Nature Morte is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by the artist L.N.Tallur.

“Montessori: Lessons in Economics” is the artist’s first solo show in Europe and brings together a number of recent sculptures that exemplify the artist’s wit and deft manipulation of materials when commenting on politics and society.

As the title of the show implies, L.N. Tallur assumes the role of a cheeky educator, carefully setting up participatory experiments and sculptural propositions, that offer so-called solutions for the current economic crisis. His highly orchestrated presentations aim to control and manipulate the viewer’s expectations and echo the “packaging” of solutions known from the realms of politics and education.

Having studied both art and museology, L.N. Tallur draws from a wide spectrum of cultural references, ranging from art history, Hindu iconography, a globalized economy and popular culture. A series of personal migrations from his original hometown of Koteswara (a village in the southern Indian state Karnataka), to the likes of Leeds in the U.K. and his current home Daegu City in South Korea have sharpened L.N.Tallur’s eye for the complexities of trading in cultural goods. He often uses reproductions of classical Asian sculptures as a starting point for his work, which he then manipulates, injures or even decapitates to accentuate the absurdities of cultural, monetary and symbolic exchange values.

Another re-occurring theme in his work is the nature of value itself. In several works he uses actual coins, sometimes polished so as to be washed of their sins and civilized, or embedded in concrete to become eternal, they poignantly point to our complex relationship with currencies and wealth, laden with desire, fear and anxiety.

L.N. Tallur was born in 1971 in the south Indian state of Karnataka. He received a BFA degree in painting from the Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts in Mysore in 1996, an MFA degree in museology from the MS University in Baroda in 1998, and an MA in Fine Art from the Metropolitan University in Leeds, UK, in 2002. Recent solo shows of his works have been held at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2011); Nature Morte, New Delhi (2011), Arario Gallery, Beijing (2010); Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai (2009); Arario Gallery, New York (2008); and Arario Gallery, Seoul (2007). In addition to receiving the Sanskriti Award from the Sanskriti Foundation of New Delhi in 2003 and having his works included in many group exhibitions around the world, Tallur’s large-scale installation entitled “Souvenir Maker” was recently exhibited at the Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Singapore. His work will be included in the upcoming Asia Pacific Triennale at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India, both opening in December 2012.The artist currently divides his time between India and South Korea.