Art>Surrealist Vocab & Visual Registers

Broken fractured and at times disjointed, the surrealistic artworks of Baroda-based artist Suneel Mamadapur emerge from his experience of a contemporary and a claustrophobic world, ironically indicated in his artworks. The artworks reflect his state of mind. He explains, "I paint what I feel like painting. I love to express my feelings about the natural, social and political situations of the country.

Born in 1975 in Bijapur, Karnataka (India), Suneel  Mamadapur's works, are primarily built around an edgy Surrealist vocabulary with its associated shifts and substitutions of images and visual registers, are deeply concerned with the ethical dimensions of contemporary life. My vehicle of choice to stage the dilemmas that face Modern man is the fable, a genre that has had the capability to marry topicality with a populist and didactic aspect that can address a wider audience. And allegorical imagination is tied to an urgent moral imperative, and utilizes all the linguistic means that the genre puts at his disposal in order to uncover the iniquities that lie hidden beneath the codes that govern social life. The works resemble parables in their structural and linguistic organization, drawing upon the minutiae of everyday life which are often combined and recombined in surprising and unusual ways in order for it to be able to deliver its ‘message’ in as succinct and unmistakable a form as possible. Fables, however, by their nature are not wordy; requiring a rather stringent economy of means for it to be effective, and by that same token is not really fertile territory for ‘interpretation’. buttresses the possible weaknesses of chosen method by significant recourse to the Modernist tradition.

The love for colours is well amplified in his vibrant narratives with curious cast of characters that dominate his canvas and convey a fine balance of colour, form and space. The essence of the theme seems to be well preserved in the colour scheme through out the suite of paintings. Says Suneel Mamadapur, "I have tried to rearrange the contradictions on plane surface to depict a puzzling fable with meaningful metaphors. No matter how illogical or demented the relation of objects and animals with the situation appear in the work, it presents an innate unity among them. And this is the observation of my enigmatic mind."

The works resemble fables that draw upon the details of everyday life, often combined in an unusual way, to deliver a strong message. What is more noticeable is that the meaning remains obscured, as there is no beginning or end. The narration is completely fragmented, which has its different layers superimposed with different contexts.

However, some of his paintings show a relationship between religious intolerance, nationalism and violence portrayed by a group of crippled figures perched on an assortment of ambulatory devices. The truncated figures and distorted life-forms highlight the disasters of war or nuclear fallout.
 "The presence of the anthropomorphic (non-human creatures or abstract concepts) images are central to my work. It depicts the spoilt human traits and depleting human life", says Mamadapur, who prefers to choose the modern man as the protagonist of the fable combining didactic aspects as well as allegorical imagination. The use of animal imagery is best exemplified in his painting titled "The Blue Monkey" where the figure is situated at the horizon of a landscape filled with a sense of uncertain dread.

Mamadapur's works draw inspiration from The Theater Of Absurd (a form of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence)—which describe vaudeville, circus, and the shop of horrors, staging format, props, backdrop and lighting—and largely the works of Max Ernst and other surrealists.

Though these works do not necessarily have a common theme or a thread that binds them together but they still have a contemporary feel to them.

Educational Qualification:

2001 – 2002- Post Experience Program (Sponsored by the Commonwealth Foundation) in GLASGOW Print studio.  Scotland U. K

2000- Post Diploma in Graphic's Arts in Faculty of fine Arts. M S .University of Baroda, India

1997- Diploma in painting at KEN school of art Bangalore

Solo Show :

2010-“  Cognitive Dissonance” Palette Art Gallery, Delhi

2007-“Desert of the present” at Art Musings, Mumbai                  

2006-“ Song of the abandoned road” Palette Art Gallery, Delhi

2002-Gallery III in GLASGOW (U.K.) sponsored by Common Wealth Foundation, London.

Grants & Awards-

2002-“45^th National Academy Award “, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi

2003   Camlin Art Foundation 5^th Southern Region at Bangalore

2001-     K.K. HEBAR Art Foundation Scholarship. Karnataka  

2001----ARNAWAJ Arts Foundations Scholarship, Karnataka

1999 to 2001-Human Resource Development Research Grants

1998-  Bombay Art Society's 106th All India Annual Art Exhibition

1997&98-Karnataka State and Central Lalit Kala Academy, "A Special Art Exhibition " in Bangalore

Group Exhibition:

2010  'Dali's Elephant’ aicon gallery London.

2008-“Live wires” Visual Arts Center Kennedy Road, Hong Kong.

2006-“Nomenclature 2 Who’s who” Red Earth Gallery, Baroda.

2004-International Bharath Bhavan, Biennial, Bhopal, India

2002-Glassgow Art Fair, U.K

2002-Thi Pai International Art Biennial. Japan

2002-“Voices against Violence” Group Exhibition, Baroda.

2002-“Don’t ask me Why” Group Exhibition, Nazar Art Gallery, Baroda.

Studio & Correspondence-

A-49,vrundavan duplex, near L&T colony, B/h nandavan society new Sama ,
Baroda-390008-Gujarat. Email- Mamadapur_suneel@yahoo.com  (m)-09913805887  (R) 0265 3920596