Miguel Angel Benavides, Dame Jillian Sackler, Anindita Dutta, Prof. Song…

ANINDITA DUTTA: MAYA
Dame Jillian Sackler International Artists Exhibition Program
Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University
Beijing, China

May 27 – August 27, 2014

The exhibition has been extended until September 27th.

The Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University is pleased to present Anindita Dutta’s “MAYA,” the second exhibition of the Dame Jillian Sackler International Artists Exhibition Program.

“MAYA,” or “illusion,” deals with human existence and non-existence, or life and death. Ms. Dutta will create a “GREAT WALL” structure in the courtyard of the Museum, where she will perform using her medium of choice, wet clay. Her plan is also to create free-standing and wall-relief sculpture works to be placed in the main gallery, along with photography and video works.

Ms. Dutta’s recent sculptural performance “Everything Ends and Everything Matters” created a sensation at the 2014 India Art Fair. On a 10 ft. high by 162 ft. long spiral structure she created a wall-relief using wet clay, then drew figures on the outer wall, where her performers displayed a range of human emotions and slowly erased the work leaving their own marks. She uses wet clay as her medium of choice to display the impermanence of life—at the end of the Fair, the clay is packed into bags and the work is no more.

ANINDITA DUTTA: MAYA

Ms. Dutta’s works are powerful representations of the human condition, they are emotional rides into the inner self. Each showcases the laments and triumphs of the human spirit. “Trapped,” “Gambit, “Exit,” “Loss of Identity,” “Life Line,” “Silent Dialogue,” and other works command attention and one can only surrender to the meaning to oneself and to society. Her works deal with all aspects of being, but most importantly her own. Yet, looking deeper, one cannot deny the psychological, physical and philosophical questions that arise about our lives and our cultures when viewing her work. Abuse, intolerance, submission, tragedy, loss and death occur on a daily basis, but humanity is about facing and overcoming such negatives by faith, forgiveness, affection, care and love.

Anindita Dutta has had exhibitions in the USA, India, Japan, France, Chile and Brazil. She has received awards including the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Fellowship, the CAMAC Residency Grant, Marnay-sur-Seine, France, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and others. She has attended prestigious residency programs, including the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Residency Program; the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York; the KHOJ Kolkata International Workshop, Kolkata, India; Art Omi International Art Center, NY; the CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France; the Sacatar Foundation Residency, Bahia, Brazil, among others. She has a BA in History from Ranchi University, India; a BFA in Sculpture & Art History from Visva Bharati University, India; an MA in Sculpture & Ceramics from Purdue University; an MFA in Sculpture from University of Iowa.

The Dame Jillian Sackler International Artists Exhibition Program was established to bring talented international artists to the Sackler Museum at Beida. Artwork for this program must have cultural value in order to create an open dialogue between the work and the viewer. It is our mission to have exhibitions that are informative, exciting, interactive and most of all thought-provoking. The aim of this program is to create cross-cultural understanding and promote lasting relationships between peoples by bringing works by artists from diverse backgrounds to China.