Subodh Gupta (born in 1964) is an artist based in New Delhi. He was born in Khagaul, Patna. He studied at the College of Art, Patna in 1983 - 1988, before moving to New Delhi where he currently lives and works. Trained as a painter, he went on to experiment with a variety of media. His work encompasses sculpture, installation, painting, photography, performance and video.Work Subodh Gupta is best known for incorporating everyday objects that are ubiquitous throughout India, such as the steel tiffin boxes used by millions to carry their lunch as well as thali pans, bicycles, and milk pails. From such ordinary items the artist produces sculptures that reflect on the economic transformation of his homeland and which relate to Gupta‘s own life and memories. As Gupta says: ‘All these things were part of the way I grew up. They are used in the rituals and ceremonies that were part of my childhood. Indians either remember them from their youth, or they want to remember them.‘[1] And: ‘I am the idol thief. I steal from the drama of Hindu life. And from the kitchen - these pots, they are like stolen gods, smuggled out of the country. Hindu kitchens are as important as prayer rooms.‘[2] Gupta transforms the icons of Indian everyday life into artworks that are readable globally. He is among a generation of young Indian artists whose commentary tells of a country on the move, fuelled by boiling economic growth and a more materialistic mindset. Gupta‘s strategy of appropriating everyday objects and turning them into artworks that dissolve their former meaning and function brings him close to artists like Duchamp; The Guardian called him ‘the Damien Hirst of Delhi.‘[3] He succeeds in finding an art language that references India and at the same time can be appreciated for its aesthetic throughout world; as Gupta says: ‘Art language is the same all over the world. Which allows me to be anywhere.‘[4] One of his recent major works, consisting of Indian cooking utensils, is ‘Line of Control‘ (2008), a colossal mushroom cloud constructed entirely of pots and pans. The work was shown in the Tate Triennial at Tate Britain in 2009. Painting is also an important part of Subodh Gupta‘s art practice. His series ‘Still Steal Steel‘ consists of photorealistic paintings of kitchen utensils falling and moving in space. In his early paintings, Gupta used another element of Indian every day life, cow dung. This is used in India for building houses and as fuel for cooking fires. Moreover, it is a cleaning agent. The idea that cow dung is inherently clean is ingrained in rural India. There, it is a purifying element, both ritual and symbolic. In his video ‘Pure‘ (2000, 9 min.), Gupta takes the detergent concept literally and has filmed himself taking a shower, to free himself of the thick layer of dung that covers his body. An earlier series of paintings is ‘Saat Samunder Paar‘. Baggages, migration and the "return home" have been enduring concerns of Subodh Gupta. It is a theme that crystallised in works such as ‘Across the Seven Seas‘ (2006) where he uses baggage trolleys of modern airports to allude to the grim historical reality of migration from India, especially from his home state of Bihar. In works that Subodh Gupta presented at Hauser & Wirth in October 2009, the artist moved away from composite sculptures toward objects that possess an auratic quality. Ready-made commodities experience transformations in scale and material. Relations to European art history were now to be found. Among the new works is a three-dimensional reworking in bronze of Duchamp‘s mustachioed Mona Lisa ‘L.H.O.O.Q.‘ (1919). His oil on canvas painting ‘Saat Samundar Paar‘ went under the hammer for Rs 3.4 crores in the Saffronart autumn online auction.[5] In 2008, he along with several other artists raised 3.93 crores for Bihar flood victims.[6] In 2010 Subodh Gupta designs the stage set for the ballet CREATION 2010 by Angelin Preljocaj, the French choreographer. The ballet is produced by the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, and the Ballet Preljocaj. [edit]Selected exhibitions Solo Exhibitions 2010 Faith Matters, PinchukArtCentre, Kiev, Ukraine Take off your shoes and wash your hands, Tramway, Glasgow, UK Arario Gallery, Cheonan, Korea Arario Gallery, Seoul, Korea Et tu, Duchamp, KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Kunsthalle Wien project space, Vienna, Austria Nature Morte, New Delhi, India Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Switzerland 2009 Common Man, Hauser & Wirth, London, UK Line of Control, The Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia 2008 Still Steal Steel, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York City, USA There is always Cinema, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy Line of Control, Arario Beijing, China 2007 Start.Stop, Bodhi Art Gallery, Bombay Silk Route, Baltic Art Centre, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK Idol Thief, IN SITU - Fabienne Leclerc, Paris, France 2006 Hungry God, Nature Morte, New Delhi Artes Mundi Prize, Cardiff National Museum, UK 2005 Jootha, IN SITU - Fabienne Leclerc, Paris, France I go home every single day, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York NY, USA Jootha, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India 2004 I go home every single day, The Showroom Gallery, London, UK 2003 Saat Samunder Paar, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India This side is the other side, Art & Public, Geneva, Switzerland 2000 Recent Works, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India 1999 Recent Works, Gallery Foundation for Indian Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1997 Bose Pacia Modern, New York NY, USA The Way Home, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, India 1996 Grey Zones, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, India Group Exhibitions 2009 Altermodern. Tate Triennial 2009, Tate Britain, London, UK Un certain État du Monde?, The Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, Russia The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan 2008 God & Goods – Spirituality and Mass Confusion, Villa Manin, Udine, Italy Indian Focus. Artistes Indiens Contemporains dans la Collection de Claude Berri, Espace Claude Berri, Paris, France Chalo! India: A new Era of Indian Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (Travelling Exhibition) Indian Highway, Serpentine Gallery, London, England (Travelling Exhibition) Where in the World, Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, India 2007 Sequence 1. Painting & Sculpture from the François Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy Edge Of Desire: Recent Art in India, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India (Travelling Exhibition) New Delhi – New Wave, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy India: Public Places / Private Spaces, The Newark Museum, Newark NJ, USA 2006 Altered, Stiched & Gathered, P.S.1 MoMA, New York NY, USA Venice – Istanbul, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey Taipei Biennial 2006, China Lille 3000, Lille, France Edge Of Desire: Recent Art in India, Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga CA, USA (Travelling Exhibition) Edge Of Desire: Recent Art in India, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley CA, USA (Travelling Exhibition 2005 51st Venice Biennale, Italy Weightless Space, The Herzliya Museum Of Contemporary Art, Israel The Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Dialectics of Hope, Russia Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist’s Eye, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL, USA (Travelling Exhibition) Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist’s Eye, Hayward Gallery, London, England (Travelling Exhibition) 2004 Indian Video Art: History in Motion, Fukuopka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan Edge Of Desire: Recent Art in India, The Art Gallery Of Western Australia, Perth, Australia Vanitas Vanitatum, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India 2003 8. Biennale Havanna, Cuba Body. City. Citing Contemporary Culture in India, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany The Tree from the Seed, Contemporary Art from India, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway 2002 Kapital & Karma, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria Photosphere, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India 2001 Post Production (Sampling, Programming & Displaying), Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy Context as Content – Museum as Metaphor – Museum of Fine Art, Museum of Fine Art, Chandigarh, India (Travelling Exhibition) Context as Content / Museum as Metaphor, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India (Travelling Exhibition) 2000 Vilas, Birla Academy, Mumbai, India Kwangju Biennial, Korea Invisible Boundary: Metamorphosed Asian Art, Utsunomiya Museum of Art, Japan 1999 Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, Fukuoka, Japan Of, based on, or obtained, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India 1998 New Millenum, New Media, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, India 1997 Points of Contact, Shirley Fiterman Gallery, New York NY, USA Khoj International Artists Exhibition, British Council, New Delhi, India [edit]Selected works Et tu, Duchamp?, black bronze, 114 x 88 x 59 cm, 2009 Jeff the Koons, aluminium, painted, 2009 Aam Aadmi, painted bronze mangoes, 2009 Wall, fibreglass cast of tree and wall, 2009 Spooning, 2 cast spoons, stainless steel, 34 x 275 x 52 cm, 2009 Line of Control, stainless steel utensils, 10 x 10 x 10 m, 2008 Date by Date, installation, 2008 Mind shut down, skull of stainless steel utensils and old utensils, 240 x 150 x 205 cm, 2008 Still Steal Steel #9, oil and enamel on canvas, 198 x 364 cm, 2008 Still Steal Steel #8, oil and enamel on canvas, 198 x 364 cm, 2008 School, 45 brass cast stools and stainless steel utensils, installation, 2008 Gandhi‘s Three Monkeys, bronze, old utensils, steel, three heads, one with terrorist mask, one with military helmet, one with gas mask, 2007–2008 Faith matters, sushibelt with cooking utensils, 2007–2008 U.F.O., brass and stainless steel utensils, 2007 1 Kg War, 1 kg gold, 24 carat, 2007 Potato Eaters, bronze potatoes, plastic bag, 45 x 35 x 15 cm, 2007 Bhandarghar, Indian pots, metal, ropes, 2007 Leap of Faith, stainless steel buckets, 700 x 180 x 180 cm, 2006 Cheap Rice, life size rickshaw, brass utensils, metal, 170 x 120 x 280 cm, 2006 Very Hungry God, skull of stainless steel utensils, 2006 Across Seven Seas, conveyor belt with luggage cast in bronze and aluminium, 2006 Curry, stainless steel utensils, 5 cabinets, 360 x 270 x 330 cm each cabinet, 2006 Cow, lifesize aluminium and bronze cast from bicycle and milk pails, 2005 Everything is Inside, taxi roof, luggage cast in bronze, 162 x 276 x 104 cm, 2004 Doot, lifesize aluminium cast of an Ambassador car, 2003 Saat Samunder Paar VII, oil on canvas, 167 x 228 cm, 2003 Bihari, cow dung, acrylic, sequence light on handmade paper, 109 x 76 cm, 1999 How to spell cow in Hindi (III), oil, acrylic, cowdung on canvas, 225 x 153 cm, 1999 [edit]Selected Films and Performances Still Life Juggler, film on DVD, 1:50‘, 2008 All Things are Inside, film on DVD, 4:30‘, 2007 Pure (I), performance at Khoj workshop, Modi Nagar, India, 1999 Pure, video on DVD, 9‘, 1999 [edit]See also hauserwirth.com[7] Biography, bibliography, images and press - Subodh Gupta artfacts.net[8] Additional information and images – Subodh Gupta artnet.com[9] Various other resources and images – Subodh Gupta artists-org[10] Modern and contemporary artists and art – Subodh Gupta artpublic.ch[11] Raised in the northern province of Bihar (India‘s poorest and most violent) Subodh Gupta spent his formative years traveling with a Hindi language theatre group, working as a set designer and fabricator as well as an actor. bbc.co.uk[12] In her exhibition entitled Around and Around 1000 Times, Schandra Singh presents large-scale paintings that address the issue of escapism as a means of coping with suffering. paletteartgallery.com[13] Subodh Gupta was born in Khagaul, Bihar. He did his BFA (Painting) from the College of Art Patna. He has had several solo shows including one at Bose Pacia Modern, New York in 1997. jackshainman.com[14] American Gallery representing Subodh Gupta – additional images and information on past and current exhibitions universes-in-universe.de[15] The installation refers to Indian workers in the Gulf States. On their way home after months of slaving away and living in the closest of quarters, they proudly carry their acquisitions with them in such cartons (never in suitcases). saatchigallery.com[16] Whilst the skull on everyone‘s lips of late has been Damien Hirst‘s diamond-encrusted ‘For the Love of God‘, the skull exciting many people at the Venice Biennale is by Indian artist Subodh Gupta. ‘Very Hungry God‘, an enormous skull made out of stainless steel utensils, was first exhibited in Paris in 2006 and is now in the collection of Francois Pinault. ‘Very Hungry God‘ is currently on view by the Grand Canal outside Pinault‘s Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Subdoh explains here the background to this work. manchesterinternationalfestival.com[17] Subodh Gupta is one of India’s most prolific artists and has participated in numerous highly-acclaimed international exhibitions. Gupta works in a wide range of mediums from sculpture and painting to installation, photography, video and performance. asianart.com[18] New Perspectives From India – images of work by contemporary Indian artists, including work of Subodh Gupta artsmundi.org[19] Subodh Gupta works in a wide range of mediums from sculpture and painting to installation, photography, video and performance. He elevates the status of found objects from everyday items to artworks; using the products of rural India such as cow dung, milk buckets, kitchen utensils, scooters, guns and gulal powder as his materials.