REVIEW: Subodh Gupta @ Arario Gallery, Shanghai

For Subodh Gupta, 2014 has been a critical year. It started off with his retrospective exhibition “Everything Is Inside,” which opened in January at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, and was curated by art historian and Arte Povera theorist Germano Celant.“Everything Is Inside” has since travelled to Frankfurt, Germany, where it is on view at the Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) until January 2015. In addition, Korean powerhouse Arario Gallery recently inaugurated its new space in Shanghai with a solo show of Gupta, in conjunction with another exhibition of his works at its main branch in Seoul.

The decision to exhibit Gupta in China is not simply a means for Arario to capitalize on the celebrated Indian artist’s peaking institutional recognition. It is also a daring attempt to highlight the spiritual links that unite India and China, as well as the social and cultural challenges that the two countries are similarly facing. The universality of Gupta’s visual language is undoubtedly an excellent vehicle for such an endeavor. 

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