KARTIK SOOD | In Thin Air
KARTIK SOOD | In Thin Air
The individual is at the center of Sood’s work, appearing across the paintings, collages, video installations, and assemblages in the exhibition: at times a traveler-figure, venturing out into the unknown, at other times stilled in a state of waiting or contemplation.
Sood’s work takes the complexity of lived experience as its primary site of interrogation, probing beneath the surface of the everyday to reveal the unseen, or half-seen, forces that pulse within and through any given moment.
Spectral presences gain visible form in Sood’s multi- and trans-media practice; his painted landscapes often take on surreal tone of legends or myths, and the incorporation of performance allows the body’s primal relationship to rhythm to enter the work.
Informed by his upbringing in the hills of Shimla, in Himachal Pradesh, where the artist describes silence, stillness, and a capacity for wonder as interwoven into daily life, Sood’s work often seems to create atmosphere more than discrete thought.
Although a distinctive painterly sensibility runs through each Sood’s works––quiet, unhurried, absorbing––his oeuvre refuses categorization, often disregarding the limitations of genre or medium.
Sood’s practice offers us an opening into a conversation already begun, a mystery not yet solved, rather than a finalized work for inspection.
Touching the earth and passing the name, 2019
Oil, acrylic, metal mesh, archival paper, artist-designed cast iron frame
57″ x 66″ (overall) | 57″ x 32″ (Each of 2)
Traveling beneath, 2019
Oil, acrylic, pigmented ink, wooden box with metal, artist-designed wooden panel
65″ x 35.25″
Face in the clouds, 2019
Oil, acrylic, pigmented ink, canvas, artist-designed wooden panel
65″ x 35.25″
Lonely Creator, 2020
Watercolor, graphite, paper pulp, pigmented ink, archival paper
18″ x 12.5″
Territory problems, 2020
Watercolor, gouache, graphite, collage, pigmented ink, archival paper
15.75″ x 35″ (overall) | 15.5″ x 16.5″ (Each of 2)
Daily theater to feed a family I - XII, 2019
Watercolor, gouache, ink, archival pigment, graphite, collage, archival paper
16.5” x 24.5” (Each of 12)
Life is Fluid, 2021
Projection Video, color, sound, 9 minutes 32 seconds
Video, color, 31 minutes 10 seconds
Light box, image transfer on fabric, 24″ x 24″ x 3.25″ (Each of 2)
Roots and branches / fragmented family. 2019
Watercolor, graphite, paper pulp, canvas, oil, acrylic, archival paper, board, artist-designed cast iron frame
60″ x 33.25″
Roots and branches / fragmented family. 2019
Acrylic, oil, pigmented ink, canvas, paper pulp watercolor, graphite, archival paper, artist-designed cast iron frame
60″ x 33.25″
Color of blood is the same, 2021
Oil, acrylic, paper pulp, pigmented ink, canvas, board
67.50″ x 80.5″ (overall) | 67.50″ x 39.25″ (Each of 2)
Boy to have an elephant’s head. 2021
Watercolor, gouache, graphite, collage, pigmented ink, archival paper
17″ x 44″ (overall) | 17″ x 13.5″ (Each of 3)
Trouble, 2021
Watercolor, gouache, graphite, ink, collage, archival pigment, archival paper
17″ x 13″ (Each of 2)
Togetherness, 2021
Watercolor, gouache, archival pigment, graphite, ink, collage, archival paper
17″ x 13″ (Each of 2)
Kartik Sood was born in 1986 in Shimla, India and received a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in Painting from the College of Art, New Delhi (2008). After completing post-graduate work in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U, Baroda (2010) where he was awarded the Nasreen Mohamedi Scholarship, Kartik continued to further his learning and practice at artist residencies. He was selected for the Gasworks International Studios Residency (2014), London and awarded the Pro Helvetica Residency (2014) and IAAB Studios (2014) in Basel, Switzerland. In 2017 he was selected for project at NTU Center for Contemporary Art in Singapore where he focused on the issue of cultural coexistence in the nation through engagement with local theatre actors, adding performing art to his expanding practice. Kartik’s works have also been presented at the 1st Yinchuan Biennale, and in collaboration with Kadist Art Foundation and Khoj in 2016. His moving image work “Untitled” received the award for the best film “Cutting Edge Category”, at the 2012 Scotland University Film Festival. He currently lives and works between New Delhi and Shimla, India.
