Subodh Gupta
Swallow Everything Whole, 2013 Glass vitrine, marble, silver spoon with concrete 33.5 × 36 × 22.5 cm Unique
Sometimes dubbed India’s Damien Hirst, Subodh Gupta is one of India’s leading contemporary artists, who creates mainly large-scale sculptures and installations (from stainless steel Indian kitchenware and other found objects) that address the country’s changing social landscape. Arranging traditional utensils, pots, and pans according to a Minimalist aesthetic, Gupta approaches readymade items with Duchampian irony, while also offering social commentary. His monumental sculpture U.F.O. (2007) is comprised of brass water utensils fused together in the form of a shiny U.F.O.-like object, suggesting cultural dislocation and otherness, while pointing to vast disparities in wealth across the subcontinent. Gupta’s installation piece Date by Date (2008) presents a spare and run-down office with worn wooden tables, old chairs, typewriters, and frayed files, an environment that has weathered the impact of time, poverty, and rapid change.
Indian, b. 1964, Khagaul, India, based in New Delhi, India courtesy of artsy.net