A Man Of The Crowd

Solo show at Tarq Gallery, Mumbai. On view between 16th March and 26th April 2018

Date: March – April 2018

Medium: Acrylic on canvas, Terracotta figurines

‘A Man of the Crowd’ is an autobiographical response to a broad range of elements ranging from city surroundings, personal and social events and tragedies, and the absurdities of everyday life in an urban setting. It is also an expression of feelings of disillusionment, insignificance or futility resulting from a tense political and economic environment and a skeptical optimism that seeps into one’s everyday life in a metropolis – showing a city only through its inhabitants.

Some of the important themes in this series were density, scale, friction, space and their relationships with each other in the context of the metropolis. That led to a range of canvas sizes for the work, from 4 X 4 inches to 4 X 4 feet. Varying viewpoints and angles were also explored which led to works being created in clusters or sets. There are 8 such clusters and more than 50 individual works in all. The exhibit is designed as one cohesive experience because of the nature of the works. Sculptures were also created in terracotta and concrete as an extension to this series.

Scroll down for text by the curator and exhibition catalog.

Text from the gallery, TARQ:

‘A Man of the Crowd’ was Sameer’s first solo exhibition at TARQ and very much a response to everything he had felt, seen and experienced in the last couple of years. As noted by Gallery Director Hena Kapadia, the exhibition borrows its title from a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, to showcase the artist’s practice of bringing together art and design. Kulavoor’s unique observations of urban spaces – a landscape he is intimately familiar with – and his depictions of the diverse characters that inhabit these spaces, define the visual vocabulary of this show.

The works have been informed directly or indirectly by elements from his surroundings, travels, everyday occurrences and tragedies, memory, news, social media noise, friends and family (and self in some cases). What are our surroundings if not impacted by politics, economy, idea of development and smart cities? – Themes he dealt with over the last 2 years (and continues to be seen in his work)– have found their way into these particular works – feelings of disillusionment, insignificance, futility and skeptical optimism about life in a metropolis.

A man of the crowd – Exhibition catalog