Chennai Excite: New Work from South India will showcase – for the first time in the UK – paintings, drawings and sculptures by 17 gifted artists, famous and emergent in the art scene, that are creating reputable names for themselves in India, Asia and abroad. They are set to become India’s brightest stars, one day making up the notable names of South Asian art history. 

The exhibition will be the inaugural show at The Noble Sage – the first gallery in the UK to specialise exclusively in Indian art. This exciting new space will provide a revolutionary channel for people across the UK to access high quality paintings and sculptures from the growing art markets in non-western countries, particularly South Asian art.

The exhibition, running from the 6th April to July 1st 2006, is the culmination of a year’s research into the exciting artistic talent occurring in the art world of Chennai, South India. For many of the artists, this exhibition marks the first ever time their work has been seen in the West.

The Noble Sage Director, Jana Manuelpillai, says: “What excites me most is that there are thousands of people in India living lives that are thoroughly different from those we lead in the UK. We take this for granted in a way and never really comprehend that difference fully. The Noble Sage will bring those lives here through the medium of art and make them part of our world. I want the gallery to be a portal by which visitors can visit distant lands and cultures, though also I want it to be a platform for talented artists who deserve a worthy UK stage.”

The exhibition’s foundations lie in the famous work of Chennai painters K.M. Adimoolam, R.B. Bhaskaran, C.J.A. Doss and A. Kudallur – all of whom are internationally recognised as some of the most important practising artists in this part of India.

• Athiveerapandian: an instinctive eye for flamboyant, expressive colour and semi-figurative shape.
• Siva: young & talented artist new to the Chennai scene. Highly polished, dramatic work that tell of Siva’s paranoia and his own surreal reality in regard to his creative process.
• Gopinath: well-known painter famous for his striking, mysteriously welcoming abstract paintings inspired by Indian miniatures.
• Jayakani: obsesses about the end of the world, repetitively painting a nameless city underwater now enjoyed by strange human-fish hybrids. This artistic engagement pre-dates the Asian Tsunami disaster. The tragedy justifying the painter’s fixation.
• Nandhan: Show’s only sculptor. His abstract granite creations have an awesome power, all showing a fascination with line, form and texture – he was inspired to sculpt granite when he saw a blind man creating a sculpture. 
• Senathipathy and Selveraj: Merging the traditional with the contemporary, both artists are influenced by traditional Indian painting found in Chennai temples and homes, their content inspired by the female form, Hindu mythology and village life. 

 'Woman with bird' (2003) by Senathipathi

Art by women is still a relative rarity in the South of India. This show includes two female artists - Benitha Perciyal and Asma Menon. Perciyal is rising in notoriety due to her unsettling, psychologically tense decryptions of herself as a woman in India. Menon’s work illustrates her own fantasy world in which she is partaker and creator. Ostentatious and colourful, Menon’s jewel-like paintings are littered with symbolism.