Osmosis at Tarq

Image © Samanta Batra Mehta Illusion of identity and salvation #15 Mixed media on acid free paper 11 x 16 inches 2019

Osmosis at Tarq

Tarq's new exhibition Osmosis— with works by artists Rithika Merchant, Samanta Batra Mehta, and Savia Mahajan, curated by Shaleen Wadhwana. The exhibition, which is a result of months of conversations between the artists and the curator, works with the ideas and the knowledge of the symbiotic universal truths of life, namely death, distance and belonging. This exhibition is presented in partnership with Access For All initiative, they are the Accessibility Consultant for Osmosis. 

Osmosis at Tarq R: Image © Rithika Merchant The Interior World Gouache and ink on paper 38.5 x 27.5 inches 2019

L: Image © Rithika Merchant Daughters of the sky Gouache and ink on paper 29 x 23.5 inches 2019

R: Image © Rithika Merchant The Interior World Gouache and ink on paper 38.5 x 27.5 inches 2019

Rithika Merchant 
Rithika Merchant (b. 1986) received her Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from Parsons - The New School of Design, New York (2008). Since graduating, she has exhibited her work extensively, including a number of solo exhibitions in India, Spain, Germany, France and the United States.
Her most recent solo shows include Where the Water Takes us at TARQ, Mumbai (2017); Ancestral Home at Galeria Bien Cuadrado, Barcelona (2017); Intersections at Galeria Combustion Espontanea, Madrid (2016); Luna Tabulatorum at Stephen Romano Gallery, New York (2015); and Encyclopedia of the Strange at Tiny Griffon Gallery, Nuremberg (2014). She has also collaborated with Chloé, a French fashion house on multiple collections for which she was awarded the Vogue India Young Achiever of the Year Award at its Women of the Year Awards 2018. She was also named one of Vogue Magazine’s Vogue World 100 Creative Voices. 

Osmosis at Tarq R: Image © Savia Mahajan Liminal entity 2 Porcelain paper clay and rust [Fe2O] Fired at 1250°C and re-fired at 750°C 5 x 12 x 9.5 inches 2016

L: Image © Savia Mahajan Rich deposits 2. 2019

R: Image © Savia Mahajan Liminal entity 2 Porcelain paper clay and rust [Fe2O] Fired at 1250°C and re-fired at 750°C 5 x 12 x 9.5 inches 2016

Savia Mahajan
Savia Mahajan began her formal artistic training in her home city of Mumbai, at the L.S. Raheja School of Art. Though she trained as a painter, since 2010, Savia’s practice began moving away from the medium of painting, towards ceramics. The transition was the result of a “relinquishing of traditional art mediums (and) a deeper inquiry about practice.” She has since, worked extensively at a local pottery studio in Mumbai, which has given her the space to experiment and develop many of her ceramic processes and techniques.
These developments in Savia’s practice resulted in Liminal—her first solo exhibition at TARQ in September, 2017. This was followed by a landmark group exhibition—Mutable: Ceramics and Clay Art in India Since 1947, curated by Dr. Annapurna Garimella and Sindhura D.M. at the Piramal Art Foundation, Mumbai.
Savia has recently been a part of several projects including solo project Resurg%u014D at TARQ’s booth, Art Basel, Hong Kong (2019); and group presentations including the Second Edition of The Sculpture Park, The Madhvendra Palace, Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur, curated by Peter Nagy (2018-19) and the Indian Ceramics Triennale, Jaipur, (2018). 

Osmosis at Tarq Image © Samanta Batra Mehta Half And Half Is Not Always Full (Detail) Cut out drawings and collage on acid free paper 10 x 8.5 inches Set of 21 2018

Image © Samanta Batra Mehta Half And Half Is Not Always Full (Detail) Cut out drawings and collage on acid free paper 10 x 8.5 inches Set of 21 2018

Samanta Batra Mehta
Samanta Batra Mehta's work has been exhibited at various international venues including at the Queens Museum of the Arts, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Aicon Gallery and Saffronart in New York, the Hunterdon Museum and the Visual Arts Center, New Jersey, the Taubman Museum of Art, Virgina and the NIU Museum, Illinois, Fondazione Fotographia, Modena and Artopia, Milan.
Her work has been showcased at leading art fairs such as at Art Basel, Hong Kong, Art Dubai, India Art Fair, Bologna Arte Fiere, and Salon Du Dessin Contemporain at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris where she was invited to make a large site-specific mural. Samanta is the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation's 2014-2015 Painters & Sculptors Grant Award in the US. She was shortlisted for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize in 2017. Her works are included in several collections in India and abroad including at Fondazione Fotografia Cassa di Risparmio di Modena in Italy, the RPG Group, the Jindal Collection, Birla Art Foundation, among others.