Promising Artist Award 2005

George Martin, a Kerala-born sculptor, has received the Promising Artist Award of the year 2005.

The Promising Artist Award has been instituted by ART India, the premier art magazine in the country in collaboration with the Visual Arts Gallery of the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

The aim of the award is to encourage and give a platform to promising young artists while facilitating a closer public engagement with developments in contemporary Indian art.

The Promising Artist Award includes a citation and cash prize of Rs. Three lakhs, and works by short-listed artists will be showcased at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

The first recipient of the award is the 32-year old George Martin. Martin has been a meritorious student with a Masters in Visual Arts (Sculpture) from Government College of Art and Craft, University of Kolkata, and a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts (Sculpture) from College of Fine Arts, TVM, Kerala.

He has worked in the Lalit Kala Regional Centre, Chennai, for a year and has been a senior lecturer in School of Performing Art and Creative Education, Fine Art Department, Rai University, New Delhi.

“As an artist I wish to develop my own new language and establish more three dimensional objects and site specific installations in the field of visual arts,” says Martin of his future ambitions.

With reference to the spirit of the award, the president of ART India magazine, Ms. Sangita Jindal, said: “This award is probably the first of its kind in the country, insofar as the support it offers to up and coming artists is concerned. I believe an initiative such as this will be widely appreciated. I am sure the award will be recognised as one of the most prestigious and coveted awards in the visual arts.”

The competition was open to Indian nationals below the age of 40, working in the general area of visual arts including the practices of painting, sculpture, installation art, new media art, photography, and graphic design.

Dr Alka Pande, Consultant, Art Advisor & Curator, Visual Arts Gallery, said, “While the country’s contemporary art climate is refreshingly fecund, young artists today, are in need of guidance, exposure, and financial support in paving a path towards creative excellence.”

As there were over 200 entries from all over the country for this newly instituted award, two jury groups were appointed to judge the entries: one group comprising artist and educationist, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Chairperson – Kanoria Art Centre, Mrs. Urmila Kanoria; gallerist, Shireen Gandhi, artist, Baiju Parthan, Namita Saraf and art critic and editor of ART India¸ Abhay Sardesai, along with Ms. Sangita Jindal met in Mumbai on October 5, 2005. Another jury comprising Alka Pande and danseuse, Ms. Prerna Shrimali judged the entries in Delhi on September 29, 2005.

Besides George Martin, the jury shortlisted four more young artists of great potential. They include Oli Ghosh, Benthia Perciyal, Jenson Anto and Farhad Hussain.

While the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, has been an inspiring agent in showcasing various kinds of creative artistic endeavours, ART India, has been promoting critical discourse around diverse art forms, activities, and disciplines in India for the past nine years. It seems only fitting that these two eminent institutions should collaborate to institute the award.

The Visual Arts Gallery was set up in July 2000. From its inception, the gallery has strived to be an interactive space where viewers are in constant dynamic dialogue with the art on display. The gallery also hosts talks, seminars, dance, and music performances, on a regular basis. The Gallery showcases works of well-known artists, as well as provides a platform for the artist in the making, laying emphasis more on the process of work rather than the work itself. The VAG functions in a multi-dimensional manner. From showcasing two-dimensional works to three-dimensional works, it tries to bring the best of art practices and traditions both nationally and internationally. It has made conscious efforts to abide by the curatorial policy, laid out by IHC, of involving the non-initiated into the art consciousness.

As an important forum for discussing, interrogating and appreciating art practices, ART India has been responsible for giving a platform to artists and critics to engage in a mutually replenishing intellectual dialogue with each other. This has led to the fostering of a vibrant atmosphere of sustained debate around crucial issues linked to the theory and practice of painting, sculpture, installation art, new media art, photography and architecture. ART India has been one of the most important art magazines in Asia; discussions, essays, and other features between its covers by some of the best thinkers, art/cultural critics, art theorists, and historians have helped contextualise contemporary Indian art for the outside world.