Featured Artist for July 1999

Featured GiveAway by Niladri Sarker Wildfire 12" x 16" - 1998 Acrylic on Paper Valued at $650

Lanny D. Bender Las Vegas, Nevada

Wildfire manifests a chaotic depth. Emanating from this depth is a fire that blazes through the mind and submerges the more downcast feelings of black. It represents the human face of our struggle in not having the capacity to burn, but instead only providing heat and warmth.


MEET THE ARTIST

Featured Artist Niladri Sarker

Niladri Sarker was born in August 1969, in Calcutta, India. He grew up in a family that broadly honored art and culture. As such, he met artists, musicians, writers, scientists and philosophers, which explains why Niladri has resorted to all of the above in his creative ventures.

Niladri started drawing at ages 4-5 with pieces of chalk and crayons on floors and walls. He clearly remembers feeling intrigued by drawing and filling up sketchbooks when he was 6. He had a more refined style by 12-13, when he started working on commissioned portraits. These commissions were a means for Niladri to earn the much-needed money to invest in working on the kind of works he really enjoyed. Although he worked on many self-portraits from an early age, he soon got out of the portrait-making business and focused on very expressionistic yet figurative forms of art.

Niladri is a self-taught artist, although he despises the "unnecessary importance of the word 'self' in that term." At the same time he was always influenced by artists and critics who stopped to think and discuss the meaning of his works with him. In that sense, so long as he is able to remain creative, he will always depend on some form of schooling for his creativity. Niladri completed his B Tech undergraduate degree from the University of Calcutta and in 1994 moved to Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts to earn a Doctoral degree. Thereafter, he married and received a pending Masters degree from Clark. He also joined Wesleyan University in 1996, and is currently working towards a Ph D.

	"LE JARDIN is a place where broken limbs, broken thoughts and broken dreams live in exquisite harmony blending and sharing dismembered forms in a common space. Ecstasy gives way to beauty, as if as an afterthought of creation, like wrinkles in an otherwise eternally smooth fabric of time."
Le Jardin, 1998 Oil, Enamel and Charcoal on Canvas, 48" x 48" $1350

Niladri's early love affair with Marxism and Nihilism gave him the urge to produce, what he considers his first serious and truly creative art. He's an atheist with a scientific mind and created a godless world around himself, where religion was only a shelter for the weak and the ignorant. In his world, humans were only answerable to themselves for their goodness and their evils. Satirical works followed which thematically portrayed the evils of conventional religions. Similarly, he was disgusted by putrid wars and the arms race, nuke or otherwise, and his works continued to look frustrated and agitated with bleeding men and women, red clouds and prostitutes, clipped wings, dead birds, torsos in limbo, and pervert sexual innuendos all becoming an everyday part of his creativity. This stark portrayal of reality, even with all its subtlety, slowly led Niladri to complete disenchantment with the Marxist philosophy, though some of its elements, in the form of Sartre and others, are still alive in him.

He began to feel tormented, pained, even lacerated after this disenchantment. During this time, his strange, twisted and often complicated affairs with women began to be reflected in a large number of pieces. As an example, in "Rains And Pains", a female nude seems to be agonizing on a contorted tree-trunk somewhat in the shape of the male organ. There are many other similar works but suffice to say, such anger, such perversion, and such humility he believes were necessary elements to turn his works into a more mature form of abstraction that it is today.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

NIladri is completely erratic in his creativity. He feels it comes so spontaneously that he is often not even aware of it, until he starts creating new works as if possessed by unseen forces. Months pass as he completes one piece after another, until one day he abandons painting completely for varied lengths of time, only to start the cycle all over again on another day. He's used various types of media over the years. Some include oil, acrylic, enamel, pastel, ink, crayons, watercolor, charcoal and pencil. These were used on canvas, boards, paper, wood, ceramics, glass and cloth. Among these, he loves to paint with oil and enamel on canvas, and draw with ink and pastel on paper.

In addition to painting, he is also a full-time Researcher and Teaching Assistant in Chemistry at Wesleyan University. He simply lives "to seek art as a product of, and not alienated from" his "scientific quest for the absolute truth, provided, of course, our universe conceals such a truth."

The most important push in Niladri's life is the love and encouragement he has received from his wife and parents. They, along with a few other close relatives and friends, always stood by his side, and helped guide him in times of deep despair. They have even "put up" with the worst of his mood-swings with their love, care and selfless affection. Lately, he has found a new love in his newborn daughter. Her innocence has been teaching him to appreciate the meaning of life and existence even more. All this, along with a great thirst for knowledge and an unfulfilled dream, will hopefully keep him alive and ticking for years to come.

	"HIATUS is a shade of my tumultuous past. Among the eternal blueness lie two pieces of rocks, like black shadows, but they do not touch each other. Like forlorn lovers, each form stands like a lonely island while the all-pervasive blue flows meandering by. Only the hiatus defines the thin crevice of life, holds on to it between non-existence on the one hand and death on the other."
Hiatus, 1997 Oil on Canvas, 40" x 30" $900

Niladri also enjoys lying in a still field on a moonless night feeling the many starry eyes looking back at him, wondering how many intelligent civilizations and different levels of consciousness there might exist in them. He'd love to bring an end to all forms of suffering, religions and barriers that hold us apart, and dreams to make that bridge that will take us to the depths of the Milky Way and beyond.
On the other hand, Niladri does not care for "people who do not love, who have no ability to do so, and are seated comfortably in the darkness of the deepest well, the great walls of ignorance separating them from the human intellect." On a more philosophical note, he is frightened that one day he will die without knowing the true meaning of existence, and what part, if any, he played by being here in the first place.

"STIGMATA is another spacetime venture, if in an adventurously post-cubist and fractured way, where all of our known dimensions melt and drip away in patches of colors. The guilt of time, of existence, looms large in the staunching vacuum of space. Humans discover that they are born free, but free only within a prison."
	Stigmata, 1998 Oil on Canvas, 36 " x 48" $1200

Niladri is passionately philosophical about his eternal quest for the truth, forcing him to persist in his search for it in the visual arts. He is also striving to be a movie-director, wanting his viewers to question the socio-philosophical aspect of our survival. He is very optimistic about launching a successful career beginning sometime within the next few years. "The first in a series of a completely different genre of moviemaking would question the very dimensionality of our mundane existence, both literally and metaphorically, try to find the limits of artistic freedom and philosophize on the future of Homo sapiens as a species."

He picks up his pen along with his brush, so when he's not painting, he's most likely writing. Though he has written and published quite a bit of science and other articles in magazines and books, what he considers venturing beyond his hobbies is writing poetry. He has published several books of poems, the first of which came out in 1995. Poetries, like painting, are simply a part of him. When he paints, he tries to be poetic, to give a visual feel to his poetic renderings. As far as his scientific pursuit, he almost enters a trance while learning everything from the large-scale structure of our universe to the tiniest particles of the subatomic realm. Niladri also acts as the official coordinator for India for SETI League, one of a handful of organizations, trying to establish contact with extraterrestrial intelligent communicating civilizations in our universe. And with all these and many other passionate pastimes, he is fortunate to have the luxury to switch between different forms of artistic expression and engage in different routes to search for the ultimate truth. Some of his other hobbies include playing and listening to music, reading, traveling, and trying to find meaning in the great puzzle of existence.

	"The GATEWAY is executed in a bold and dynamic style, eternally opening up our consciousness to a world that lies beyond our senses. It leads our material selves towards the vast cosmos from which we were born. Crossing this barrier would rejoin the living with the inanimate, the cerebral with the not-so-thinking. And the cycle would thus be complete."
Gateway, 1997 Oil on Canvas, 40" x 30" $1250

EDUCATIONAL CREDENTIALS:

1996-99: Ph D, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA.
1994-96: M A (pending), Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
1988-92: B Tech, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India.


SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

1999: Kunst-Halle Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark.
1999: Andrew James Gallery, Manchester, Connecticut, USA.
1999: Ward-Nasse Gallery, Soho, New York City, New York, USA.
1998: European Gallery of Contemporary Art, Paris, France.
1998: Graniet Gallery, Groningen, The Netherlands.
1998: TC Art Gallery, St Petersburg, Russia.
1998: Seattle Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA.
1998: Studio Gorterplaats, Nijmegen, Sweden.
1998: Atelje Grodan, Stockholm, Sweden.
1998: Rosebud Gallery, Montreal, Canada.
1998: Studio Gorterplaats, Nijmegen, Sweden.
1998: Millennium Art Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
1998: Art Worldwide Gallery, Toronto, Canada.
1998: Sharing Gallery, Framingham, Massachusetts, USA.
1998: Open Exhibition Gallery, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
1998: Ward-Nasse Gallery, Soho, New York City, New York, USA.
1998: The Buttonwood Tree Gallery, Middletown, Connecticut, USA.
1998: Art-Arena Gallery, Wiltshire, United Kingdom.
1998: Gallery 53, Meriden, Connecticut, USA.
1998: Rose Farm Gallery, East Haddam, Connecticut, USA.
1998: Russell Library, Middletown, Connecticut, USA.
1997: World Art & Antiques Gallery, New York City, New York, USA.
1997: Oriel Cambria, Wales, United Kingdom.
1997: X-Art Gallery, Orkelljunga, Sweden.
1997: Gallery Serendipity, Vara, Sweden.
1997: The NZ Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1997: Pure Heart Art Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA.
1997: World Art Network Gallery, Fremont, Massachusetts, USA.
1997: Atticus, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA.
1997: Writeworld Gallery, Melbourne, Ohio, USA.
1997: ArtBeat Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
1997: Foresthome Gallery, Bengtsfors, Sweden.
1997: Bangalore Art Gallery, Bangalore, India.
1997: Glastonbury Art Gallery, Glastonbury, Connecticut, USA.
1997: Very Special Art Gallery, Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
1997: Southern Minnesota Art Gallery, Mankato, Minnesota, USA.
1997: Different Strokes Art Gallery, Terryville, Connecticut, USA.
1997: West Hartford Library, West Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
1997: East Haddam Library, Moodus, Connecticut, USA.


SELECTED UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS AND INVITATIONALS


1999: Galerie A Part, Paris, France.
1999: Kunstenaarsinitiatief Stichting SAFE, Dalfsen, The Netherlands.
1999: Art Worldwide Gallery, Toronto, Canada.
1999: Agora Gallery, Soho, New York City, New York, USA.
1999: The Network Gallery, Wales, United Kingdom.
1999: Swedeart Gallery, Solleftea, Sweden.
1999: Art Integrity Gallery, Montreal, Canada.
1999: The Chatfield, West Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
1999: Rose Farm Gallery, East Haddam, Connecticut, USA.

Contact the Artist

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ARTIST STATEMENT

My art is chaotic, fractal, dark and eternally self-reproducing, probably like our own universe. My tools are visual tensions: dissolution vs. resolution of the image, the expressiveness of the intellect vs. the rationality of composition, destruction vs. intricate construction, profusely worked vs. unfinished areas, knowledge vs. intuition, doubting art vs. worshipping it. My art is extremely self-conscious, turning its abstraction into reality. I paint without apologizing, yet my art is always looking, not looking - searching, the contradictions, in life, in love and in lovelessness. It speaks of and for the human race; tries to seek man's position in the cosmic milieu; loathes at the human condition, at the helplessness, bondage and contradictions within it; portrays the absurdity, pointlessness and irrationality of a destiny whatsoever in our lives; satirizes God and the religions, mocks at the egotist nature of the humankind; cries out at the absolute loneliness of the human species, and, ironically, deifies the pain and beauty that go with it. Yet, at the same time, the works speak of a threnody of hope, forever deceived and deferred, but never truly extinguished. ~ Niladri Sarker