Hemant Gavankar

(b. 1994, Mumbai, Maharashtra)

"I am a visual-art practitioner based in Mumbai. Changing spaces around me are a part of my observational journey and have largely impacted my practice. My recent paintings delve into the evolving landscape and cityscape, reflecting a shift towards more personal imagery. By juxtaposing multiple images, I explore concepts of time and space through moments, movement, and memory. I view each image as a fragment of time, and combining them allows me to play with spatial and temporal boundaries, as linearity is bound to time and being is bound to space. Coming together of multiple geographies and spaces also help in highlighting the contemporary emotional enquiries, about existence, such as the blurring of belonging and not belonging, and the dualities of home and away. The absurdity arising from non-aligning events in private, public, and digital spaces intrigues me, driving me to explore their convergence of these numerous spaces we deal with on a daily basis. My imagery draws from various sources—real encounters, imagination, film, social media, and dreams. I work across mediums, including drawing and painting in charcoal, ink, gouache, pastels, and oil, and have recently expanded into digital media, particularly videos and moving images.

Hemant Gavankar is a visual-art practitioner and poet based in Mumbai. He completed his BFA in Drawing and Painting and MFA in Portraiture both from Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai in 2016 and 2018 respectively. In his works, he experiments with form and colour compositions. Over the years, his practice has evolved to explore and express the artificiality of human-made spaces, which have become the reality of urban existence. His work begins with reality and transitions into simulations of alternate realities, visualising the same actions across different times and multi-dimensional spaces. Hemant addresses the absurdity resulting from the non-aligning events taking place in various private, public, and digital spaces. He received the Rangasetu Fellowship for Visual Art, Maharashtra Cultural Centre (2023). His recent exhibitions include ‘EREWHON’, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai (2023); ‘Connceting Dots’, Abir Space (2023); ‘Unknowns 7,’ Gujarat State Lalit Kala Academy, Ahmedabad (2022). ‘Monsoon Art Show’, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai (2016) among others.

Hemant currently lives and works in Mumbai.

Hemant Gavankar

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