Opening of Double Vision in Gallery Epreuve d’Artiste – Nepalese artists in Antwerpen - Belgium

A nice crowd gathered for the exhibit regrouping for the fourth time, the prints of the Ragini Upadhyay, Seema Sharma Shah, Gea Karhof and Nan Mulder. Ragini Upadhayay and Seema Sharma are established Nepalese artists, Gea Karhof and Nan Mulder are originally Dutch but Nan lives now in Edinburgh. The group had previously displayed their work together in Edinburgh, Kathmandu and Haarlem

On first October 2010, a heavy evening rain was an uninvited guest but it did not deterred, the Nepalese ambassador and several members of the Nepalese Embassy in Belgium to come to honour some of the most celebrated artists of Nepal.

His Excellency P.K Hamal spoke highly about the convergence in humanity that these East-West artistic gathering produce. He emphasised the mutual enrichment and deepening of cultural roots resulting from the show.

Gea and Nan explained how their journeys in Nepal, India, Sri Lanka have influenced their work both in shape and concepts.

Ragini developed her vision of an omnipotent Time that she represents very graphically in her Time Wheel series. She added a few words about the Third Eye of the Kumari which allows to see beyond the appearances.

The combination of the four artists provides a unique echo chamber of artistic and philosophical concepts. The cultural continuum is remarkable despite the strong individuality of the artists.

The exhibition is hosted by Chris Verheyen at the Gallery Epreuve d’Artiste in Oudekerkstraat 64, 2018 Antwerpen. The display lasts until the 17 October 2010. The gallery can be contacted by email : epreuvedartiste@skynet.com or telephone :03/238.68. 58 . Opening hours : 14 to 18 on Saturdays and Sundays ; on appointment only during week days.

The photos of the opening on :

http://picasaweb.google.com/Albert.Grela/OpeningInAntwerpenAtTheGaleryEpreuveDArtiste#

More on the artists web pages : http://ragini-art.com, http://www.nammulder.com, http://www.geakarhof.nl , http://www.umaseema.com

Albert Grela

A walk in the clouds

By Anwer Mooraj

Sunday, 21 Feb, 2010


Most visitors who flocked to the well-publicised exhibition of the Nepali artist Ragini Upadhyay Grela at Gallery 919, Karachi, on February 13 were somewhat mystified by what they saw. Perhaps it was because Grela’s work was unlike anything they had come across before. Or because they felt there was certain ambivalence about her art which appeared at once both childlike and highly sophisticated and had to be viewed with a morbid relish.

Habitués of exhibitions in Karachi are accustomed to tasting the fruits of realism and occasional forays into the world of the abstract—towards which a large number of local young painters is gravitating. The symbolic and emblematic imagery that this cerebral artist from Katmandu presented, though it was classy and urbane, had for many viewers a disparaging uniqueness to which they could not relate.

But if the visitor probed a little deeper, he would uncover a world of fantasy, hope and enlightenment. ‘Love in the Air’, the title of the exhibition, is faithful to the script. Everything that moves does so high above the ground, way up in the clouds.

Though there appears a constant striving for man and woman to come together as they whimsically frolic on a celestial trapeze, the love that the artist is trying to portray has a much deeper significance.

It has an almost subliminal, religious base, and is, in fact, a discourse on the love for God, the Creator of all things. Underlying the theme are the symbols of globalisation which, along with historical buildings and monuments, insinuate themselves into every frame and run like a thread through the fabric of the pictorial dissertation.

The items that were common to most of the compositions were the popular tourist structures that one sees on picture postcards, along with TV and computer screens and mobile phones. Often the women are portrayed as avenging deities and even the goddesses Laxmi and Saraswati, and the Buddhist goddess Nairatma appear conversant with the accoutrements of modern technology.

Sangita Thapa, curator of the Siddhartha Gallery in Katmandu, once pointed out that Grela often portrays the female form as enlightened beings that make satirical comments on the failings of politicians.

Among other pictures that the visitor saw was a nude riding an elephant over a tilting church steeple and pagoda; a couple on a horse or kissing somewhere in the stratosphere with a telephone wire and cradle dangling from the woman’s calf; a woman with the head of a bird sitting on a cell phone; a couple flying over Big Ben and the Taj Mahal while the Statue of Liberty clutches a mobile phone; a woman flying towards a pram; a snake flying over buildings; a woman on an albatross; women and children flying over the Blue Mosque; a couple atop a quartet of galloping horses after somebody has pulled away the chariot.

The Eiffel Tower also pops up somewhere and there is even a woman wearing hijab sailing through the breeze on a flying carpet! And somehow or other, a bull found himself on top of a factory chimney.

Altogether, there were 32 exhibits, including digital works manually enhanced on canvas, etchings in mixed media and two ‘unique prints’ whose prices ranged between Rs40,000 and 50,000. Each of the four acrylics in which real gold was used on a traditional canvas was priced at Rs476,256.

Grela is very much a part of mainstream Nepali art—along with Urmila Upadhayay Garg, Pramila Giri and Shashi Kala Tiwari—all worthy successors to the pioneer women painters Jawala Shama, Bhadru Kumari and Sihi Pyari.

Grela has had considerable international exposure. She has studied in Germany and the United Kingdom, and is married to a Belgian. She has a formidable personal record of 56 solo exhibitions and has participated in 14 group shows where she always strives to be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. Outside of Nepal and India, her works have been seen in Belgium, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Austria and Japan.

She has also had numerous appointments and has bagged three prizes and awards, one of which was in the United Kingdom. People who bought her works reside in 24 countries scattered around the globe.

The display which was inaugurated by Mushtaq Chhapra, honorary consul general for Nepal, was her third solo offering in Karachi. It is one that will stay in the mind for a long time.

Love in the Air - Karachi

Love in the Air - Metaphors of love

Text and photos by Ameer H Ahmad

KARACHI: Nepali artist Ragini Upadhyay Grela is in Karachi once again for her solo exhibition at the Galleria 919 titled “Love in the Air”, the realisation of which has been with her since 2008.

Thanking the 21st century technological advancements, which have reduced distances between loved ones, she said she could feel the love in the air, wherever she looked.

She said the widespread use of computers and mobile phones has made communicating easier with the person you love, as it reduces distances not just between lovers, but also between families and friends.

In this series of works, she celebrates both technology and lovers together, combining elements like computers, mobile phones and keyboards with half-animal and half-human figures.

Figures fly across famous landmarks like the Taj Mahal, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and the Great Wall of China; and physical distances and cultural divides melt away as these figures communicate their love through the air.

She has replaced some of the traditional attributes of Hindu Goddesses such as Laxmi or Sarwasti with the modern tools of knowledge and financial power.

Lotus, clubs, bows are turned into mobile phones and computers.

In some of her works, she has used the traditional Thanka painting technique with real gold and silver paint. Her work echoes with the works of Marc Chagall, a Russian-French artist, but hers is transcontinental and modern.

She combines references from the east and the west, an insight into which she gained during her studies in India, England and Germany, and through her extensive travels all over the world.

Grela draws inspiration from both secular and mythological sources, the latter from Hindu and Buddhist myths.

She is a symbolic artist and it is constantly visible in her work.

She has had more then 70 solo and group exhibitions in more then 23 countries.

She is a graduate of Fine Arts from Lucknow University and is a member of the Oxford Printmakers, and her first exhibition was held in 1979 in Nepal. Having been a visiting lecturer at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture; the Karachi School of Arts; and the School of Art and Design, Jamshoro, this is her third solo show in Karachi and she has had two solo exhibitions and one group exhibition in Pakistan.

The gallery will continue the exhibition of her paintings and prints until February 27.

Love in the Air travels to Karachi

The invitations have been printed and the Honorary Consul of Nepal, the Honourable Mushtaq K. Chhapra will be the chief guest. The show opens on February 13 2010 at 5:30 pm at the Galleria 919 (http://www.galleria919.com ).

It is located :
108/2 3rd Avenue.
Block-5. Clifton.
Karachi. Pakistan.
Phone: +92 21 5833681-2
Fax: +92 21 5871286
Email: info@galleria919.com

The exhibition will be on display until the Saturday 27 th February 2010

You could have a look at the online presentation : http://picasaweb.google.com/ragini.grela/LoveInTheAir2008#

The other URL : http://ragini-art.com provides a more comprehensive coverage.

I hope to see many of you during the exhibition.

Cheers !!!!

Ragini at Riddaren Gallery - Stockholm

It was a great success : 18 works were sold out of 24 exhibited.

Thanks a lot to Anna Karin, Matz, Carl, Lena, Brigitta and all the clients and well wishers.

Have a look at the photo gallery : click here

The fully developed website is at url :

http://ragini-art.com

Exhibition in Stockholm, August 2009

Plans with the Gallery Riddaren started a long time ago but it is now certain that my work will hang on their walls from the 22nd to 28th of August 2009. Much of the exhibit will be made with the Love in Air and the Time Series collections. The gallery is located at Köpmanbrinken, 8 in Stockholm. I will give a small talk about the women challenges in Nepal at 5 pm on the opening day. I look forward to seeing you all at this occasion.

In the meantime, have a look at my Picasa Gallery and my web site : http://ragini-art.com


Price updates

Due to a sudden peak demand for my work, I realized that I had forgotten to update my price list during many years. I did it finally and many of my recent works published on the Internet have received an indicative price tag.

Visit my Picasa web galleries for the details :

Love in the air

Love Bells

Ragini for Scotland 2007

To find my place you can search Ragini Kathmandu in http://maps.google.com/

or click here

visit also the more static : ragini-art.com

Ragini's World by media for freedom

By: media for freedom

Posted on: 2/23/2009

Ragini's World

Kathmandu, Nepal: Artist Ragini Upadhyaya tries to see the world through the new technological order

By A CORRESPONDENT

The world of artist and poet is unlimited. If someone has imagination and vision, they can catch it. But, translating the whole thinking in the canvas requires the vision, tranquility in mind as well as capability.

This is what one can see in the solo art exhibition Love in The Air of renowned artist Ragini Upadhyay Grela. Inaugurated by EU Charge d' affairs Dr. Alexander Spachis, the exhibition which is currently going on in Siddhartha Art Gallery in Babar Mahal, the exhibition is creative as well as full of perception of artist Upadhyay.

Artist Upadhayay's art works speak well about her well-heeded journey to the world that enjoys and appreciates the modern communication and wired to the world. In her arts, many well known monuments of the world appear in her paintings. Whether it is Eiffle Tower of France or Taj Mahal of India and the historical and culturally importance monuments of Nepal, one can see them in her paintings.

As usual, artist Upadhyay's paintings have also some political smell as she painted the present political alliance flying in the sky with all modern amenities. She sees Prachanda, Girija Prasad Koirala, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Upendra Yadav on her paintings. Produced in 2008, Ragini's paintings are full of meanings and imaginations. Her experiments with the modern technology and traditional ways with respect to historical monuments are remarkable.

"Many international monuments make their appearances as a cultural reference of her travel," said Sangita Thapa, Curator of Siddhartha Art Gallery. "The physical distance and cultural divide between countries melt away and are seen as inconsequential as Ragini skilfully places the monuments and iconography from her own country to the same canvas."

In this exhibition, artist Upadhyay gives supreme importance to the modern equipments of communication, even the goddess Laxmi and Saraswati now wield modern means of communication. "Very often, she portrays the female form as avenging goddesses or enlightened being to make satirical comments on failings of politics and politicians," said Thapa.

After looking at the paintings of artist Ragini, one can see the influence of her recent visit to Europe. The magic of modern communication network and their powerful presence are reflected on her paintings.

"It is strongly inspired by my recent trip to Europe which have marked my mind with places and communication habits," said artist Upadhyay. "The omnipresence of computers, mobile phones, PDA is for me a great opportunity. There is magic in the air which makes full of messages and vibrant. The reference to famous landmarks such as Taj Mahal, Eiffel tower or the Statue of Liberty expresses my perception of the global culture, global village and global background for love. I have also replaced some of attributes of traditional forms of goddesses," said the artist.

Ragini has proved herself different than other artists in this exhibition. She displayed her creation full of imagination and the perfection of elaborating them in canvas. As it is said, an artist does not belong to any country as they see the entire world as their home. Ragini displayed that her imagination ranged from local cultural monuments as well as world's renowned monuments with the perfect combination when they are linked by the modern means of communications.

Selections of colors combined with her paintings make them lively. "I studied in Germany and UK and travelled all over Europe and I married a Belgian man. As a Nepali, I enjoy my life in Nepal," she said. The Exhibition will continue till March 8.

Source:Spotlight.

Love in the Air opens at Siddartha Gallery on Sunday 8th February 2009 at 5:30 pm

Dr. Alexander SPACHIS
Minister - Counsellor, Charge d'affaires a.i, European Union
has kindly consented to open the exhibition
on Sunday 8th February 2009 at 5:30 pm

Click here to watch the whole series




The opening had to face an usual power outage and visitors enjoyed the works at candle light.


Click here to see the articles published in Nepal

Even cowgirls get the blues - by BHUSHITA VASISTHA in myrepublica.com

“Love is in the air
In the whisper of the tree
And I don´t know if I´m just dreaming”

When Australian singer John Paul Young wrote these famous words in 1978, it had been just five years since the first cell phone (Motorola Dyna-Tacthe) hit the market, and SMS was still to be discovered. Naturally, it felt as if he was “dreaming” to feel “love in the air”.
In 2007, twenty-nine years after the song was released, Nepali artist Ragini Upadhyay Grela felt she wasn’t just dreaming, thanks to her mobile phone and its SMS function in particular, to feel love in the air.

“It was during my stay in Vienna when I realized how air has become the carrier of love,” the artist said, explaining the muse behind her forty-ninth solo exhibition - “Love in the Air”. The show will kick off from Saturday at Siddhartha Art Gallery, Babar Mahal.
“I was staying with a woman who was in love, and she used the text message to express it to her beloved. Suddenly, for me, it wasn’t the same air I had been breathing all my life. It was so special, it was love!”

The exhibition has fifty-three art works, mostly mixed media. In this series, she has celebrated both information technology and lovers together. The half-animal, half-human figures, idiosyncratic of Ragini’s work, fly across the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty and Ghanta Ghar with messages of love popping through her cell phones and computers.
She said the exhibition is a welcome to Valentine’s Day, which is just around the corner.

As usual, some of her art gives strong political commentaries. For instance, in one satiric picture, she makes fun of five major political leaders of Nepal, who are trying to light the whole country with a small candle.

“Really, it is weird to see their response to recent power cuts. Information technology has worked miracles in the world, while in Nepal we’re still struggling to have our room lit with electric bulbs." she lamented.

A graduate of Fine Arts from Lucknow University, Upadhyay grew up in a small village in Ramnagar, a border town on the Indian side. As a farmer her father’s biggest dream for his daughter was to be a graduate, it didn’t matter in which subject.

So, she was sent to Allahabad, India, to pursue her studies. But for Ragini there was something in academics which didn’t click at all. “Slowly my parents weren’t surprised to learn I flunked my subjects,” she smiled, sighed, and smiled again.

After completing her high school level studies, Ragini knew if there was anything she could graduate in, it was art. “You wouldn’t believe it, I couldn’t copy good hand-writing but could emulate every other face I saw.”

“It was very difficult to study art then. My mother showed a thousand and one reasons not to study it.” She added, “But I had made up my mind. I told her if I couldn’t study art, she had better start looking for a suitor.”

Upadhyay had her first exhibition in 1979 and never looked back, although financially the days weren’t as easy. “As an artist, I was always paid in terms of my satisfaction. However, we need to cultivate an aesthetic culture in Nepal as well.”

“For instance, people live in a house worth millions and hang a poster of Bangkok.”

In her experience, the rapidity with which Indian society is catching up with art is a lesson for Nepal. During artist’s stay in Gadhi Art Village at India in 1984, there was an extremely talented senior artist named Himmat Shah. But Shah was so poor he couldn’t pay the nominal rent charge for his studio, let alone pay to have two good meals a day. “But now, within some decades, Shah has become a big-shot artist in India, while his contemporary Nepali artists are still having hand-to-mouth problems.”

bhushita@myrepublica.com
Published on 2009-02-06 21:31:00

How to reach Ragini Art Village

View Ragini Art Village - Balkot in a larger map

Ragini CV July 2008

Ragini – oil painter and print maker

Education

1982- Graduated in Fine Arts from Arts and Crafts College, Lucknow (India).

1983-1985 - Studied the print’s techniques at the Artist Corner-Lalit Kala Academy, Garhi, New Delhi (India)

11-1987 to 03-1988 - Fellowship sponsored by the British Council in Peacock Printmaker in Aberdeen (Scotland) and 3 months in Oxford Printmaker (England),

10-1989 to 03-1990 - 5 months course at the Künste Akademy of Stuttgard sponsored by the German-Nepal help Association,.

Professional appointment

1992, 1994, 1996 - Guest Artist at the Radier Werkstadt, Kampen (Germany).

April-May 1996 - Visiting lecturer at the Lahti’s Fine Art Institute and Türku Fine Art Institute (Finland).

1996 - Visiting Lecturer at Indus school of Art. Karachi. Pakistan

1998,1999- Visiting lecturer at the Helsingborg Museum, Sweden.

2006, 2007 - Visiting Lecturer at Karachi school of Arts and School of Art and Design , Jamshoro, Pakistan

Member of BP Koirala Foundation since 2006

Solo exhibitions

1979	National Association of Fine Art, Kathmandu in the presence of late poet Bal Krishna Sharma
1980	Royal Nepal Airlines, Kathmandu
1981	October Gallery, Vajera Hotel, Kathmandu
1981	Fine Art Academy of Lucknow (India).Sponsored by Lalit Kala Academy of Lucknow and opened by late B.P. Koirala
1982	Morya Hotel, Patna (India).
1983	Fine Art Academy of India, Ravindra Bhawan (New Delhi), sponsored by the Nepalese Embassy in India.
1985	October Gallery in Vajera Hotel, Kathmandu.
1986	National Association of Fine Art, Kathmandu, opened by her Majesty the Queen of Nepal
1987	October Gallery in Vajera Hotel, Kathmandu.
1988	British Council Hall, Kathmandu, inaugurated by the Prime Minister Mr Marish Man Singh.
1989	Deutsch-Nepalischen Hilfgemeinschaft, Stuttgart(Germany).
1990	Goethe Institute , Frankfurt (Germany), guests of honours : the Consul of Nepal in Frankfurt and late Mrs Busak
1990	Goethe Institute , Schwabish Hall (Germany)
1990	Goethe Institute , Kathmandu opened by the Prime Minister Mr Krishna Prashad Bhattrai
1991	Shimba Gallery at Tokoshima (Japan)
1991	Ujuka Gallery at Naruto (Japan)
1991	Hananj restaurant and gallery at Kamojima (Japan)
1992	British Council Hall , Kathmandu
1992	Galerie Art du Temps, Verviers (Belgium)
1992	Galerie Eglau, Radier Werkstadt, at Kampen (Germany)
1994	French Cultural Centre, Kathmandu, & Galerie Eglau, Radier Werkstadt, at Kampen (Germany) title : « Politics, Dust and Love»
1994	Gallery Gamlastan, Helsingborg (Sweden)
1995	National Fine Art Association, Kathmandu, title : « The Myth of Politics »
1995	Gallery S, Eupen (Belgium)
1996	Gallery Joella, Türku (Finland) title : « Windows »
1996	Majuma Art Gallery, Karachi (Pakistan)
1997	Goethe Institute, Kathmandu, “Goddesses and Women, Mythology and Reality”
1997	Grand Hotel, Taipei (Taiwan), as part the YWCA World Meeting on “Violence Against Women”
1998	Gallery Oljemark, Helsinki, sponsored by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nepal Finland Society
1998	Gallery Harmaja, Oulu (Finland) sponsored by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
1998	Gallery Bellange, Atelje, Stockholm, Sweden
1999	Siddhartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu, “Sensitive Women”
2001	Siddhartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu, “Ragini’s Odissey 2001” inaugurated by her Majesty the Queen of Nepal
2001	Studio am Schlob, Berlin
2001	Atelier S, Eupen, Belgium – Inaugurated by H.E. K.P. Shrestha Ambassador of Nepal to the EU
2002	The Sun never dies, Buddha lights and Truth Shines – Kathmandu Sep 2002 – Schorndorf (Germany Sep 2002) - Zielona Gora (Poland)
2003	Permanent display at the International Club – Sanepa – Nepal
2003	Rotary Club, Halle, Belgium
2004	Permanent display at the « GALLERY MOKSH » - Jamsikhel – Lalitpur – Nepal
2005	Time Wheel at Siddhartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu
2006	Time Wheel at the Academy of Fine Art and Literature, New Delhi sponsored ICCR
2006	Time Wheel at the ICCR Gallery, Hyderabad, India
2006	People’s Power at Nafa Art Gallery Kathmandu, opened dpty Prime Minister KP Oli
2007	Sound of Love at Majmua Art Gallery, Karachi Pakistan & Art Shop, Kathmandu
2007	People Power - Culture House ( Manufaktur ) Shorndorf, Germany
2008	Venetian Multiveral Academy, Stoss im Himmel Vienna, Austria
2009	Love in the Air, Siddartha Art Gallery , Kathmandu , Nepal.

Group exhibitions

Kathmandu : 1979, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989,1999
Calcutta (India) : 1980
Madras (India) : 1980
Srinagar (India) : 1980
Tokoshima (Japan) : 1988
Arijiano (Italy) : 1990
Luxembourg : 1992
Liège (Belgium) : 1992
Eupen (Belgium) 1994
Lahti (Finland) : 1996

2007 – GALLERY OPEN EYE, Edinburgh , Scotland , U. K.

2007 - KUNSCENTRUM HAARLEM – Haarlem, Netherlands.

2007 - SIDDARTHA ART GALLERY - Kathmandu, Nepal,

2008 - JAMSHORO School of Art and Design Gallery – Jamshoro – Pakistan

International exhibitions

International Biennial, Lubjiana (ex Yugoslavia), 1983.
International Print Graphic Exhibition, Rafi Marg, New Delhi, 1983 and 1984.
International Asian Biennial, Dhaka (Bangladesh) 1983.
British International Print Biennial, Cardwright Hall, Bradford (England) 1986, Osaka Triennial 1991.

Prizes and awards

National Exhibition Prize (Nepal) 1979, 1985, 1988.
Kate and Robert Wilson Prize, Bradford (UK) 1986.
Birendra Aswaria Memorial Medal Kathmandu 2002.

Present in official collections

Bradford Museum, UK., SARC building, Kathmandu, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Tribhuvan Airport, VVIP room, Kathmandu. Nepal Television Office, Kathmandu, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other governement Offices, Kathmandu, Fine Art Academy, Lucknow, India, King Birendra Art Gallery, Kathmandu, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan.

Present in private collections

In Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Nepal, Malaysia, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA.

Contact

Ragini Upadhyay - Grela

Balkot – 1/110, Bhaktapur
Nepal

ragini@mos.com.np

tel : +977 1 6630335

Mobile : +977 98510 52244

VISIT MY WEB SITE : http:\\ragini-art.com