Untitled

Subodh Gupta documents the daily life of the bazaars with his quasi-photo realistic rendition of a vessel stall, recasting an ensemble of traditional objects of Indian culture. Mesmerized by the sheen of these quotidian vessels in Gupta's painting one cannot help but be reminded of the vanitas motifs executed by Northern European painters in Flanders and the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The notions of "emptiness" within the riches of vessels is an interesting point of departure for Gupta. His deceptively simple-looking works garbed in the high-gloss sheen of the familiar, homely, stainless steel forms, are a commentary on contemporary India, transitions, and the inherent contradictions of globalization.