Body Transformed: Contemporary South Asian Photographs and Prints

Body Transformed: Contemporary South Asian Photographs and Prints presents a selection of works that center on the human figure. For the artists in this exhibition, the human form and the expressive power of photography and print media offer ways to examine the place of the individual in contemporary society.

Works by Pushpamala N. and Clare Arni, Vivek Vilasini, Ram Rahman, and Naveen Kishore focus on the performing body to confront notions of gender and cultural identity through photography, a medium that has played a complicated role in India since the nineteenth century. Jitish Kallat and Rashid Rana manipulate photographic images to simultaneously assert and dissolve the portrait in jarring compositions that hover between reflections on the public being and the disquiet of the inner self.

Master print artists Krishna Reddy, Chitra Ganesh, and Jyoti Bhatt experiment with provocatively carved lines and vivid colors unique to printmaking. Fragmenting, morphing, and multiplying the figure, these artists incorporate various processes to explore representations of power, place, and sexuality in today’s world.

Body Transformed draws from the generous gifts of Drs. Umesh and Sunanda Gaur.

This exhibition contains images and material that may not be appropriate for all audiences.