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Artist Statement -



“My art is a visual projection created by stimulating the memories of the past and the present”, Says Sohan Jakhar, while defining his art. His works addresses his personal relations as well as the ones he has with his ancestry. The decorative motifs floating in the background come from the painted fresco on the havelis of Shekhavati, a hometown of the artist where he has spent his childhood. Juxtaposed on them is any visual material that is relevant to him from his experiences and interactions.

The incorporated images are the photographs taken by the self or often references from magazines, later digitally modified by the artist and transferred on the canvas. The treatment of pictures has a simplistic approach. The artist uses layers of vibrant colors that simply have strong individual personas expressing a subtle theatre of visual form. He employs ‘acrylic’ colors to create this vibrancy and for their ability to dry quickly.

“I realize that experiences changes with time”, Sohan Jakhar’s paintings encore this sentiment. They are simple and clear resonances of various complex emotions that accompany the journey of experiences.

Artist Exhibitions



SOLO SHOWS

2010 “Urban Ethos” HKFINEART, Hong Kong
2009 “Vendorism” Arushi Arts, New Delhi
2009 “Vendorism” Museum Gallery, Mumbai
2005 Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur

GROUP SHOWS

2013 “Winter Oeuvre” , Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata
2012 India Art Fair, Arushi Art, New Delhi
2012 “Portrait of a Taxi” Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2011 “Stories of Then and Now” Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong
2011 “Take 2” Arushi Arts, New Delhi
2010 “Muzik.Enchanted.Life.” Gallerie Angel Arts, JW Marriott, Mumbai
2010 “The Art of Democracy” The Bristol Gallery, Bristol
2009 “Who We Are” Sunjin Galleries, Singapore
2009 “Resonance” Galerie Caroline Vachet, Lyon, France
2009 Summer Show, Arushi Arts, New Delhi
2008 “INDIART Part II” Group Show at Paris
2008 “Portrait of a Place” Group Show at Rob Dean Art Ltd, London
2008 Group Show at Asia House, London by Quartet Art, London
2008 "Indian Escapades" Sunjin Art Gallery, Singapore
2006 Sunjin Art Gallery, Singapore
2006 “Index” Vision Arts, Mumbai
2003 "Hritusanhar" Rajasthan School of Art Jaipur
2002 Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi
2001 Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi
2000 Sudarshana Art Gallery, Bikaner
2000 Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur
1999 Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur

AUCTIONS

2009 Modern and Contemporary Asian Art, 33 Auction, Singapore
2009 Sotheby’s, Indian & Southeast Asian Art, New York

ONLINE SHOWS

2011 “Pop People” Breathe Arts, Mumbai
2008 Artist of the Month, Indian Art Collectors
2008 Indian Art Collectors 3rd Anniversary Show

WORKSHOPS and ARTIST CAMPS

2011 Young Artist Camp, Kalaneri Art Gallery, Jaipur
2010 “INTER REGIONAL WORKSHOP” RLKK, Lucknow
2009 National Young Artist Camp, Neerja Modi School, Jaipur
2003 PAG, Young Print maker's camp of Rajasthan, Jaipur
2003 AIFCS, All India artist camp, Jaipur

PARITICIPATIONS

2013 Jaipur Art Summit, JKK, Jaipur
2013 “Art in Testing Times..” Harvest, Arushi Arts, Stainless Gallery, New Delhi
2013 3rd International Art Competition, Art Revolution Taipei, Taiwan
2012 “An ongoing Quest” Harvest, Arushi Arts, Stainless Gallery, New Delhi
2011 “Homage to Husain…” Arushi Arts, New Delhi
2010 “Open your eyes, look up the blue sky” 3rd ASYAAF, Korea
2010 “Our Own Path” Harvest, Arushi Arts Annual show, New Delhi
2009 “Ctrl+Alt+Del” “Harvest, Arushi Arts, Stainless Gallery, New Delhi
2009 “Roopam” Rajasthan School of Art Alumni Show, JKK, Jaipur
2008 “Harvest” Arushi Arts Annual show at Stainless Gallery, New Delhi
2008 “Varnika” Rajasthan School of Art Alumni Show, JKK, Jaipur
2006 49th National Exhibition of Art, Bhopal by L.K.A. New Delhi
1998 Annual student exhibition of R.L.K.A.Jaipur
1998 2nd Bank of Punjab art exhibition, Chandigarh

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Artist Publications



Noise and Anonymity
by Himali Singh Soin

The anonymous lives of street vendors and their carts are mobilized with uncanny visual effects by Sohan Jakhar’s series ‘Vendorism.’ As the coined term suggests, Jakhar views these omnipresent stalls with the eye of an intellectual (the ‘ism’) observer from afar; this is reflected in the angles of the subjects in the foreground and the uncanny sense of the viewer lurking just outside the canvas’ frame. Jakhar takes photographs of vendors then Photoshops them against the colorful backgrounds of wallpapers from his own Haveli in his hometown, Shekhawati. He then increases the noise in the image until the photograph blurs: the residue produces a scene that is seemingly timeless-- the harsh reality of a day to day sale of perishable items softened round the edges, silenced, anonymous.

Jakhar deploys a method previously used only in film: rotoscoping live-action and compositing it over a matte. By employing such techniques in his process and traditional life as his content, Jakhar implies the paradox of timelessness and technology that is so frequently seen in India today. Though Jakhar’s background is local and unique to his own history, the patterns seem to appear out of the 1960’s hippie movement; its flowers symbolizing constant flux, hope and peace, romancing the otherwise harsh reality of the darkened faces of street vendors. The stands seem to be floating on the background, disembodied and de-contextualized in their dream-like state. However, this method of semi-abstraction does not compromise real detail; in fact, it paradoxically enhances it. We search for the corner screws of the cart or the spokes in its wheel to find ground when the stalls themselves have no concrete to rest upon.

The juxtaposition of the light pastel colors of the background and the deep, dark outlines of the vendors reflects, formally, both the facelessness as well as the depth that characterizes these stalls of everyday. Jokhar’s work contains, though more mildly, some of Suleman’s humor: he captures stalls such as ‘On-Line’ Halwai (sweet-maker) that have nothing to do with the internet, instead the phrase is something the vendor may have heard repeatedly, and chosen as an enticing one for the literate world. Though the vendors appear nameless, each of them has their own personality, be in a mustache or the hand with which he chooses to serve a customer. Through abstracted concealment, this series of ten 60” by 60” acrylics manages to reveal a deeper, bolder depiction of the man who sits waiting patiently in a box, just around the corner.

-- Himali Singh Soin

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Artist Collections



U.S.A., U.K., Netherland, Canada, Dubai and many private collections in India...

Artist Favorites