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Shalini Biswajit
Shalini Biswajit is a painter and a sculptor and Director of Forum Art Gallery. She has a Bachelors and masters degree in Fine Arts from Stella Maris College, Chennai India.
At Forum Art Gallery which she founded in 1997 with her Cartoonist husband Biswajit Balasubramanian, Shalini delivers a holistic art experience – art exhibitions, art consultation, art education and art therapy.
Her spiritual journey and life experience is articulated in visual terms in her art. Shalini’s illustrative canvases are bathed in colour and metaphors and her figurative sculpture in steel and assemblages from found materials wittily taunt familiar perceptions. Shalini has exhibited her art widely in India in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, Bengaluru and Chennai in curated exhibitions and art fairs. Her work has been shown in New York, London, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in group collectives. Shalini has illustrated a children’s book titled King and Kiang for Tulika Publishers, 2007.
Her large sculpture installations are in the permanent collection of the Chennai Rail Museum and her paintings are in public spaces, offices and educational institutions in India and abroad.
Shalini was the Chairperson of Ficci Ladies Organisation Chennai Chapter, she is a trekker, a travel enthusiast and an avid photographer. Many of her artworks have evolved from her travels and experiences.
She is the recipient of the FICCI FLO award of excellence 2013 and the Globus style icon award 2012.
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Biswajit Balasubramanian
Biswajit is a caboodler - has been and always will be. The passion with which he caboodles reflects in his endearing characters - layered with humour to give life to a happy congregation of people that populate his art. His animated train of thought portrays socially inspired situations with graphic detail. He excavates deep for the ‘invisible’ to appear and it does…with such clarity that it is almost shocking in its innate simplicity. Biswajit's eye is trained to peel away the layers, one by one, and to reveal in its simplicity a constellation of characters engaged in the ‘drama of life’. To express the maximum in the most minimalist of terms is a challenge that Biswajit straddles with ease. A cartoonist’s caboodle is a collective narrative that essays the sensitivity of the creator. With Biswajit, narrative is infused with thought-provoking stories that never fail to leave a smile or giggle on the face of the beholder!
For Biswajit as a cartoonist, transitioning from a flat surface to a three dimensional sculptures in fibreglass has been an exciting foray that brings to life his world of characters. His sculptures explore social themes and the Divine and are presented in contemporary parlance.
Biswajit Balasubramanian’s professional career as a cartoonist began in 2002 when his pocket cartoon was featured in the Chennai based bi-monthly newspaper Madras Musings for ten years. The work spread over three years was published in 2005 as a compilation, titled Chennai Latte-A Madras Brew, which he co-authored with Ranjitha Ashok. He also worked with almost all newspapers in Chennai. His weekly strip cartoon, titled Mallini appeared in The Hindu-Retail Plus for two years. His cartoons have also appeared in several lifestyle magazines such as Frappe, and 2nd REEL, a strip cartoon, in Galatta Cinema, Kaapi for Malli, an online gourmet website. His one-a-page corporate cartoons appeared in Nightingale Management Diary in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Biswajit’s cartoon Biz As Usual… appears almost daily in the City Express of The New Indian Express since November 2014. He has illustrated several books with leading publishers including children’s books for Tulika Publishers, Chennai. He worked with Tulir, a Chennai based NGO, to bring out their publicity material for Child Abuse in 2015.
His solo shows include MADras! in celebration of the Madras week at Forum Art Gallery, Chennai, 2014, Caboodle of Lines at The Indian Institute of Cartoonists, Bangalore, 2012, Madras Musical Musings 2012 in collaboration with Pianist Anil Srinivasan and Humorology for Art Chennai, 2012. Selected curated shows he has participated are Raas Leela, Forum Art Gallery, 2012, India Art Festival Mumbai 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014, The Madras Canvas at ICCR, Kuala Lumpur, 2010, Lining the Streets, Forum Art Gallery, Chennai Sangamam, 2009, The Madras Canvas I and II at Forum Art Gallery, 2007, 2008, Madras Week, Forum Art Gallery, 2007, WomanEyes, Forum Art Gallery, Chennai 2006, Maiden Humour, Nehru Centre, London, and Sutra Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2006.
Biswajit has conducted a workshop at Kala Goda Festival 2015 in Mumbai and for the Fine Arts students of Stella Maris College, Chennai in 2014, 2015. He also regularly conducts Cartoon and Comics workshops at various venues.
In April 2017, he was invited by the Commissioner, Corporation of Madurai to do wall murals at Bharathiar Park, Madurai.
He received a special jury award for his political cartoon for 2013, awarded by Maya Kamath Memorial Awards and Indian Institute of Cartoonists, Bangalore.
He lives and works in Chennai, India.