Anunay rai

Delhi NCR, India

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Anunay Rai currently resides in Gurugram and has his studio in New Delhi. He was born in 1980, in Rourkela, Orissa. His first exposure to Art happened at the age of 13 when he started taking weekend Art Classes. This exposure made him pick Graphic Design for Education. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Design and joined an Advertising Agency in 2003. He started painting regularly in 2007 but didn’t showcase any work till he found his love for concrete in 2019. He continued his experiments and quit his Advertising job in May 2021 to pursue Art full-time.

ARTIST STATEMENT

When I was 10 years old, I fell from a Guava tree and hit my head on a concrete slab. Surprisingly the slab cracked, and my head was unhurt. I have thought a lot about it but there cannot be any other reason for my love for concrete.

 

While exploring different mixes, molds, and pigments more room was created for new materials and I started making my own substrates to work on.

The forms are often derived from utilitarian objects. And the abstraction starts at the stage of substrate creation, where often random objects leave their impression and sometimes become a part of the work. The spontaneous impressions are a starting point for me to then work on with paints, pigments, coal, sawdust to even cow dung. Wood and wires hold them together both physically and conceptually.

 

Working on multiple pieces at a time I like the energies and experiences of different days pour into the work. The tussle between a spiritual and secular life is the stimulus for my expressions. My work questions the fixed notion of beauty and explores the sculptural potential of paintings and vice versa.

Inspired by Richard Artschwager, I do not want to fit into any category or be constrained by any medium.

Education in Design and 17 years of experience in advertising gave me exposure to different mediums and visual language.

 

No computer fell on my head, but I am currently exploring Generative Art with the possibility of rendering it to physical substrates.

The Guava tree incident happened in 1990 in Rourkela, Orissa.

Selected Works

Exhibitions

Art for Change, New Delhi – Rooted India 3rd October – 30th November 2021 (Online)

Kolkata Centre for Creativity Beyond Boundaries – Sensing Art through Queer Lensing 19th to 27th June 2021 (Online)

Awadh that Festival – 2nd Edition Lalit Kala Akademi – Regional Centre Lucknow 26th February to 3rd March 2020

PUBLICATIONS

No Information Available