On March 3, 2020, When All That Is Solid Melts into Air: Exploring the Intersection of the Folk and the Modern the long-awaited exhibition of modern and contemporary South Asian art opened at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA). However, due to the Coronavirus-related shelter-in-place restrictions, the museum had to shut down and the art galleries have been made inaccessible to the public until further notice.
Till the museum reopens, the exhibition may be viewed online. Please join Uttara Chaudhuri, a UC Berkeley graduate student who helped organize the exhibition, for an insightful and comprehensive VIRTUAL TOUR of the exhibition HERE .
The films referenced in this video can be viewed in full: https://bampfa.org/wasma-media
More about the exhibition below
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ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
When All That Is Solid Melts into Air tells the story of the momentous social and artistic transformations that unfolded within the political and historical context of India after the end of British rule. The exhibition draws on BAMPFAs extraordinary collection of twentieth- and twenty-first-century folk art by Mithila, Warli, and Gond artists, and also includes a number of modern and contemporary works. Among the featured artists are: Baua Devi, Ganga Devi, Shanti Devi, Amit Dutta, Gauri Gill, Sunil Janah, Jivya Soma Mashe, Nina Paley, Mayank Shyam, Jagdish Swaminathan, and Rajesh Vangad.
THANKS
When All That Is Solid Melts into Air is organized by UC Berkeley History of Art Assistant Professor Atreyee Gupta and BAMPFA Director and Chief Curator Lawrence Rinder with Associate Curator Stephanie Cannizzo and undergraduate and graduate students in the seminar The Folk and/in the Modern: Critical Concepts + Curatorial Practicum in Twentieth-Century South Asian Art. Student curators are Uttara Chaudhuri, Shuli Fang, Yiman Hu, Vanessa Jackson, Michelle Kwhak, Ashley Pattison-Scott, Ariana Pemberton, Saif Radi, Ryan Serpa, and Ellen Song. The exhibition is made possible in part with generous support from Dipti and Rakesh Mathur.
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The South Asia Art Initiative, inaugurated in Spring 2018, is the culmination of a comprehensive art program, built over the past several years, that promoted conversation around the visual cultures of South Asia through talks, conferences, and exhibitions. The goal of the Initiative is to move onto the next level with local, national, and international collaborations that combine creative energies with insights drawn from scholarly research. To read more about the Initiative or to help support its various fundraising goals, please click HERE.
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