-
Genies, Phantasms, Dreams, aka Memory Box
-
Redux // Search for the Empyrean #2
-
Redux // Search for the Empyrean #1
-
Memory Box Series # 2
-
Memory Box
Samanta Batra Mehta (b.1975, New Delhi) was raised in Bombay, India and lives in New York, USA. Samanta Batra Mehta’s work has been exhibited in the US and abroad including at the Queens Museum of the Arts, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts and Aicon Gallery in New York, the Hunterdon Museum and the Visual Arts Center in New Jersey, the Taubman Museum of Art in Virgina, and Artopia, Milan, among others. In 2010 she was invited by Galerie LMD, Paris to exhibit her work and make a 24 foot long site-specific mural at the Salon Du Dessin Contemporain, held at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. Her work was included in the ‘Reading Room’, a Partner Exhibition at the Kochi Biennale 2014 in Kochi, India. The exhibition traveled to the Alliance Francaise Delhi and at Winchester School of Art, United Kingdom in 2015.
Samanta’s work has been showcased by galleries at leading art fairs including at Art Stage, Singapore (2010), India Art Fair, New Delhi (2011-2016), Bologna Arte Fiere 2013, Art Basel Hong Kong in 2014 and 2015 and Art Dubai (2016).
Her first solo, ’Cabinet of Curiosities’, with Shrine Empire, New Delhi in 2014 was nominated for the Forbes India Art Award in the ‘Best Debut Solo’ category. Her second solo ‘The Journey of Secrets’, was at Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai in 2015, and was featured in a solo interview with Bloomberg TV, in the Aspire segment (August 2015). Her third solo project, ‘The Crucible of Fantasy’ was with Shrine Empire Gallery, presented at Art Basel Hong Kong 2015.
Her works are included in several collections including at Fondazione Fotografia Cassa di Risparmio di Modena in Italy, the RPG Group, India, The Jindal Collection, India, the Birla Art Foundation, India. In 2012 the Fondazione Fotographia showcased her work in at their museum in Modena, Italy.
Her work has been profiled in several publications, including the New York Times (Genoccio, 2008). Recent publications include, ‘Contemporary Photography from India and South America’: The Tenth Parallel North’ [Hardcover] by Filippo Maggia, Claudia Fini, Francesca Lazzarini (Skira, 2012). In January 2016, Elle Magazine India named Samanta as “one of the artists to catch”.
Samanta was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s 2014-2015 Painters & Sculptors Grant Award. She will be participating at Wave Hill’s 2020 Winter Workspace Residency in New York.
– The multi-layered artwork I make is a commentary on the human condition and the environment we inhabit. Themes in identity, personal history, gender constructs, socio-political order and colonial history are depicted and debated in my layered artistic interventions that employ drawing, found objects, text, photo and installation. In a contemporary re-imagining of the ‘exquisite corpse’ genre, I oftentimes re-purpose collected antiquarian objects, imagery and texts along with my own drawings to render an altered visual engagement in an attempt to construct a reimagined history.
In my visual vocabulary, the human form and anatomical imagery is intertwined with foliage and nature. Nature/land/landscape is seen as a metaphor for the body (and vice-versa) and as a site for germination, nourishment, degradation, trespass, plunder, colonization and transgression. My influences include history, myth, the natural world, medieval illustration, religious iconography and mystical philosophies.
As an Indian artist living in New York for more than a decade, my work oftentimes speaks of dislocation and migration. Migration has spanned the last four generations in my family. I spent my early childhood on a ship and have later lived on three different continents. My work examines what it means to be rooted in a constant state of flux. As an incorrigible collector, my collections (of antiquarian maps, books, engravings and vintage objects) and my resultant artworks, give me a sense of permanence and points of reference in my shifting physical and emotional geographies. – Samanta Batra Mehta
-
India Art Fair | Group show
February 12, 2023 - February 9, 2023
-
Delhi Contemporary Art Week – 2023 | Group show
September 7, 2023 - September 3, 2023
-
Delhi Contemporary Art Week – 2022 |
September 7, 2022 - September 1, 2022
-
India Art Fair 2022 |
May 1, 2022 - April 28, 2022
-
Hub India – Artissima | Palazzo Madama | Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti | MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale |
February 27, 2022 - November 5, 2021
-
Delhi Contemporary Art Week – 2021 | Group Show
April 15, 2021 - April 8, 2021
-
The Wound Is The Place Where The Light Enters You | In Touch Edition 04 | Neerja Kothari | Samanta Batra Mehta | Khushbu Patel
November 10, 2020 - September 22, 2020
-
Intersections | In Touch Edition 03 | Group Show
August 15, 2020 - July 15, 2020
-
Speculations On A New World Order | Curated by Anushka Rajendran
May 20, 2020 - April 16, 2020
-
India Art Fair-2020 | Group Show
February 2, 2020 - January 30, 2020
-
Delhi Contemporary Art Week – 2019 | Group Show
September 7, 2019 - September 1, 2019
-
Slow – India Art Fair – 2019 | Group Show
February 3, 2019 - January 31, 2019
-
India Art Summit – 2011 | Group Show
January 23, 2011 - January 20, 2011
-
India Art Fair – 2012 | Group Show
January 29, 2012 - January 25, 2012
-
The Other Side Of Time | Samanta Batra Mehta
May 18, 2013 - April 18, 2013
-
Art Basel – 2015 | Samanta Batra Mehta
March 17, 2015 - March 15, 2015
-
Art Stage Singapore | Group Show
January 16, 2011 - January 12, 2011
-
India Art Fair – 2013 | Group Show
February 3, 2013 - January 31, 2013
-
India Art Fair – 2014 | Group Show
February 2, 2014 - January 30, 2014
-
India Art Fair – 2015 | Group Show
February 1, 2015 - January 29, 2015
-
India Art Fair – 2016 | Group Show
February 28, 2016 - January 31, 2016
-
Contemporary Art Week | Group Show
September 3, 2017 - August 31, 2017
-
Lapses | Group Show
April 30, 2017 - April 28, 2017
-
India Art Fair – 2017 | Group Show
February 5, 2017 - February 2, 2017
-
Delhi Contemporary Art Week | Group Show
August 30, 2018 - August 27, 2018
-
Lapses II | Curated By Anushka Rajendran
May 12, 2018 - April 12, 2018
-
India Art Fair – 2018 | Group Show
February 12, 2018 - February 9, 2018