INTRODUCTION

The earliest images by Manish Nai evoked the stained walls and buildings of Indian towns. He created them by pasting butter paper and jute on canvas and laying washes of paint before scraping the picture surface. Now, the same concerns have resurfaced in mature form. His first sculptures utilised discards from works made to hang on walls. Gathering the tweezed-out filaments in a mould and packing them tight, Manish watered the sculptures periodically – as if tending a delicate plant.

A more unlikely material could hardly be imagined for pieces that echo blocks of stone. Their asceticism provides an apt counterpoint to his works in jute. The latter – which began as economical compositions of horizontals and verticals – have evolved into extraordinarily elaborate designs. They are produced by a complicated method involving drawing on paper; scanning and digitally manipulating the drawn images; projecting and tracing these onto fabric stretched over canvas; and replicating the drawings as patterns on jute through a painstaking removal of threads.

Manish works in a redemptive rather than radical mode. His abiding concerns and experiments with humble materials and unusual media and with process expand the possibilities of art rather than revolt against its basic conventions – an attitude which places his work in relation to the artists of the Arte Povera.

Born 1980 in Gujarat, India
Diploma in Drawing and Painting, L.S. Raheja School of Art, Mumbai
Lives in Mumbai