Pulp Society is very excited to present Summer Somethings, a group exhibition showcasing a diverse array of practices on, and with paper. Starting last year, Summer Somethings became a platform for discovery for both artists, and audiences. This year onwards, we decided to celebrate the work of our friends in the art world, and showcase some artists from the IMMERSE Fellowship every year, and collaborate with a South Asian Arts organisation annually as well. This year, we're getting works from Danfe Arts from Nepal.
Artists from DANFE Arts:
Jagadish Upadhya, Prakash Ranjit, Sanjeep Maharjan, Sujan Dangol
Fellows from IMMERSE :
Aditya Singh Rapoot, Anilakumar Govindappa, Payal Arya, Protyush Paul
About Danfe Arts
Danfe Arts, founded in 2019, and based in Kathmandu, is a touring arts space dedicated to bringing independent art practices from Nepal to the forefront. Named after the Himalayan Monal bird, their mission is to cultivate a vibrant and inclusive art community, initiating critical engagement and solidarity. Through exhibitions, residencies, workshops, and talks, they foster inclusivity and dialogue in the local art scene. With a transnational vision, Danfe Arts aims to elevate not only the regional art landscape, but also facilitate cross-cultural exchanges within, and beyond South Asia.
About the Artists
Jagadish Upadhya
He is a Kathmandu based photographer whose practice is strictly bound by the usage of film, for the last three decades . He develops the pictures in chemicals he prapres himself, and also does his own printing. Born in Kupondole, Lalitpur in 1965; his initial inspiration were photographers like Robert Duane Doisnau, Henri Cartier Bresson, Irwin Penn, Robert Maplethorp, and he took to shooting the streets. His interests lie in fusing different techniques of photography, experimenting with various alternate printing processes to express that his practice and lifestyle is as one. He loves shooting people in their daily life, festivities, culture and traditions of his hometown Kathmandu. To continue this passion and to pass down the skills of analogue photography he now runs a space under the name film foundry.ue photography he now runs a space under the name film foundry.
Prakash Ranjit
He is an Artist and illustrator from Kathmandu. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts. He loves sharing stories and his works usually end up dwelling on everyday life and fantasy, mystery, magic, and wonderment. He believes in using visual storytelling to talk about deeper nuances of mental health and socio-political concerns that he finds have influenced his thinking.Prakash had worked in multiple story books and novels for both children’s literature and adults with wide-ranging INGOs, NGOs, and Publishing companies.
Sujan Dangol
Born in 1981 in Kathmandu, Dangol he lives and works as an artist currently. Dangol’s sketches represent dizzying, densely packed towns with teetering temples and dilapidated homes, almost like a cartoon, or satire. The drawings depict the tremendous transformation that has turned Kathmandu Valley’s rich urban-agro civilisation into a concrete jungle.
He obtained an MFA in Painting from the Central Department of Fine Arts at the Tribhuvan University in Kirtipur in 2014; and a BFA in Painting from the Kathmandu University in 2012. He works as visiting faculty at Kathmandu University, Department of Art and Design. He has participated in two solo exhibitions: Through my stories at the Siddhartha Art Gallery (2013); and Utopia 2.0.np at the Nepal Art Council in Kathmandu (2012). He received the Australian Himalayan Foundation Award and a Scholarship in 2013. Sujan took part in Cafè in Asia I in South Korea (2014) and Cafè in Asia II in Nepal (2015); and has been part of many community art projects, such as Saanghu Community Art Project, through the organization Guthi, a group of artists who try to solve social problems organizing art festivals and cultural activities in Kathmandu.
Sanjeep Maharjan
Maharjan is a visual artist based in Kathmandu. Born in a family of farmers, his works are inspired from his social surroundings. He graduated from the Kathmandu University Center for Art and Design in 2009, and had a solo exhibition ‘Portraits from the Shadow’ at the Siddhartha Art Gallery, Kathmandu. In 2008, he was selected for the IN-BETWEEN project, a student exchange program between the Kathmandu University, and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. Currently, he is a lecturer for Sculpture and World Art Studies at the Department of Art and Design at the Kathmandu University. He has shown his works in several group shows in Nepal, and beyond.
Maharjan is a Co-founder of Drawing Room KTM, an artist-run learning space; and one of the founders of Srijanalaya, a nonprofit organization which creates safe spaces of learning through the arts. He also works as an illustrator and designer, and facilitates workshops on visual arts and art education.
About IMMERSE
Siddharth Somaiya (Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai), Natasha Jeyasingh (Carpe Arte India), Al-Qawi Nanavati (Young Art Support India), and Shaleen Wadhwana, the curatorial caliph, created Immerse, a Fellowship and Residency program to nurture upcoming Indian artists and curators. They empower our Fellows with holistic knowledge about the art-world, and capacity built through creative pedagogy.
About the Artists
Aditya Singh Rapoot
Based in Jabalpur, is a visual artist, who documents his observations and the zeitgeist in his art. Aditya earned both of his Bachelors, and Masters degrees in painting from the Government College of Fine Arts, Jabalpur in the years 2017, and 2019 respectively.
Aditya's artistic practice explores the minds, and matters of the Youth; and the Circle of Life. He often uses symbols, geometrical shapes, animals, birds and fishes to compose his ideas.
Anilakumar Govindappa
Born in 1993, in Bangalore, Karnataka, Anilakumar Govindappa is a multidisciplinary artist. He graduated in Painting from KEN School of Art, Hampi University in 2012; and got his Masters in Printmaking from S N School of Art and Communication, University of Hyderabad in 2015. While trained as a painter and printmaker, he works across mediums.
Anilakumar's works are like a diary of his everyday life. Taking the narrative structure of time, and the flattening/ fluidity of time from the miniature tradition of South Asia, Anilakumar has developed his own, unique visual language, telling tales of timid, sometimes tired time, and tides.
His works were exhibited at the Osten Biennale of Drawing Skopje in 2016, LandSpaces a group art show – in Chennai in 2019, Chi Gallery – in Iran in 2020, Vusawthis Art Gallery Canada 2020, and Immerse group exhibition – in Mumbai in 2022.
Payal Arya
Graduated with a BA degree in Psychology and Sociology from the Mumbai University in 2014; a BFA from Rachana Sansad, Mumbai, in 2013; and an MFA from Shiv Nadar University, Delhi, in 2016. She makes immersive installations and films that explore the concept of non-linear time, notions of distance, position and bodily tolerance, to rethink what it means to have agency.
In this show Arya's works are an almost invasive reverie; the subtle balance between nature's invasiveness and mankind's imprint. This paradox is celebrated in the juxtaposition of her exploration of mycelium's memory transfer and the electrical impulse of the digital noise, creating a terrain where the organic and the anthropogenic entwine.
She has exhibited at various spaces like the India Art Fair, Kala Ghoda Festival, Vhc Gallery, Bajaj Bhavan, Kalakar Theater, Wrong Biennale in Spain, TIFA working studios, Pepper House, Experimenter Viewing room, New Media Art Space, New York and FilmAkademie Baden Wurttemberg in Germany where she was invited to be a part of the film program there.
Protyush Paul
“As a visual artist, I am fascinated by the way people present themselves in society, and I use my observations to create works that reveal the intolerable realities that exist in our world.” Paul’s paintings narrate stories woven with his reflections on people. On first glance, the works might seem vibrant, and even garish, but upon closer inspection, they confront the viewer with the bleak reality of our times. His point of access includes newspapers, Bengali fairy tales, cinema, poetry, among others.
Protyush did his Masters in Fine Arts from the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, Hyderabad, and Bachelors in Fine Arts from the Indian College of Arts and Draftsmanship, Kolkata. He was part of the IMMERSE Fellowship, and shown his works in India.