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“In
this set of new paintings, Balaji Ponna revisits his longstanding
engagement with the predicament of the citizen-subject and his or her
relationship with the nation-state. The title of the show, 'The Mirror
has no Heart', reflects Balaji Ponna's keen sense of the dislocations of
contemporary Indian politics, as well as the directions that it is
taking under the current dispensations of power. It is a comment on the
ways in which the state is interpellated by the desires of a business
class that has no allegiance to it, but to which it is in thrall. For
Ponna, this manufacturing of artificial desire, in which the common man
cannot find his aspirations reflected, is emblematic of the moral and
ethical quandaries of the present, in which the citizen is completely
alienated from the originary promises of the state, and to which the
governing attitude is one of a thoroughgoing cynicism with regard to its
political program”. – excerpt from an essay by Sathyanand Mohan.
Born in 1980, Balaji Ponna received his B.F.A in Graphics
from Andhra University with Gold medal and M.F.A in Graphics from Visva
- Bharati University, Santiniketan. He has been recipient of H.R.D.
National Scholarship for young Artists (2004–05). His recent solo
exhibitions includeLooking
is not Seeing, at The
Guild 2011;Monuments at India Art
Summit 2011 with The Guild, Mumbai; The Things I Say, at Studio
La Citta, Verona and Black Smoke,
at Bose Pacia, Kolkata, in collaboration with The Guild. Ponna has
participated in various group shows over the last couple of years
including Art Celebrates 2010:
Sports and the City, an Exhibition of Indian Contemporary Art curated
by Rupika Chawla; Contemporary
Exoticism curated
by Marco Meneguzzo at Studio
La Citta, Verona; Art Basel by Studio la Citta, 2009; A
New Vanguard: Trends in Contemporary Indian Art, Saffronart, New
York and The Guild, New York; The
July Show at The Guild and Are We Like This Only? Curated by
Vidya Shivadas at Vadehra Art Gallery Delhi. His works were also
exhibited at the France Print Biennial in 2009.
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