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'''Alwar Balasubramaniam''' also known as “Bala,” is an Indian artist works in a variety of mediums such as sculpture, painting and printmaking. He was born in 1971 in [[Tamil Nadu]], [[India]]. His work, ranging in subjects from the body and its material relationship with the world to the shadow of a shadow, has been the subject of international acclaim, and has been featured in museums and exhibitions worldwide.

== Career ==
Bala’s interest in art has been alive since his early adolescence and he earned a BFA from the Government College of Arts, Chennai in 1995. He began his formal training with a focus in printmaking and continued to take courses after his graduation at the Edinburgh Printers Workshop (EPW),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.edinburghprintmakers.co.uk/|title=Edinburgh Printmakers|website=Edinburgh Printmakers|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref> the Universität fär angewandte Kunst Wien, Vienna where his early work focused on prints and paintings. His work took a turn after his time at the MacDowell Colony residency in Massachusetts. It was here that he ban working increasingly in sculpture and installation in the early 2000s. He was attracted to its multi-dimensionality and has since gained much recognition as a sculptor.

Bala’s first solo exhibition in the United States took place at [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery] in [[New York City]] in 2002. On display were sculptures cast from his own body, monoprints, and a heat sensitive work that revealed itself only at a certain temperature. Bala’s works begin with a questioning of perception and end with a new understanding of what we previously knew. He handles his strong conceptual groundwork with a playfulness in execution. He has shown his works at [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery] in New York and New Delhi throughout his career.

Other notable showings include ''Sk(in)''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alwar Balasubramaniam - Exhibitions - Talwar Gallery|url=https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/alwar-balasubramaniam4|access-date=2021-03-26|website=www.talwargallery.com}}</ref> at the Phillips Collection in [[Washington D.C.]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.phillipscollection.org/events/2011-06-30-intersections-bala-skin|title=A. Balasubramaniam|website=www.phillipscollection.org|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref> For this exhibition, Bala created a massive steel sculpture to sit outside. It is not solid, but composed of delicately welded steel pieces that create an image suggestive of a tree trunk, or the human heart itself. The interior component to the piece engages with the walls in three parts, ''Wound, Hidden Sight'', and Untitled. The works all focus on the reversibility of skin, its position on the exterior of a body or and object yet it points to the interior and depth within. Bala has also been involved with notable group exhibitions such as the 50th Anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, ''Contemplating the Void'' in 2010<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/contemplating-the-void|title=Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum|date=2010-04-27|website=Guggenheim|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref> and ''On Line'' at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2010-2011.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/970?locale=en&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo8j4yZKu5gIVDJyzCh1z1ASFEAAYASAAEgLZyvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds|title=On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref> These highly respected museums invited artists from around the world who were known for their innovation and transformative artworks.

Bala’s works have been exhibited in museums, art festivals, and galleries worldwide, including Mori Art Museum, [[Japan]];<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mori.art.museum/english/contents/india/info/index.html|title=MORI ART MUSEUM [Chalo! India]|website=www.mori.art.museum|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref> Essl Museum, Austria;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sammlung-essl.at/jart/prj3/essl/main.jart?rel=en&reserve-mode=active|title=Home|website=sammlung-essl.at|language=en|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref> 1st Singapore Biennale;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.biennialfoundation.org/biennials/singapore-biennale/|title=Singapore Biennale (Singapore)|website=Biennial Foundation|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref> École des Beaux Arts, Paris, France;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.beauxartsparis.fr/en/|title=École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts|website=www.beauxartsparis.fr|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref> National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.portrait.gov.au/content/beyond-the-self-2011/|title=Alwar Balasubramaniam: by Zehra Jumabhoy|website=National Portrait Gallery|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref> and the 18th Biennale of Sydney, Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.biennaleofsydney.art/|title=Biennale of Sydney|website=Biennale of Sydney|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref>

== Work ==
Bala prefers to be known simply as “a person who creates art.” He focuses on what needs to be expressed and the materials best suited to do so, rather than defining himself by a material and creating work accordingly.

Similarly, Bala's work, unlike that of many of his contemporaries, largely eschews references to contemporary social or geographic realities – a fact that many critics cite as the reason for his belated international acclaim, especially in comparison with artists whose "Indianness" appears more overtly in their work.<ref>Zehra Jumabhoy, "A. Balasubramaniam," ''Artforum'', December 2009.</ref> Bala's work, by contrast, is centered on the body and its relationship to the material world, focusing especially on the intangible elements – light, air, shadow – that structure physical experience.<ref>Brienne Walsh, "Alwar Balasubramaniam," ''Modern Painters'', November 2012.</ref> Bala’s artwork represents the questions that he asks about himself and the particularities of our world. He asks questions about the subjectivity of our perception, our faith or disbelief in the invisible, and the stance our bodies have in relationship to our selves and our world. His artwork also provides certain understandings of these questions. He plays with our perceptions, our preconceptions and others us a new way of looking at things. In a similar way, many of Bala's works deal with Energy – that invisible yet absolutely fundamental animating force of life. While his earlier works often referred to energy in a visually symbolic manner, eventually energy became more of a latent presence in Bala's work – a force connoted rather than denoted, known only by its effects. The dynamic installations of Energy Field (2009) or Link (2009), for example, physically manifest the presence of forms of energy, even while masking their origin – confusing and teasing the viewer and underscoring the myriad non-visible forces at work in the physical world.

Often using his own body as a basis for his sculptures, Bala engages in a profound, but not humourless, investigation into the metaphysics of selfhood.<ref>Ella Datta, "The Inner of the Outer," ''Art India'', 2009.</ref> Many of his sculptural series that have included casts from himself, focusing especially on the skin as the literal and metaphorical boundary that separates the inside from the outside, the seen from the hidden, the self from the exterior world. In an early work, Self in progress (2002), for example, a life-sized seated figure cast from his own body, appears rooted within a wall. The figure is caught midway at this transitional threshold, entering from one side of the wall and emerging from another, with a non-visible head apparently stuck inside the wall. The sculpture seems an audacious pronouncement of the will of man, which grants the ability to saturate matter and makes nothing beyond reach or inert. For a passing moment, there seems to exist a connectedness between all things animate and inanimate; the art and the space it inhabits become one. As the artist once remarked, "We usually seek clarity in details while the entire picture may be blurred. To me life is not about clear moments but seeking clarity in life as a whole.

== Selected Exhibitions==
<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alwar Balasubramaniam - Artists - Talwar Gallery|url=https://www.talwargallery.com/artists/alwar-balasubramaniam|access-date=2021-03-26|website=www.talwargallery.com}}</ref>

;Solo Exhibitions
; 2019 : [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], ''Becoming Nature'', New York, NY, US<ref>[https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/alwar-balasubramaniam Talwar Gallery, ''Becoming Nature'', New York: 2019.]</ref>
; 2018 : [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], ''Liquid Lake Mountain'', New Delhi, India<ref>[https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/alwar-balasubramaniam2 Talwar Gallery, ''Liquid Lake Mountain'', New Delhi: 2018.]</ref>
; 2016 : [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], ''Rain in the midnight'', New York, NY, US<ref>[https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/alwar-balasubramaniam5 Talwar Gallery, ''Rain in the Midnight'', New York: 2016.]</ref>
; 2015 : [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], ''layers of wind, lines of time'', New York, NY, US<ref>[https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/alwar-balasubramaniam3 Talwar Gallery, ''layers of wind, lines of time,'' New York: 2015.]</ref>
; 2012 : [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], New York, NY, US
: [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], ''Nothing From My Hands'', New Delhi, India<ref>[https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/alwar-balasubramaniam6 Talwar Gallery, ''Nothing From My Hands,'' New Delhi: 2012.]</ref>
: The Phillips Collection, ''Sk(in)'', Washington DC, US<ref>[https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/alwar-balasubramaniam4 The Phillips Collection, ''Sk(in),'' Washington D.C.: 2012/]</ref>
; 2009 : [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], ''(In)between'', New Delhi, India
; 2007 : [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], New York, NY, US
: [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], ''(In)visible'', New Delhi, India
; 2005 : Van Every/Smith Galleries, ''Unfixed Being'', Davidson, North Carolina, US
; 2004 : [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], ''Into Thin Air'', New York, NY, US
; 2002 : Fundacio pilar I Joan Miro, ''Traces'', Majoca, Spain<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://miromallorca.com/|title=Fundació Miró Mallorca|website=miromallorca.com|language=ca|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref>
: [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], New York, NY
; 2000: Association Mouvement Art Contemporain, Chamalieres, France
: The British Council, New Delhi, Inidia
; 1999 : Die Kleine Galerie, Vienna, Austria
: Carloz Ionzano Gallery, Cadaques, Spain
: Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop, UK
; 1998 : Taller Galleria, Cadaques, Spain
: Art Inc., New Delhi, India

;Selected Group Exhibitions
; 2019 : Arvind Indigo Museum, ''Alchemy: Explorations in Indigo,'' Ahmedabad, India<ref>[https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/alwar-balasubramaniam8 Arvind Indigo Museum, ''Alchemy: Explorations in Indigo,'' India: 2019.]</ref>
; 2018 : FRAC Lorraine, ''You Remind Me of Someone'', Metz, France
; 2015 : The Phillips Collection, ''Intersections'', Washington DC, US
; 2014 : Seattle Art Museum, ''City Dwellers'', Seattle, Washington, US
; 2013 : Columbus College of Art and Design, ''WALL'', Columbus, OH, US<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ccad.edu/events-2013/wall|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517171501/http://www.ccad.edu/events-2013/wall|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-05-17|title=CCAD Presents WALL, Feb. 21–April 4, 2013|date=2013-05-17|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref>
; 2012 : 18th Biennale of Sydney, ''all our relations'', Sydney, Australia<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bos18.com/|title=Sydney's SEO Pages - Search Engine Optimization & Webdesign {{!}} bos18|website=Sydney's SEO Pages|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref>
: Montclair Art Museum, ''Look Now'', Montclair, NJ, US
; 2011 : National Portrait Gallery, ''Beyond the Self'', Canberra, Australia, and travel to
: [[McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery|McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Australia]],: [[Samstag Museum|Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art]], University of South Australia
: [[Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory]], Australia
: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, ''Time Unfolded'', New Delhi, India
; 2010 : The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), ''On Line'', New York, NY, US
: Guggenheim Museum, ''Contemplating the Void'', New York, NY, US
; 2009 : Devi Art Foundation, Poddar Collection, ''Where in the World'', New Delhi, India<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.deviartfoundation.org/content/exhibitions/where-world|title=Where in the World {{!}} Devi Art Foundation|website=www.deviartfoundation.org|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref>
; 2008 : Mori Art Museum, Chalo! ''India: A New Era of Indian Art'', Tokyo Japan and travel to
: National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea
: Essl Museum, Klosterneurburg, Wien, Austria
; 2006 : Singapore Biennale, ''Belief,'' Singapore
; 2005 : University of Massachusetts, ''Transition and Transformation'', Amherst, MA, US
: Ecole des Beaux-Arts, ''Indian Summer'', Paris, France
: [https://www.talwargallery.com/ Talwar Gallery], ''desi(re)'', New York, NY, US
; 2001: 8th International Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt
: Finding the Center at the Margins, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, India
: 6th International Biennale of Drawing and Graphic Arts, Gyor, Hungary
; 2000 : ''Aar Paar'', Exchange exhibition between India and Pakistan<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://aarpaar2.tripod.com/00.htm|title=Aar Paar - Public Art Exchange project between India and Pakistan|website=aarpaar2.tripod.com|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref>
: International Print Triennial, Cracow, Poland
: 3rd International Triennial of Graphic Art, Bitola, Macedonia
: 6th International Biennial of Miniature Art, Yugoslavia
: 1st Cheju International Prints Art Festival, Korea
: 5th Triennial Mondiale D'Estampes Petit Format, Chamalieres, France
: 4th Muestra Latino Americana International Miniprint, Argentina
; 1999 : 12th Norwegian International Print Triennial, Norway
: Premio International Biella, Italy
: 10th International Exhibition for Small Graphics, Lodz, Poland
: 4th British International Miniature Print Exhibition, UK
; 1998 : 1st International Print Triennial, Kanagawa, Japan
: 7th International Triennial of Prints and Drawings, Vaasa, Finland
: 2nd International Triennial of Graphic Art, Labyrinth, Prague, Czech Republic

== Education ==
1995- Bachelor of Fine Arts, Government College of Arts, Madras, India
1998- EPW (Printmaking) Edinburgh, UK
1999- Universität fur Angewandte Kunste (Printmaking) Wien, Austria

== Awards and Grants ==
; 2008 : Featured Speaker at TED Conference, Mysore, India
: Guest Lecturer, Department of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
; 2006 : Sanskriti Award, India
; 2001 : Kunstlerdorf's fellowship, Schoppingen, Germany
: Fundacio pilar I Joan Miro's Award, Spain
; 1999 : UNESCO - ASCHBERG Bursaries for Artists in Residency at Vienna, Austria
; 1998 : Residency at the MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire, United States
: Grapheion Review Award in International Print Biennial, Prague, Czech Republic
; 1997 : The Charles Wallace India Trust Arts Fellowship Award, United Kingdom
: Junior Fellowship from Government of India
: Grand prize in 4th Bharat Bhavan International Print Biennial, Bhopal, India
: The Charles Wallace India Trust Arts Fellowship Award, United Kingdom
; 1996 : 2nd Egyptian International Print Triennial Award, Giza, Egypt
; 1995 : 3rd Sapporo International Print Biennial Sponsor Award, Sapporo, Japan
: Research Grant Award from Lalit Kala Academy, India

==Publications Available==
2009- ''(IN)BETWEEN''. With an essay by Deepak Talwar, 2009.<ref>{{Cite web|title=inbetween « TALWAR GALLERY|url=https://www.talwargallery.com/books-shop/alwar-balasubramaniam2|url-status=live|access-date=2019-12-11|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aaa.org.hk/en/collection/search/library/a-balasubramaniam-inbetween|title=A. Balasubramaniam: (In)Between|last=Archive|first=Asia Art|website=aaa.org.hk|language=en|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref>

2007- ''(In'')''visible''. With an essay by Sharmini Pereira, 2007.

2005- ''Transition and Transformation''. University Gallery, Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts. With essays by Loretta Yarlow and Deepak Talwar, 2005.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fac.umass.edu/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=TransitionAndTransformation|website=fac.umass.edu|access-date=2019-12-11|title=Transition and Transformation: A. Balasubramaniam and Ranjani Shettar}}</ref>
|}

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.talwargallery.com/news/sculpture-magazine Sculpture Magazine, July 2019]
*[https://www.talwargallery.com/news/artforum8 Artforum, "Alwar Balasubramaniam," September 2018]
* [https://www.talwargallery.com/news/artforum9 Artforum, "Critics Pick: Alwar Balasubramaniam," May 2016]
* [https://www.talwargallery.com/news/sculpture-magazine Art Asia Pacific, "Layers of Wind, Lines of Time," May 2015]
* [http://www.saffronart.com/artists/a--balasubramaniam "A. Balasubramaniam Profile,Interview and Artworks"]
*[http://www.ted.com/talks/alwar_balasubramaniam_sculpture_of_substance_and_absence.html TEDIndia, "Alwar Balasubramaniam: Art of substance and absence", September 2010]
*[http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/131/818 MoMA, Behind the Scenes: On Line, A. Balasubramaniam]
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/arts/design/02online.html?scp=5&sq=art%20review:%20on%20line,%20ranjani%20shettar&st=cse New York Times Review, ''On Line'', MoMA, December 2011]
*[https://www.talwargallery.com/artists/alwar-balasubramaniam#tab:slideshow;slide:7 A. Balasubramaniam is represented by Talwar Gallery],
*[http://www.artnet.com/artist/424676506/a-balasubramaniam.html A. Balasubramaniam on artnet]
*[https://archive.today/20130222071915/http://www.timeoutdelhi.net/art/arts_preview_details.asp?code=66 Time Out New Delhi]
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/25/arts/art-in-review-desire.html New York Times – (Desi)re]
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/31/arts/art-in-review-a-balasubramaniam.html New York Times Review – May 2002]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balasubramaniam, A.}}
[[Category:Artists from Bangalore]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1971 births]]
[[Category:Indian contemporary painters]]
[[Category:Indian installation artists]]
[[Category:Indian contemporary sculptors]]

Alwar Balasubramaniam - Revision history

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