Gigi Scaria was born in Kothanalloor, a village in south Kerala, India, in 1973. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (in painting) at the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, Scaria moved to New Delhi where he undertook a Master of Arts (in painting) at Jamia Millia Islamia. Scaria began to make art reflecting the impact of city life. He worked with mapping, abstract forms and narrative painting, later focussing on the mapping of the ‘city’ itself.
Gigi Scaria’s work draws the viewer’s attention towards the painful truths of migrancy and displacement. The issue of non-belonging and unsettlement reverberate between the walls on his canvas. “Gigi’s particular position is to investigate how city structures, social constructs, and the view of location is translated in social prejudice and class attitude,” says critic and curator Gayatri Sinha.
Scaria’s creative repertoire includes a range of media such as digital art and video, photography, installation, sculpture and painting. Scaria has worked primarily with themes of modernity and urbanization, and icons that are personal, political and historical.Since 2002, Scaria has made thirty independent films which explore a range of topics inspired by place and the people who inhabit particular locations that are imbued with different social and political conditions.
Scaria’s landmark sculptures refer to the modern world and the rapid pace of urban development. In the sculpture Someone left a horse on the shore (2007), apartment buildings are incorporated into a wooden Trojan horse. Scaria’s metaphor of the Trojan horse is the threat that consumes everything, including the spaces on the periphery, until nothing is left.
Solo Shows
2008 Difficult to Imagine, Easy to construct, Art Asia Miami, USA.
2008 Site under construction, Video Space, Budapest, Hungary.
2008 New Perspective from India, Seoul/Delhi, recent photographs and
video , H Cube Gallery, Seoul, Korea.
2008 Triviality of everyday existence, recent photographs
and video, The National Art Studio, Changdong, Seoul, Korea.
Palette art gallery, New Delhi
2007 Absence of an Architect, video installations
paintings and photographs, Palette Gallery, New Delhi.
2005 Where are the Amerindians?, Inter America Space
at CCA7, Trinidad.
2001 Exhibition of recent works at Art Inc., Shahpurjat, New Delhi.
Participations
2008 Video Zone-4, The 4th International video art Biennial,
Tel Aviv, Israel.
2008 MAM SCREEN, Mori Art Museum, Japan.
2008 India Moderna, Ivam Museum, Valencia,Spain.
2008 Chalo India, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
2008 VIDEOMIX.INDIA. La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain
2008 Popular Reality, The stainless, New Delhi.
2008 INDIAVATA (India + Avatar)
Contemporary artists from India.
Gallery SUN Contemporary, Seoul, Korea
2008 Young Contemporary Indian Artists, 1x1 Gallery, Dubai.
2008 Walk on line, Avanthay Contemporary, Zurich, Switzerland
curated by Ranjita Chaney
2008 CLICK! Contemporary photography in India, curated
by Sunil Gupta and Radhika Singh, Vadehra art gallery, Delhi.
2008 Who knows Mr.Gandhi? AICON gallery, London.
2007 Re-visioning Materiality, Gallery Espace, New Delhi.
2007 City Cite Site, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi.
2007 Rasa Manthan: The Thematic Art Installations, New Delhi.
2007 Sign2007, video and documentary film festival,
Trivandrum, Kerala.
2007 Frieze Art fair, Khoj pavilion, London.
2007 Here There Now, Contemporary art from India
Soulflower Gallery, Bangkok.
2007 Public Places/Private Spaces:
Contemporary Photography and Video Art In India,
Curated by Gayatri Sinha,The Newark Museum, New Jersey, U S A
2007 After Shock Conflict, Violence and Resolution
in Cotemporary Art, a group show supported by Sainsbury Centre
in collaboration with Matthew Shaul and the UH Galleries in
England, curated by Yasmin Zahir
2007 Indian photo and Media Art: a journey of Discovery Exhibition
Vienna, Austria.
2007 Horn Please: Narratives in contemporary Indian Art
Kunstmuseam Bern, Switzerland.
2007 Reading Paint, Gallery Soulflower, Bangkok, Thailand.
2007 Dreaming Childhood, at Leap years, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi.
2007 Making History Our Own, Organized by SAHMAT
AIFACS gallery, New Delhi.
2007 Young & Free, at Intercontinental, Nehru place, New Delhi.
2007 World Social Forum, Nairobi.
2006 ROCK, Curated by Himanshu Desai at Kitab Mehal, Mumbai.
2006 Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin 2006,
a film and video festival in Paris and Berlin.
2006 Paper flute, curated by Johny M.L at Gallery Espace New Delhi.
2006 Impossible India, at Frankfurt Kunstverein. Curated by
Nina Montmann supported by Goethe-Institute, Germany.
2006 Ghost in the machine and other stories
(Video, interactive media and sound)
at Apeejay Media Gallery,Delhi, Curated by Pooja Sood.
2006 REAL 2006, organized by Matters of art .com at
Visual Art gallery, Habitat Center, New Delhi
2006 Dilli Dur Ast, a lens based workshop in the walled city of Delhi.
2006 Art for Prabhat, Artists paint on paper
made by mentally handicapped Students,
Visual Art Gallery, Habitat Center, New Delhi.
2006 Infinite-Us, Planet art Gallery, Gurgaon, Haryana.
2006 Art in Cinema, Habitat center, New Delhi.
2005 Eternal Recurrence Return, Shangrila Hotel, New Delhi.
2005 Double – Enders, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai.
2005 Self x Social
Self stranger parent resource worker
School of Arts and Aesthetics Gallery, New Delhi
curated by Geeta Kapur.
2005 Are we like this only? at Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi,
curated by Vidya Shivdas, Organized by Vadehra Gallery,
New Delhi.
2005 Ko video, Durban festival.
2004 Journeys, Visual Arts Gallery, Habitat Centre, New Delhi
2004 Median, an exhibition of paintings & sculptures, Epiques Gallery,
Green park, New Delhi.
2004 Between Rivers, C-28 West End, New Delhi.
2004 Making of India, organized by SAHAMAT
at Rabindrabhavan, New Delhi.
2003 Crossing Generations Diverge, National Gallery of Modern Art,
Mumbai, Curated by Geeta Kapur and Chaitanya Sambrani.
2003 Indians + Cowboys, Gallery 4A,
Asian-Australia Arts Center, Sydney Australia,
Curated by Ruth Watson.
2003 Arting Jerusalem, an art project at Jerusalem, Israel.
2003 Shisha, an exhibition of Indian and French artists
at Sanskriti Pratistan, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi.
Latter traveled to France.
2003 Invasions, an exhibition of creative posters
at Palm Court Gallery, Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
2002 Photographica, at Cittadellarte, Biella, Italy.
2002 Circo Fragile, a story telling event at Pavia University Italy.
2002 Unidee in Progress, Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy.
2001 Millennium Vision, Arushi Art Gallery, Delhi.
2001 Small but significant, a group show, Arpana Fine Arts, Delhi.
2001 Art for Prabhat, Arpana Fine Arts, Delhi
2001 …and Buddha smiled again,
Organized by Master’s Guild, Indian
National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, New Delhi.
2001 KHOJ BOX, Art Inc. Shahpurjat, New Delhi.
1998 Explorations, a site-specific installation project organized
by Jamia Millia University, New Delhi.
1996 Kalamela, Balbhavan, New Delhi.
1996 Traveling Exhibition, organized
by Kerala Lalitkala Academy, Exhibited in Madras and Bangalore.
1995 Group shows 95, an exhibition of Painting and Graphics,
at Thiruvananthapuram Fine Arts Gallery.
1994 Annual Exhibition conducted by Kerala Lalitkala Academy.
Residency
2008 Presently working on a multi media installation project on Hybridity in collaboration with London based artist/photographer Dave Luise. Facilitated and organized by Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
2007-08 The National Art Studio, National Museum
of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea.
2005 CCA7 (Caribbean Contemporary Arts),
Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies
2004 Khoj studios, Khirkee Village, New Delhi.
2002 Unidee at Cittadellarte, Foundation Pistoletto, Biella, Italy.
Workshop
2006 Dilli Dur Ast, a lens based workshop in the walled city of Delhi.
2005 Sandarbh, an artist workshop and residency program
organized by Beneshwer Lok Vikas Sansthan at
Partapur ,Rajasthan.
2002 GASTH OF 2002, an event organized by Stadelschule
at Frankfurt, Germany
2002. Worked for a month at College of Fine Arts, Sydney,
Australia in connection with an exhibition project,
Indians + Cowboys.
2001 Khoj international artists’ workshop at Modinagar, Near Meerut.
1998 Yuva Mahotsav, organized by Sahitya Kala Parishad,
at Sapru House. New Delhi.
Scholarship/Award
2007 Asian art fellowship, Museum of contemporary art, Korea.
2005 Sanskriti award for visual art.
2002 Awarded Inlaks scholarship in visual art.
1995 to1997 Ministry of Human Resources and Development,
Scholarship for Visual Arts.
Slide show and talk
2008 Lecture and workshop at Sangmyung University, Seoul, Korea.
2007 National workshop on gender and space, School of social sciences,
JNU, New Delhi
2007 U H Galleries, University of Hatfield, England.
.
2005 Inter America Space, CCA7, Trinidad and Tobago.
2005 Rabindra Bhavan Auditorium, Mandi House, New Delhi.
2002 Conservatory, Birmingham University, England