Riyas Komu

Né en 1971, Kerala, Inde.
Vit et travaille à Bombay.

Diplômé de la J.J. School of Art en 1999 et membre avec, entre autres, Bose Krishnamachari, Jitish Kallat, Justin Ponmany et Tv Santosh du groupe avant-gardiste des « Bombay Boys », Riyas Komu appartient à la tendance émergente du réalisme médiatique.
La variété pleine d'assurance de leur production reflète la diversité de l'Inde contemporaine et suscite un engouement croissant du monde de l’art contemporain international.

Artiste pluridisciplinaire, Riyas Komu pratique en plus de la peinture - qui par sa précision et hyper réalité fait penser à des panneaux publicitaires - la photographie, l’installation, la vidéo et la sculpture.

Komu sollicite avec force l'universel. Il observe la vie et explore la situation paradoxale de la société - locale et globale, rurale et urbaine - ou se chevauche simultanément les limites brouillées qui lient ou séparent les individus.
Concerné par les problèmes de l’immigration, l’oppression, la faim, la violence, l’aliénation…tous liés à l’appartenance sociale et religieuse, son travail est un hommage à l'esprit de ces gens ordinaires dotés de la capacité extraordinaire de survivre contre toute attente.

Artiste visuel stratégique ses photographies sont souvent chargées de signification politique et d’un engagement social.
Sélectionné par le curateur Robert Storr, Riyas Komu participe à la biennale de Venise 2007.

Born in 1971, Kerala, India.
Lives and works in Bombay.

Awarded a degree from the J.J. School of Art in 1999, and a member with Bose Krishnamachari, Jitish Kallat, Justin Ponmany and Tv Santosh of the avant-garde group known as the "Bombay Boys", Riyas Komu belongs to an emerging trend towards mediatic realism.
The confident variety of their production reflects the diversity of contemporary India which has been increasingly appreciated by the world of international contemporary art.

A multidisciplinary artist, Riyas Komu also practices photography, installation, video, and sculpture in addition to painting – where his precise, hyperrealist style suggests advertising billboards.

Komu strongly solicits the universal. He observes life and explores the paradoxical situation of society – local and global, rural and urban – where the confused limits that link or separate individuals simultaneously overlap. Concerned with issues such as immigration, oppression, hunger, violence, alienation – all linked to social and religious origins – his work is a homage to the spirit of ordinary people with the extraordinary capacity to survive against all expectations.

As a visual artist with a clear strategy, his photographs are often charged with political meaning and social commitment.

Selected by the curator Robert Storr, Riyas Komu participated in the latest Venice 2007 biennale.


Expositions personnelles
2006 Systematic Citizen, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi
2006 Faith Accompli, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
2005 The Third Day, Lalit Kala Academy, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi presente par Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
2005 GRASS, photography show, The Guild Art Gallery,Mumbai
2003 Sarasu, photography show on Raja Ravi Verma Press , The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai
2002 UNCONDITIONAL, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
2002 - 2003 AMBULANCE, Renaissance Art Gallery, Bangalore

Select Group Exhibitions:
2007
Documenta 12, Kassel.
Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense, 52nd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale.
INDIA NOW:Contemporary Indian Art Between Continuity and Transformation, Provincia di Milano, Milan, Italy .
INDIA TIME,Galleria Paolo Curti/Annamaria Gambuzzi, Milan, Italy
Group show, Christian Hosp, Austria
New Wave: Contemporary Indian Art, Aicon Gallery,London.
Grid, Bodhi Art Gallery, New Dehli.
Photographs, Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai, India
Other, Aicon Gallery, London.
Annual show, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India
I Fear I Believe I Desire, Gallery Espace, New Delhi, India

2006
Bronze, sculpture show, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, India.
Art on the Beach, Made by Indians, St Tropez, Gallery Enrico Navarra, Paris, France.
On Difference #2 (represented Korea), Wurtt. Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany.
Maarkers, Bodhi Art Gallery, Mumbai.
Red Earth And The Pouring Rain, Lanxess ABS Gallery, Baroda
Viart, Annual show, New Delhi
Strangeness, Anant Art Gallery, Kolkatta

2005
KAam, Arts India Gallery, New York, Palo Alto
Span, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India
Endless Terrain, Lalit Kala Academy, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi Double Enders, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Cochin, India
Present Future, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, Configurations, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi, India
Are we like this only? , Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, India
Whose space is it anyway? ,Gallery Espace, New Delhi.
Mannat Jali, Marine Drive, Mumbai, India
Public Art Project, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, India
World Social Forum, Brazil.

2004
Group show during VASL Residency, Karachi, Inde
Anticipations, Museum Gallery, Mumbai.
Bombay Boys, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, India.
A New Mediatic Realism, Bayer ABS Gallery, Baroda, India.
Generation I, Saffron Art Gallery, Mumbai, India.
RED, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, India.
Mumbai x 17, Kashi Art Gallery, Cochin, India.
2003
Crossing Generations :Diverge, 40 years of Gallery Chemould, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India
Highlights, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, India
2D/3D, Visual Art Center, Hong Kong
Ideas and Images, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India Art for Art/ Switzerland Meets India, Kala Ghoda Festival, Mumbai, India

The 'Harmony Excellence Award for Emerging Artist of the Year' was instituted in 1998.




Sa série photographique, Karachi , témoigne de la façon dont l'incurie des hommes détruit la dignité des cimetières au Pakistan.
Dans une image, des pierres tombales et des arbres déracinés flottent ironiquement à travers un cimetière musulman inondé. Dans une autre, un ange isolé, vu de dos, surgit perpendiculaire aux pierres tombales chrétiennes en ruine. La série fait écho à Héraclite pour qui tout est fleuve de changement constant, balayé par le courant du temps. Elle rappelle aussi Nataraja dans sa façon de transformer l'effacement en relance. Cette série illustre le dépassement des traditions ethniques et la façon dont l'artiste joue avec les influences occidentales, tout en restant vraiment indien.

The Karachi Series are black and white images of cemeteries in Pakistan. They portray the marks of natural forces - time and weather - which, due to human neglect, have broken down the dignity of the burial grounds. In a photograph of a flooded Islamic cemetery, tombstones along with uprooted trees ironically float past. Another image, this time an abandoned Christian cemetery, depicts an isolated, erect angel seen from the back hovering, in a cross-like contradiction, perpendicularly to the tombstones fallen in ruin. The series treats various religions through the optic of Heraclitus' philosophy (uncannily echoing that of the Buddha) encapsulated in the words 'Panta Rei' that all is just a river of constant change ultimately swept away as time flows and ever renewed. (Deborah Jenner)