Nature Morte is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by Neeraj Patel. Patel is a painter who explores multiple mediums in order to bring a diversity of approaches to his language. The large-scale paintings that are the main focus of the exhibition develop Patel’s particular style of abstraction that he has culled from a digital reality. The artist states that he is interested in the faults, glitches, and errors in the systems we interact with on a daily basis, and his paintings resemble computer coding or the sequencing of genetic material. This is a reality we know through science, hypothetical postulates which we have come to accept as the foundations of our world. While Patel’s paintings acknowledge their ancestry in the schools of geometric abstraction founded by Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian and the minimalism of Nasreen Mohammedi and Sol Lewitt, they are equally indebted to the interfaces and patterns we inhabit through our Smart Phones. There is a studied elegance to Patel’s paintings, his repetitive mark-making and precision engaging both a handmade and a machine-made approach.

Works from two other series accompany the large paintings in the exhibition. The works entitled “Industrial Landscapes” are inspired by the artist’s repeated investigations of the ruined and repurposed industrial architecture around Baroda. These are low-relief works constructed from cut and layered paper, their colors and textures adding depth to the imagery. In these works, one feels a sense of obsolescence and abandonment as they are pictures of interstitial moments in both time and space, reminiscent of buildings that have lost their original purpose and now hang in an awkward balance. The works from the “Entangled Spaces” series further reduce this vocabulary into metal constructions that hang directly on the wall without any support or framing. Patel speaks of these works as being both more immediate and more imaginary, their inherent fragility at odds with their complex compositions.

Born in 1987 at Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Neeraj Patel completed his B.A. from JNV University, Jodhpur (Rajasthan) in 2008 and his M.A. in Drawing & Painting from Mohan Lal Sukhadiya University, Udaipur (Rajasthan) in 2010. He has also completed an M.F.A in Art Design & Performance from Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh). He has previously shown his work at ART 507 Gallery, Seoul; And.N Gallery, Seoul; EBC, Mexico City; Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; Bikaner House, New Delhi; and Shrine Empire, New Delhi.