroda, India
2011. Eco products international fair 2011, New Delhi, in Collaboration with Contemplate art initiative, Coimbatore & Exhibit 320 - Delhi, India
2010. ‘Harvest –II, 2010’ Group show at Arushi Arts, New Delhi, India
2010. One square foot show - A Charity show at Ahmedabad.
2010. ‘10 X 10’ Group show at Gallery Threshold, New Delhi, India
2009. ‘Gen Next IV’ Group show at Akriti Art gallery, Kolkata.
2007. Solo display of works with an Installation at Kashi Art café, Kerala.
2007. Group Show at lalitkala Academy, Chennai under “Variations”.
2006. A Group Show of 'Sprouting Sculptures' at Akruti Gallery, Vadodara.
2006. A Group Show of 'Sprouting Sculptures' at Hutthesigh Art Gallery, Ahmedabad.
2006. ‘Chatak’ 2006 Monsoon Show by Nehrucentre Art Gallery,Mumbai.
2006. A Group Show Organized by ‘Variations’, St. Xaviours, Ahemdabad.
2005. A Group Show of 'Hanging Sculptures' at Akruti Gallery, Vadodara.
2005. 45th Gujarat State Lalitkala Academy, Ahmedabad.
2004. 46th National Exhibition of Art 2004, Lalit Kala Academy, Kerala.
2004. 44th Gujarat State Lalitkala Academy, Ahmedabad.
2004. A Group Show at Archer Art Gallery, Ahmedabad.
2004. 47th National Exhibition of Art 2004, Lalit Kala Academy, Lukhnow.
2003. 17th All India Art Contest & Exhibition 2003 South Central Zone Cultural Center, Nagpur.
2003. 76th All India Art Exhibition 2003, Maharashtra State, Mumbai.
1999. Digital Art Group show of Digital Paintings, Bangalore, Organized by Art
  • Underground, Vadodara and Intel Epson, Bangalore
  • 1998 Digital Art Group show of Digital Paintings, “Young at Art” Vadodara, organized by Art Underground, Vadodara.

Workshop/ Camp participation:

2009 All India Women’s Painting Camp’ Organized by Orissa Modern Art Gallery.
Bhuwaneshwar, Orissa.
2009 ‘National Stone carving camp’ – Organized by Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and languages, Srinagar.
2007 ‘Swaswara Sculptor’s Residency Program’ and Camp organized by CGH Earth, Gokarna, North Karnataka.
2006 Terracotta Camp Organized by Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda to Felicitate
Prof. Mahendra Pandya
2006 Painting & Sculpture camp organized by ‘Variations’ Group, St.Xaviours, Ahmedabad.
2005 A Sculpture Workshop conducted by Prof. Harvey Hood from U.K. at Department of Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U., Vadodara.