Mahavir Wadhwana

 

 

 

1994, Chuda, Gujarat, India 

 

Mahavir Wadhwana is an artist from Chuda, Gujarat. He has completed his BVA and MVA in Painting from The Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda. Before this, he had also completed an Art Teacher Diploma from the Shree N.M Shah Fine Arts College in Surendranagar. He is a recipient of the Jayram Patel Scholarship Award in 2018, from the MS University, Baroda, as well as the Gujrat Kala Pratisthan Award in 2016 and the 65th State Award and Scholarship from the Gujarat Lalit Kala Academy in 2015. His recent residencies include the Arts4All-Sonalika Residency Program, at the Sanskriti Museums Anand gram in New Delhi, which was also followed by a Group show in 2019. He lives and works in Baroda.

 

 

Mahavir’s artistic practice is highly attentive to the struggles of the working class, their relationships and belief systems, their livelihood in the cities, along their perceptive thoughts and cultural practices. It was when he shifted to the city that village life became the pivot of his works, which came from a feeling of nostalgia for his locale and its people.

He began associating them with the color, weather, and even the objects that he found familiarity with. Even his observations of the working class people in Baroda became associated with his memories of home. He is interested in how the working classes go about their routines, how they think, perceive, and preserve their cultural traditions, in light of all their struggles and worries. He tries to find that meaning, taste, and the colorful spirit of existence in their life and expand his vision through these explorations.

He interweaves collage, drawing, and painting into his large compositions, along with the use of the materials like cement, brick powder, and dust to create a certain surface and texture. The inclusion of this material acts as a metaphor for the village life where one gets to see old, aging walls and people contained within them.

 

 

Contact Details: 

Telephone: +91 6352008660, +91 97227 49828

Email: wadhwanamahavir@gmail.com

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