THE SCULPTURE PARK AT MADHAVENDRA PALACE, 2018-2019
Photo by : Incredible India Info
Second Edition opens December 9, 2018
The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace, Nahargarh Fort, turns an eighteenth-century palace into an art gallery with works by leading Indian and international artists. Curated by Peter Nagy, Director of Nature Morte, New Delhi, the second edition of The Sculpture Park will include a number of site-specific installations, many of which will be on view for the very first time.
Under the Directorship of Noelle Kadar, this edition welcomes a range of collaborations with the local community in Jaipur as well as a robust schedule of programming focused on learning, arts education, and family activities.
For the second edition, artworks by 12 Indian and 11 international artists have been selected for exhibition:
Harold Ancart (Belgium), Achia Anzi (Israel), Hemali Bhuta (India), Lynn Chadwick (UK), Michel Francois (Belgium), Tanya Goel (India), Vikram Goyal (India), Archana Hande (India), Bijoy Jain (India), Michael Joo (USA), Reena Saini 
Kallat (India), Shreyas Karle (India), Ofri Lapid (Israel), Richard Long (UK), Savia Mahajan (India), Sebastiano
 Mauri (Italy), Manisha Parekh (India), Mark Prime (UK), Mahbubur Rahman (Bangladesh), Ayesha Singh (India), Chrysanne Stathacos (Canada), L.N. Tallur (India), and Asim Waqif (India).
"For most of my career as a gallerist and curator, I have been trying to break away from the white-box exhibition space. With this project, I am able to indulge my passions for art, architecture, and decor into a marvelous synthesis of the past and the present", said Peter Nagy, Curator, The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace
A single large installation work will be created by the celebrated British artist Richard Long, made from local red sandstone, commanding the main courtyard of the palace. Born in 1945, in Bristol, England, Richard Long is an artist of the land and nature. His work articulates ideas of time and space through the medium of walking in landscapes. Since his first exhibition in 1968, Richard Long has had more than 266 solo shows worldwide.
In the spirit of collaboration, many renowned galleries have generously supported this initiative by lending artworks including Blain Southern, Berlin and London; David Zwirner, London; Carlier Gebauer, Berlin; Otto Zoo, Milan; Tarq, Mumbai; Threshold Gallery, New Delhi; Blueprint 12, New Delhi; and Nature Morte, New Delhi.
This partnership is a first of its kind where the Government of Rajasthan has collaborated with a range of corporate sponsors and private individuals to bring a contemporary voice to India’s heritage properties, with the purpose of boosting national and international cultural tourism and visitors to the site. Since the opening of The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace, in December 2017, Nahargarh Fort has seen a 37% increase in visitors.
Eminent individuals from leading corporations supporting the project include Shreyasi
 Goenka (Content Editor DNA & Co-Director, Saat Saath Arts), Shreevar Kheruka (CEO, Borosil Glass Works Ltd), Siddharth Jain (Owner and Director, INOX Group), Pirojsha Godrej (Executive Chairman, Godrej Properties Ltd.), Sangita Jindal (Chairperson, JSW Foundation), Tarini Jindal (Director, JSW Foundation) Swati Salgaocar (Director, Vimson Group), Sana Rezwan Sait (Prestige Group),Mayank Singhal (MD & CEO, PI Industries), Cyrus Guzder (Chairman and Managing Director, AFL PRIVATE LIMITED), Dr. Swati Piramal (Vice Chairperson, Piramal Enterprise Ltd.), and Ajay Kalsi (APTARA).
Specialists on board include BVC Logistics as Shipping Partners, Khaitan & Co. as Legal Partners, Navsoft as Technology Partners, and Grant Thornton as Accounting and Compliance Partners.
"Our initiative aims to promote India's growing interest in contemporary art and culture whilst also embracing its important heritage. The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace is a true amalgamation of the best of India's past and present, made possible through a unique collaboration between the public and private sector. Saat Saath's endeavor has always been to showcase India's prowess in Contemporary Art, and to that end, we are thrilled to be able to bring this initiative to the public", said Aparajita Jain, Founder & Director, Saat Saath Arts Foundation
"The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace, Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur will be the first of its kind where an Indian state has collaborated with a non-profit organization to support contemporary art. We are thankful to the Government of Rajasthan for this alliance and are certain that it will set a great example of how imperative public-private partnerships are in the promotion of public art. I am honored to be a part of this initiative and thankful to everyone who is involved," said Shreyasi Goenka, Co-Director Saat Saath Arts Foundation.
The Saat Saath Arts Foundation supports international exchange between India and the rest of the world through visual arts and education initiatives. Founded in 2010 by Director Aparajita Jain, it is a non-profit initiative with headquarters in New Delhi, with an aim to work with international museums and galleries.
The foundation has received international acclaim for its Curatorial Research Grant Program, conceived by Aparajita Jain and Diana Campbell Betancourt, Artistic Director of the Dhaka Art Summit. It endows international curators with resources to extend their research on Indian art practitioners, thus nurturing a vital exchange of knowledge between India and the rest of the world. Select notable recipients include Catherine David, (Deputy Director, Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou), Diana Freundl (Associate Curator of Asian Art, Vancouver Art Gallery), Laura Raicovich (Former President and Executive Director of The Queens Museum), Mari Spirito (Founding Director of Protocinema Istanbul/New York), Lauren Cornell (Chief Curator of Hessel Museum, Director of CCS Bard’s Graduate Program), and Dr. Helen Pheby (Senior Curator, Yorkshire Sculpture Park).
Peter Nagy, Curator, The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace, Nahargarh Fort is a graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York City. From 1982 to 1988 he ran Gallery Nature Morte in New York's East Village, at which time he also pursued a career as a successful artist. His works have been exhibited at international institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Tate Modern in London, among others. Based in New Delhi since 1992, he went on to establish Nature Morte there in 1997, which has become synonymous with a generation of artists who have taken Indian art to the international stage. Having lived and worked in India for more than twenty years, Nagy conceived of The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace, Nahargarh Fort, to bring together contemporary and traditional arts and to explore alternative contexts. He acts as the Curator and Exhibition Designer of the annual exhibition.
Noelle Kadar, Director, The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace, Nahargarh Fort brings years of dynamic art world experience to the park, most recently serving as the International Director of the Indian Art Fair in New Delhi. Kadar graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2006 and has lived and worked in India for over a decade. Kadar, in her role as Director, will focus on building out the Sculpture Park’s Programme and leading The Park’s vision for the future.
Aparajita Jain, Founder & Director, Saat Saath Arts Foundation, has been the director since its inception in 2010. In 2005 she established Seven Arts Limited, a contemporary art gallery in New Delhi that focused on discovering young talent, such as Asim Waqif, who was later awarded the India Today Art Award for Emerging Artist of the Year. In 2012, she joined Nature Morte Art as Co-Director with Peter Nagy, integrating the roster from Seven Arts Limited. Nature Morte Art continues as one of the most prestigious galleries in India, representing the top artists from the region and winning, along with Jhaveri Contemporary, the Solo Exhibition of the Year for the co-curated Mrinalini Mukherjee retrospective, Transfigurations, at the National Gallery of Modern Art.
Aparajita sits on the board of Tate's South Asian Acquisition Committee and is, along with her husband, Gaurav Jain, a founding council member of Harvard University's South Asia Arts Council, established to connect South Asia's curators, museum administrators, artists, and art educators with Harvard faculty. She is also a patron of India's very first Biennale, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. She was listed as one of 50 iconic Indian gallerists by Platform Magazine, was featured and played an active role in the Vogue Women's Empowerment Campaign, and was listed as one of the most eight influential women in the Indian art world by Artsy in 2016.
Shreyasi Goenka, Content Editor DNA & Co-Director, Saat Saath Arts Foundation, was inducted into Saat Saath Arts as a Co-Director in 2017. With her sharp acumen in the realm of news and entertainment, Shreyasi has spearheaded the launch of DNA in New Delhi, while also from conceptualizing and implementing the brand’s market penetration strategy & repositioning campaign. Wife of Mr. Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEE Entertainment, Shreyasi also plays a key role in ZEE’s association with world-renowned intellectual properties like ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival. Shreyasi maintains a keen interest in the field of History, Performing Arts, Music, and Dance and is also an avid collector of contemporary art.
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