Sweatopia: Jitish Kallat

Chemould Prescott Road and Bodhi Art jointly present Jitish Kallat's seventeenth solo exhibition, which also marks his debut solo at Gallery Chemould and Prithvi Gallery ten years ago.

Jitish Kallat's debut at Gallery Chemould in 1997 was notable in more ways than one. He was all of twenty-three, by far the youngest artist to have hit the scene and be represented by a reputed Gallery such as Chemould. The show was hugely well received with Kallat's work gaining instant and unusual critical acclaim both within India and internationally.

This exhibition celebrates ten years of rigorous art making: a decade during which his work has been exhibited in key galleries, museums and institutions across the globe.

Conceived as a two-gallery project, SWEATOPIA will bring together new and recent work made between 2005-07, a period when a lot of his major pieces have travelled to venues overseas but have not been exposed in India. SWEATOPIA will bring together these specific works that haven't been seen locally and interweave them with new works, throwing up a barrage of inter-related themes that reflect back on his core concerns as an artist.

Oscillating between the twin codes of pop and agitprop, Kallat's work addresses the classic themes of survival and the endless narratives of human struggle. The city of Mumbai, wherein the enterprise of daily existence is pushed to the extreme, acts as his artistic catalyst and continually percolates his practice.