Nav Haq

The first monograph dedicated to one of today’s leading and thought-provoking Indian visual artists Shilpa Gupta is internationally known for her profound and socially engaged multi-faceted practice. Her work is an ongoing exploration of how human actions and interactions are subjected to a range of external and internal biddings, from socio-political constructs to personal relationships and technology. The synaesthetic nature of her practice is rooted in the post-liberalizing city of Mumbai in India, where she grew up in the 1990s, and the complex political landscape in South Asia. Gupta's work has been championed by many art luminaries and high-profile curators, including David Elliott, Massimiliano Gioni, Geraldo Mosquera, and Hans Ulrich Obrist. She is the first artist from the Asian sub-continent - a region with a booming art scene - to be chosen to be profiled in the Contemporary Artists Series. A keen observer of the everyday, Gupta creates videos, interactive installations, sculptures, and participatory performances, stimulating in the viewer a reflection on how places and people are defined and the meaning of belonging. This is the first comprehensive monograph of her work.

In her masterpiece of 2,75 x 21 metre, Ellen Harvey painted the region of Bruges as a contemporary, impressive interpretation of a Google Earth map, and in this publication she restores the ties between the city of Bruges and the harbour. In the new installation, behind a mirrored wall punctuated with peepholes, Harvey has hung a selection of paintings dating from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, all of which belong to the reserve collection. Her work is an invitation to rediscover these rarely seen artworks. The paintings of the city, the canals, and the sea are reflected in the panorama on the opposite wall: Harvey's painted maps (2.75 x 21 meter) based on satellite images. The elaborate waterways, executed in mirrored glass, demonstrate the importance of the rivers and canals for the city. The British artist Ellen Harvey (b1967) lives and works in New York. Her work includes video art, installations and paintings. She has exhibited throughout the world, from Warsaw to Berlin, Los Angeles to Prague etc. Between 1999 and 2001 she brightened up the streets of New York with her 'NY Beautification Project': 40 small tondos and oval landscape scenes were applied between graffiti and tags on places and carriers in the city, such as containers, garage doors, walls...