The Guild is delighted to present Cut Pieces, a much awaited solo exhibition of recent works by Baroda based artist K. P. Reji, making it the first presentation in our silver jubilee year. 

Police in the Garden

Reji's works are known for their witty take on the state machinery and its multiple modes of ordering of lives of people. In this recent body of works he takes a new direction in exploring this. The meticulously constructed canvases offer a newer language, and furthermore, newer narratives. 

“K.P. Reji’s oeuvre, marked by its frontal narrative overtures and enigmatic subterranean, political sites, propels us to think about the need to define beauty in a new ontological setting.  This drive is evident in his move, on the one hand, towards an allegorical mode of narratology, and a counter-move to suspend the narratorial through the ‘decoratively-real’ exteriors and interiors, on the other.” 

Police in the Forest

"The series titled, Police in the Garden/Forest/Kitchen, is central in understanding the aesthetical proposition, or distribution, of this exhibition. The three paintings in this series can be read as a departure from the generic pictorial strategies of Reji’s oeuvre, where the human figure—or in some instances the very idea of ‘figurative’ itself—plays a catalytic role in unfolding the narrative."   

"Drawing references from the popular ‘scenic’ images, the works in this series ruminate on the question of decoration, or ‘an-aesthetical’ organization. The decorative here is deployed as an anti-descriptive device; and in it, pictorial elements relate to one another through ‘natural’ affinity." 

Police in the Kitchen

Cut Piece (After Yoko Ono)

"This constant movement from/between sign and mark, conjuring and manifesting, embodiment and enlivenment, representation to presentation is very much a part of Reji’s pictorial vocabulary and artistic strategy. For instance, in the large monochromatic painting Cut Piece, a direct  reference to Yoko Ono’s 1964 iconic performance of the same title, each brush mark and cut pieces of cloth are equated in terms of their significatory value."   

– All excerpts from “Beauty as Pharmakon” by Dr. Santhosh S.  

About the Artist

Born in 1972 in Kerala, Reji completed both B.F.A. and M.F.A in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda.  

His select group exhibitions and Biennales’ include: Negotiation in Contested Space. Part I, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2017; Sub-Plots: Laughing in the Vernacular, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 2017; Art Chennai by The Guild, Mumbai, 2014; Touched by Bhupen, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, 2013; Art Basel Hong Kong by The Guild, Mumbai, 2013; Chennai Art Fair by The Guild, Mumbai, 2012; VIP Art Fair by The Guild, Mumbai, 2012; India Art Fair, New Delhi  by The Guild, Mumbai, 2012; Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2012; Shadow Lines curated by Alia Swastika (Indonesia) and Suman Gopinath (India) at Jogja Biennale, Indonesia, 2011; Roots in the Air, Branches Below: Modern & Contemporary Art from India, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, 2011; Snow curated by Ranjit Hoskote, Tao Art Gallery, 2010; A New Vanguard: Trends in Contemporary Indian Art, Saffronart, New York; The Guild, New York, 2009; Peper Flute, Group Show, Espace Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2006. 

His solo shows include: With a Pinch of Salt, Nature Morte, New Delhi in collaboration with The Guild, Mumbai and at The Guild, Mumbai, 2009; Just Above My Head, The Guild, Mumbai, 2006; Time and Space Gallery, Bangalore, 2001; Faculty of Fine Arts, M S U Vadodara, curated by Nirali Lal, 2000; Zen Studio Gallery, Eramallur, Kerala, 1999. 

Reji received the Sanskriti Award for the Young Artist in 2007 from the Sanskriti Foundation, New Delhi.
 

About The Guild  

The Guild was established in 1997 with an aim to function as a semi-institutional space within the bustling art-hub of Mumbai, India. Since its inception, it has been providing a platform for discursive practices, innovation and experimentation in contemporary art. The Guild has been recognised as a pioneering gallery with its important roster of artists of diverse generations who have brought in robust dialogue within and across the disciplines. It believes in promoting critical ideas and artists who are engaged in cutting-edge practices in distinctive mediums reflecting diverse perspectives. The Gallery has held major retrospectives of important artists:  Sudhir Patwardhan, Navjot Altaf and G. R. Iranna. It has collaborated with premier national art centres and has been promoting its artists to various international cultural institutions, art fairs through exhibitions, residencies and workshops.  

For over two decades The Guild has nurtured artistic production as well as the curatorial practices in India. It has contributed extensive scholarship on contemporary art through academically and critically rigorous publications authored by well-known academicians, art critics, art historians and artists – on artists and their practices. The range of public outreach programmes is integral to the exhibitions hosted by the gallery. In 2015, The Guild opened its new premises in Alibaug, an upcoming art district near Mumbai with a large exhibition space, expanding its relevance outside the urban spaces, and continues to vigorously serve the field of visual arts in India.  

For more details, please contact us at:  

theguildart@gmail.com 
teamattheguild@gmail.com