Artist Profile :: Thukral & Tagra

21 January 2009

In partnership with Gallery Nature Morte, one of India’s premiere contemporary art spaces since 1997, Phillips de Pury & Company presents The Audience and the Eavesdropper: New Art from India & Pakistan, featuring 10 of the most influential and soughtafter artists working in India and Pakistan. The exhibition opens in London on 26 November 2008 and in New York on 28 January 2009.

Through 15 December 2008:
Phillips de Pury & Company
Howick Place London SW1P 1BB

From 28 January - 14 February 2009:
Phillips de Pury & Company
450 West 15 Street New York NY

Socially conscious and unabashedly partisan, the artistic duo of Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra address issues of branding and commercialism through a wide variety of stylistic themes and materials. Pulling from pop culture, history, street life, and mass media the artists meld their respective educations in art history and graphic design to create a body of work which incorporates painting, sculpture, installation, video, graphic design and performance. Working in a meticulous, photo-realistic painting style, Thukral & Tagra create surrealistic landscapes which both quote from and aesthetically surpass the slick product advertisements and commercials which have come to epitomize the visual landscape of our century.

Thukral & Tagra, Somnium Genero - Self, 2008

Much of the output of Thukral & Tagra is often presented under the moniker of Bosedk Designs. Bosedk, which is an Anglicization of a pejorative Punjabi term, brings obscenity into the pristine walls of the art gallery while simultaneously “brands” the artworks, deliberately and ironically commercializing their oeuvre. The brand of BoseDK extends into all facets of their work from design and retail commissions to paintings, sculptures, wallpaper and installations. According to curator and gallery director Peter Nagy, “the production of Thukral & Tagra strives for a rootless cosmopolitanism, an instigation to infect all manner of communication with an unexpected sparkle, in the process making life more marvelous.” The centerpiece of the exhibit is found in Now in your Neighborhood, a giant 28-foot sculpture of a pink dinosaur formed from a variety of plastic product bottles. The dinosaur embodies Thukral & Tagra’s self-consciously playful aesthetic while simultaneously addressing real issues of waste and over-production. Looking at the dinosaur, it becomes apparent that our current modes of consumption are outdated and if we continue it may well also be humans who are extinct.

Thukral & Tagra live and work in New Delhi, India. For sale enquiries and more information about the artist please contact Veronica Collins, vcollins@phillipsdepury.com