Nandan Ghiya (b. 1980 in Jaipur, Rajisthan, India) is a young and emerging artist from India. His experimental art practice challenges our perception of the status-quo and thus presents a new perspective of the young generation from a country with long-standing histories and cultures within a fast globalizing world.
Being Hindu, the artist believes in deep-rooted ancient values and philosophies that consider reality as merely individual perception and projection. Any arrangement of form and space defines individual, cultural, geographic or economic identities. Physicality is free from the five senses of humans. The interaction of the participants within the constructed space is an interpretation of the artist as he weaves the ever-expanding sensory world he experiences as an artist into reality. By manipulating these associations, Ghiya tries to surface the Indroid from within the modern-day Indian generation.
Nandan Ghiya’s contemporary art practice addresses issues of the 21st Century and the influx of images with reference to found objects - old photographs, paintings, frames, books, memorabilia, for example he works with these images to create real- virtual digitised spaces.Ghiya pixelates portraits and images to transform a real picture to symbolise a virtual image that is a result of an incomplete download or has been zoomed into too much, with identifiable computer and internet screen icons on his artworks. However, in the case of these images, there is no way to rectify them by reverting back to an earlier page or zooming out to minimise the pixels to identify the morphed face. The identities are lost forever. Ghiya addresses the way images are viewed in society, by experimenting with the display of his work. The pictures become thumbnails (jpegs / gifs) dispersed in the exhibition space that cannot be clicked on to explore in detail in this real space. The images cannot be downloaded, they cannot be shared, and comments on them cannot be viewed by friends, friends’ friends or the public. The unique shapes of the frames, personalised by the artist for every image, come together to create a picture in its entirety - be it a webpage or a cityscape on the horizon. For the viewer, there are multiple layers and constant changes while discovering and losing perceptions of imagery and images.
Virtual space has the capacity to appear real. We commute through second-hand filtered, censored, monitored and manipulated information; controlling the way we want to be perceived. When one uploads / downloads a selected image on / from a search result on the internet, there is a conscious sense of awareness instilled. While one may feel connected, they are ironically being isolated in their created cocoon of downloaded pixels. There is also a constant search for the right answer to every question via the endlessly growing information available online through search engines and Google Gods. The amalgamation of matter is always incomplete in this amoebic spread of information that is invariably supplemented with images which, distract and divert into other levels of searches.
Download PDF NANDAN GHIYA B: 1980, Rajasthan, India SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2017 "Studio Portraits from the 22nd Century", solo Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai "Nandan Mahal", Tijara Fort, Neemrana Hotels "The India Week", Hamburg 2015 “Images Attacked – The Blue Screen Series”, Exhibit320, New Delhi 2012 “Photoshop V1 & V2”, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong 2010 “timeVandal”, Exhibit320, New Delhi 2006 “The Fool on the Hill”, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai 2001 “I Hope You Choke”, Hungarian Cultural Centre, New Delhi GROUP EXHIBITION 2015 “POSTDATE: Photography and Inerited History in India”Curated by Jodi Throckmorton, San Jose Museum of Art, will travel to Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Kanses 2014 “Bright Noise”, Curated by Girish Shahane, Lalit Kala Acadamy, Chennai 2013 “Artchiving: The Artist’s Perspective”, Curated by Ranjita Chaney, Exhibit 320, New Delhi 2012 “His – Story & Her – Story”, Curated by Ranjita Chaney, Exhibit 320, New Delhi. “Art Paris”, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Paris “Art Cologne”, Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin| Beijing, Cologne “Contemporary”, Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai “The Contemporary Sultanate”, Curated by Veerangana Solanki, Exhibit 320, New Delhi 2011 “Census of Sense”, Curated by Veerangana Solanki, Exhibit320, New Delhi 2010 “Let’s Talk”, Curated by Ranjita Chaney, Exhibit320, New Delhi 2008 “Popular Reality”, Curated by Ranjita Chaney, Gallery Seven Art, Delhi & Dubai “Art Contemplate”, Curated by Ranjita Chaney, Contemplate Art, Coimbatore “The Monsoon Festival Chapter 4”, Curated by Himanshu Verma, Gallery Nvya, New Delhi ART FAIR PRESENTATION 2014 “Citizens of Time”, Curated by Veerangana Kumari Solanki, Dhaka Art Summit 2013 Art Basel Hong Kong, Exhibit320, New Delhi India Art Fair, Exhibit320, New Delhi 2012 SH Contemporary, Exhibit320, Shanghai India Art Fair, Exhibit 320, New Delhi Art Stage, Exhibit320, Singapore 2011 HK ART 11, Art Future’s Section, Hong Kong, Exhibit320, “When the Moon is lying the Sea Weeps and Dark Safaris Destroy the Destroyed”, Art India Summit, Curated by Shaheen Merali, Exhibit320, New Delhi Public Collections Artists Pension Trust – Mumbai Deutsche Bank – Birmingham Samdani Art Foundation SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY AND PRESS: 2013 Photshop V.2.0, Interactive Installation at Select Citywalk, Exhibit 320 & Floodlight Foundation, New Delhi, India Pages from a deFacebook, Art Basel HK, Hong Kong Art Asia Pacific, Issue 85, by Sylvia Tsai Blouin Art by Rosalyn D’Mello Fair Observer by Alisha Haridasani The Fuschia Tree by Veeranganakumari Solanki & Himali S. Soin Australian Art Collector 2012 Radio TV, Hong Kong Art World Magazine, Sep 2012, by Jia Lin, Shanghai Digital Identities: Nandan Ghiya's deFacebook Project by Laurent Boudier, Paris Blink#19, 2012, Paris Art & Deal, June 2012, by Waswo X.Waswo 2011 Platform, May/June’11 2010 Art & Deal, Vol 7, Issue 33 Design Today, December, 2010 Livemint, Hindustan Times