With painting as a starting point in his artistic process, Indian artist Manish Nai developed his very personal work: his works on burlap are at the crossroads between painting and sculpture, thus revitalizing the field of abstract art relating it to daily life and to the economy of his country. After a decade of refining his burlap modeling technique, he started to experiment with mural painting, photography and three-dimensional sculpture. Recently he focalized on the empty billboards that, due to the economic crisis, are more and more present in Indian cities. He chooses the moment when the billboards are empty, between an advertising and the next one. Manish Nai relates this emptiness – which is never really so, but rather a playful layering of traces – to abstract painting. In his sculptures and painting Nai is inspired by the noise and crowdedness of Indian contemporary cities, and he puts it in relation with nature. He uses everyday objects and simple materials to create accessible works which at the same time have a very strong conceptual character. Pure forms and colors in Nai’s work lead us to a spiritual and eternal dimension.
2016
Fabric and wood
304.8 x 7.3 x 7.3 cm
© Manish Nai, Karsten Greve gallery, 2019