Prathap Modi
(b.1983)
Prathap Modi (b.1983) completed his BFA in Printmaking from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam in 2005 and MVA in Printmaking from MSU Baroda in 2007. He works primarily with the medium of woodcut or wood engraving printmaking. Modi takes a large image composition and splits it into multiple wooden panels which are carved and printed on papers separately but using the same colour scheme. These individually printed panels are later assembled and framed into a total composition. His series, ‘Silence, Space, Terrestrial’ is an ongoing series that makes the viewer face a frame with floating objects, both celestial and terrestrial. The common visual currency among the series is a male human who gazes through the universe while an imposing often relatively oversized animal gazes into the void. The man and the animal often sit or rest on a floating piece of land or on a floating flower through the infinite depth of the space. Breaking away from the imposing Man, these works reduces the human presence into a miniature yet an almost invisible component of this painting. This painting opens into a space of fathomless time and place with the sonic effect of cosmic silence.
In Modi’s woodcut prints titled ‘Too much of anything is good for nothing,’ a series of visual relationships are established between the representations of human figures, animals and other material objects. His works have a straightforward visual appeal reflecting, reacting, and conversing with contemporary social realities. While desire and fantasy become the key conceptual undertones appearing and reappearing in many contexts, the well-crafted pictorial compositions often show the artist’s self-image as the key catalyst. The man in police dress, with a divine halo, is represented in the iconography of the multi-limbed Hindu god, standing on weapons spread on the floor. In a sense, these contradictions and dichotomies foreground a new symbolic relationship between objects/elements/images referenced from different time frames of cultural history.
His works have been exhibited in solo shows at Galerie Felix Frachon, Brussels, Belgium (2016); Centre Culturel d’Uccle, Europalia India, Brussels, Belgium (2014); Seven Art Limited, New Delhi, India (2011) and The Fine Art Company, Kitab-Mahal, Mumbai, India (2008). His group exhibitions include ‘H0~ArT’, Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad, India (2017); ‘Baroda March’, Strand Art Room, Mumbai, India (2011-17); ‘Handle with Care’, MSU Art Gallery, Baroda, India (2016); ‘Known-sense’, MSU Art Gallery, Baroda, India (2016); ‘Contemporary Contingencies’, Gallery OED, Kochi, India (2016); ‘Mapping Stillness’, Nine Fish Art Gallery, Mumbai, India (2016); Gallery OED, Kochi, India (2014); Regional art exhibition, Lalit Kala Academy, Chennai, India (2014); ‘Between the lines: Identity, Place and Power’, curated by L.V. Sunish, NGMA, Bangalore, India (2012); Gallery@Oxo, London (2012); Rosl Royal, London (2012); ‘Harvest 2010’, curated by Navasar, Arushi Arts, New Delhi, India (2010); ‘FALCAT 2’, Art Home, New Delhi, India (2010); ‘Contemporary Print Making in India’, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai, India (2010); FICA, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India (2009); ‘Cutting Chai’, Sarjan Art Gallery, Baroda, India (2009); ‘Filament’, KHOJ, New Delhi, India (2008). Modi has also participated in various residencies at Space 118, Mumbai, India (2015); Brussels Art Factory, Brussels, Belgium (2015); HOM Art Trans, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2013); Commonwealth Foundation ROSL ARTS, London and Scotland (2011) and PEERS residency, KHOJ, New Delhi, India (2007). In addition, he was the recipient of the Ravi Jain Annual Show Fellowship Award for Graphic Design by Dhoomimal Gallery in 2006.
