Bangalore, India

Shantamani M can be considered one of the pioneers of the relatively young contemporary art scene in Bangalore. In her work, she explores materiality in relation to its transcendental matter. What has long been discussed with multiple works by Joseph Beuys and his followers in the western world emerges with a new face in the works by Indian artist Shantamani M.

Seen from a distance, her sculptures made from charcoal resemble detailed ornamental stone monuments. What appears to be stable and strong becomes, upon closer inspection, highly fragile charcoal bricks on the brink of turning to dust. The wood of the tree still bears the imprint of the plant: its trace memory. Through carbonization by fire it continues to interact with the world one last time before consuming itself in flames.

Shantamani has made rustic charcoal into an allegory of the passage between being and non-being. Charcoal bricks map the splintering and reassembling of the tree of life into hybrid living/dead entities. Like ghosts through their tragic example, they exist just long enough to sound their warning. There is a mystery inherent in her work: are we witnesses poised before or after a major cataclysm? In the face of such disquieting stillness and disorienting anguish, we are hard pressed to say whether a calamity has already taken place or if it is about to strike. It is a metaphor of lingering material manifestations.

place & year of birth
1967 in Mysore, India

featured galleries
_

education
Paper making Course in Glasgow, Scotland
Master of Arts (fine) in painting from M.S. University, Baroda
Bachelor of Fine Arts – in Painting at CAVA, Mysore

solo exhibitions
2008
Exhibition of installations “Frozen Phoenix”, Sumukha Bangalore

2007
Exhibition of Painting and Body cast “Silent Speak” Chemould Presscott Mumbai
Exhibition of Painting “Gestures Speak” at Sumukha Gallery, Bangalore, Chennai

2003
Exhibition of Painted installations at Sumukha Gallery, Bangalore

group exhibitions
2009
“Home” Curated by Anupa Mehta for Shrine Empire Gallery, New Delhi

2007
Exhibition/ auction by “Akshara”, New Delhi

2006
Participated in Show curated by Prof . Prem Singh for Lalit Kala Akademi New Delhi, in Sri Lanka
Participated in Gallery Sumukha group show, London

2005
Participated in Gallery Sumukha Opening show
Participated in “Turning wheel”-Tradition unbound Curated by Dr. Alka Pande, India Habitat
Center, New Delhi
Participated in “I me myself” show Curated by Mr.Suresh Jayram, Kashi Café, Cochin.

awards
2006-2008
National Junior Felowship from Ministry of Tourism and CultureNew Delhi

2004
Charles Wallace Scholarship to work in Glasgow, UK