Jitish Kallat

About

Mumbai based artist Jitish Kallat is an acclaimed Contemporary Indian artist who works on several media including painting, large-scale sculpture installations, collage, photography, and video art. His spell-bounding masterpieces beautifully reflect bout agony, hope and survival of those who have born in Mumbai, and also about his personal experiences in the most intriguing way.

Education & Work

Jitish Kallat was born in the year 1974 in Mumbai. In the year 1996, he acquired his Bachelor’s degree in painting from Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art, Mumbai. In 2014, he was appointed as a curator for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. His work is widely influenced by caste and communal concerns, addressing housing and transportation disasters, city planning, and government accountability.

Jitish Kallat’s artworks exquisitely combine paintings, collage, photography, extensive sculptures and multi-media installations. His paintings beautifully reflect the conjunctions of cultural dualities of Mumbai. With his color palette, he effectively conveys the social message to its onlookers. Also, famous for figurative artworks, his masterpieces stunningly portray the politics, poverty, filth of Mumbai. With his series Rickshaw polis in 2005, he magnificently initiated his association with vehicles and entangled traffic as metaphors for the cities like Mumbai, Shanghai and Dubai. In his “365 Lives”, he documented dented skeletal leftovers of vehicles, where each dents connoting the wound.

Jitish Kallat has successfully contributed to solo exhibitions in Chicago, Berlin, London, Sydney, Zurich, and Mumbai. He has also participated in foremost group shows in Kolkata, Mumbai, New York and other places. He left the art lovers spell bound with his solo shows, which include: Public Notice 3' at the Art Institute of Chicago, ‘Likewise’ at Arndt and Partner, ‘The Astronomy of the Subway’ at Haunch of Venison, Aquasaurus’ at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, ‘Public Notice 2’ at Bodhi Art, ‘Skin side Outside’ at ArarioGallery, ‘Universal Recipient’ at Haunch of Venison, ‘Unclaimed Baggage’ at Albion, and ‘Sweatopia’ at Bodhi Art and Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai.

Apart from this, he also contributed in several group exhibitions including: ‘Now Through a Glass Darkly' at Arario Gallery,  New York, in 2010; Monumental’ at Walsh Gallery, Chicago, in 2010-11;  'The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today' at the Saatchi Gallery, London, in 2010; 'Changing The World' and ‘A Long Way From Home’ at Arndt & Partner, Berlin, in 2010; Bring Me A Lion' at the Hunt Gallery, St. Louis, in 2010;  'Indian Summer' at Gallery Christian Hosp, Berlin, in 2009; Architectonic' at Seven Art Limited and Gallery Nature Morte, New Delhi, in 2009; The Tree from the Seed, Henie Onstad Kultursenter, Hovikodden, Norway, and 50 years of Art in Mumbai, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai.

Awards and Accolades

In the year 1996, Jitish Kallat was awarded with K.K. Hebbar Art Foundation Award. In the same year, he got the first prize and was elected as a Fellow of the Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai. In the year 2001, he was bestowed with two awards: Indo-American Society’s ‘Young Achiever Award and Sanskriti Award. In the year 2002, he was honored with Harmony Award, and in 2003, with Young Achiever Award, Prorogue-Society for his exceptional artworks.

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