???As artists such beautiful initiatives help us put our art to direct use for some good. Also, the idea of a customized fiber teddy sounded really exciting.
Our inspiration comes from the immediate life around us, our daily experiences, dilemmas, our struggles, dreams, our highs and our lows. It???s the encapsulation of all, and the realization that by the end of it, hope is that keeps us alive.???
Manil Rohit Manil (born 1978) and Rohit (born 1985) Gupta were raised in Lucknow and moved to Delhi in 1998. Manil received a BFA degree in Applied Art from Delhi College of Art in 2003 and worked independently as an artist for a number years, having two solo exhibitions of his work at the Palette Art Gallery in New Delhi. Rohit earned a BA in English from Delhi University in 2006 and is a self-taught artist and photographer. The brothers started their collaborative work in 2011.
The paintings of ManilRohit are aggressive and ribald. Their iconography is sourced from the street and popular media: graffiti, comics, packaging and animation. Yet art historical references are also there while they successfully conquer the age-old battles between figure and ground, abstraction and figuration. The painterly manoeuvres they employ to do so are both skilful and self-conscious: line, colour and shape coalesce into highly charged fields of energy; the soft-focus blur of aerosol paint is juxtaposed with an impasto heaped on like cake frosting; fluorescents mingle with metallic's, anchored by pastels and neutrals. By using thought bubbles and speech blurbs, they introduce texts into the bodies of their images, mocking the ego-driven nature of all art-making, the adolescent narcissism that lies at the heart of culture.
About WISH - A – TEDDY
We’re delighted to present “WISH-A-TEDDY”: a collection of hand-painted teddy bears by renowned Indian artists and designers in collaboration with Make-A-Wish Foundation®.
These beautifully hand-painted teddies have been created by Paresh Maity, Baiju Parthan, GR Iranna, Jayasri Burman, Nilofer Suleman, Vibha Galhotra, George Martin, Manil & Rohit Gupta, Seema Kohli, Valay Shende and many others, and designers like Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla, Sabyasachi, Anamika Khanna and Maheka Mirpuri, these teddies surely make for collectors’ items.
Make-A-Wish Foundation® of India is a non-profit organization dedicated to granting the most cherished wish of children aged 3 -18, living with life-threatening illnesses, irrespective of their socio-economic status, caste, race or religion. It has branches in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune, and is headquartered in Mumbai. The Foundation conducted its first ever fundraiser in India, "WISH - A - TEDDY", earlier this April at the Palladium Hotel, Mumbai. This event was planned to celebrate World Wish Day – a global day of wish granting which falls on 29th April, 2014.
The works in the present collection are the works which were part of this exhibition.
The teddy bear is a symbol of childhood and joy, and it also makes for an endearing sculpture that brings on a smile, across all age groups.