Abir Karmakar at Galerie M+S!

Mumbai 10^th October

When you visit an art gallery, you expect to see art works that are placed within the walls of the gallery, that are physically distinct from the environment in which they are placed. Well, ‘Passage’, the current exhibition at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke defies that concept. This unique presentation consisting of six free-standing double-sided paintings of cut out domestic walls by Abir Karmakar are two things at once. They are images of frozen time and objects in real time. Painted in the ‘Trompe-l’œil’ (Visual illusion) tradition, they bridge two worlds – one seen through a camera lens and the other of the physical world.

Effectively, there is an amalgamation of the visual sense of a real place that is visible on the surface of the cut out walls and the spatial sense of the space that it is placed into. And both converge seamlessly to give the viewer a sense of transcending space and time. At the same time, it transcends the traditional definitions of a painting, a sculpture and an installation, thus making it a fine contemporary art experience.

In the curator’s note Sangram Majumdar mentions that “Abir Karmakar’s painting practice aligns with the continuing conversation around how to integrate and subvert the role of the camera as a truth telling device. He turns the vastness of a stretched canvas surface into a map where the disembodied eye travels laterally and vertically, contrasting how both human eyes and mirrored lenses are affected by perceptual distortion.”

Truly, this experiment challenges the very idea of believing a visual experience as the perception of reality, as the walls get covered with the life size visuals. To take this wonderful visual experience first-hand, art lovers must plan their visit to Galerie M+S before 26^th October, 2023.

Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke

101, 1st floor, Commerce House, SS Ram Gulam Marg, Ballard Estate, Fort, Mumbai 400001

Contact number: 022-35098262

Email: info@galeriems.com

Website: www.galeriems.com

Tuesdays to Saturdays

11 am to 7 pm