???A child???s world in a given moment can exist in the teddy bear - loving, magical, a forest of imagined stories & dreams. An iteration of this thought, the teddy becomes the surface for a secret garden : a landscape of beauty and sweetness where one meanders & wishes can be made and fulfilled.???
Sumakshi Singh Sumakshi Singh's sculpture and site-specific projects have been presented in solo and curated group gallery and museum exhibitions in India, China, USA and Europe. Recent venues include Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh, PA, Van Harrison Gallery New York, NY, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, Illinois State Museum, IL, Halsey Gallery, Charleston, SC and ArtHouse Texas, TX and upcoming solo shows at Project 88, Mumbai and Kashya Hildebrand Galerie, Zurich. She was awarded an Illinois Arts Council award in 2007 (in recognition of outstanding work and commitment within the arts) and Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award in 2005 (to support and encourage excellence, artistry, focus, direction, maturity, and originality in the visual arts). Her shows have been reviewed by the Village Voice, ArtLovers, Austin Chronicle, Chicago tribune, Reader, Chicago Arts Critics Association, Charleston City Paper, New Haven Register among other journals and papers. Artist residencies include Camargo Foundation, France Skowhegan, ME, Catwalk, NY and Sculpture Space, NY. She was a finalist for the Rijksakademie in 2006. Singh received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and a BFA from Maharaja Sayajiro University, Baroda, India. She has been teaching at SAIC since 2004 and is partly based in New Delhi, India.
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.