Anant Joshi

Anant Joshi completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1994 and Master of Fine Arts in 1996 from the J. J. School of Art in Mumbai. He underwent a two-year residency at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, where he worked with ceramic-based installations. In 2004, Joshi won the prestigious Prix de Rome scholarship for his work exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Joshi is a painter and installation artist whose creations are a blend of sinister and comical elements, reflecting his sensitivity to urban alienation and cultural displacement. His installations involve projecting sculpted ceramic objects and dismembered toys onto the wall of an imaginary space using beamed light. Joshi also creates mini-dioramas using packing materials such as thermocol, crates, and boxes, from which he derives ideas for his paintings and drawings. His installation projects are symbiotic with his painting and drawing practices, with mediated imagery and studio practices often being the initial triggers for his concepts and forms.

Joshi's recent sculptural-installation work, Panopticon, consisted of stacked and glued toys arranged in pyramidical and cube-like formations. Upon approaching the installation, the viewer is surprised by an assaulting flash of light, creating an immediate interaction that references contemporary urban surveillance systems. The installation explores principles of power, reality, and perception, inviting viewers to indulge their kind and sinister sides by offering multiple, sustained perspectives on the toy formations through the use of mirrors.

Joshi's work interplays spectacle with the dark violence that arises from the mundane acceptance of everyday urban life. His hybrid creatures, bulbous minaret-like ceramic forms, and sharp razor-blade screens seductively lure viewers into dramatic theatres of public and private protest.