Sundaram Tagore Singapore is pleased to present Being There, a group show that typifies the gallery’s longstanding mission of sparking intercultural dialogue through the fine arts.
Each of the artists in this exhibition share a global perspective and are inspired by far-flung travels. They take locations as diverse as Cuba, France, the Himalayas, India and the Americas as their inspiration and subject matter. With elements from both East and West, their works emanate a dynamism and duality, from the diversity of content to their unique techniques and mediums.
NATHAN SLATE JOSEPH has been an integral part of the New York School of Art for more than forty years. He welds recycled steel plates into intricate, dimensional arrangements, blurring the boundary between painting and sculpture. His raw, tactile works allude to issues of globalization, immigration and climate change. Often bearing exotic place-name titles, these works suggest an airborne view of layered patchworks of human habitation and cultivation. Joseph’s work is installed at Jean Georges at the Trump International Hotel, New York; Inagiku at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York; and the Dan Eilat Hotel, Eilat, Israel. Private collectors include artist John Chamberlain, singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell and chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. He was awarded an Art in Architecture Award from the American Institute of Architects in 2003
RICARDO MAZAL, one of Mexico’s most prominent contemporary artists, explores themes of transformation and regeneration through a multidisciplinary approach to painting that combines photography and digital technology. In 2004, Mazal embarked on a trilogy examining the sacred burial rituals of three cultures: the Mayan tomb of The Red Queen in Mexico, the Peace Forest cemetery in Germany and the sacred sky burials of Mount Kailash in Tibet. The resulting images are an amalgamation of kinetic geometric forms, amplified by the large scale of the canvases. Mazal’s work is included in the collections of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguerez, Zacatecas, Mexico; Maeght Foundation, Paris; and Deutsche Bank, New York and Germany.
KENRO IZU, one of the greatest living platinum printers, uses a custom-built, three-hundred-pound Deardorff camera to produce deeply compelling images of revered religious monuments in Syria, Jordan, England, Chile and most recently, Buddhist and Hindu monuments in Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia, Vietnam and India. He captures not only magnificent architectural sites, but worshippers across the globe engaged in religious and spiritual practice. His work is in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; and Galleria Civica di Modena. He is also the recipient of numerous honors, including the Lucca Photo Award from the Photo Lux Festival, Italy; a National Endowment for Arts Grant and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.
Photographer STEVE MCCURRY is best known for his evocative color images, many of which have become modern icons. He captures the essence of human struggle and joy and has covered many areas of international and civil conflict, including Burma, Sri Lanka, Beirut, Cambodia, the Philippines, the Gulf War, the former Yugoslavia, and continuing coverage of Afghanistan and Tibet. McCurry has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1986. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including Magazine Photographer of the Year in 1984 and the Olivier Rebbot Memorial Award in 1986 and 1992. McCurry has published several books, including The Unguarded Moment (2009), Looking East (2006), Steve McCurry (2005), The Path to Buddha: A Tibetan Pilgrimage (2003), South Southeast (2000), Portraits (1999), Monsoon (1988), and The Imperial Way (1985).
ROBERT POLIDORI’S atmospheric photographs of buildings—exteriors and interiors—altered by the passage of time and the people who have lived in them are investigations into the psychological implications of the human habitat. He has shot all over the world: decaying mansions in the formerly splendid metropolis of Havana, the colonial architecture of Goa and urban dwellings in China and Dubai among other countries. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York commissioned him to photograph New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and exhibited those photographs in 2006. Polidori won the World Press Photo of the Year Award in 1998 and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography in 1999 and 2000. He has published eleven books and his work is in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
