WELCOME TO FORWARDISM. IN THE SECOND YEAR OF ‘THE FUTURE IS BORN OF ART’ COMMISSION BY INDIA ART FAIR AND BMW INDIA, ARTISTS ADITI AGGARWAL, DEVIKA SUNDAR, RITHIKA PANDEY AND SAJID WAJID SHAIKH SHOW US WHAT OUR FUTURE HOLDS

India Art Fair and BMW India are coming together for the second iteration of ‘The Future is Born of Art’ Commission after its hugely successful inauguration at India Art Fair 2022. We return with the theme of ‘Forwardism’ that highlights our shared mission to create a bold and progressive future, as always, through the vision and talent of young trailblazing Indian artists. 

The four shortlisted artists for the 2023 Commission — Aditi Aggarwal, Devika Sundar, Rithika Pandey and Sajid Wajid Shaikh — each bring their unique backgrounds, aesthetics and interpretations of the theme. With the power and potential of these artists, ‘Forwardism’ marks the beginning of a new movement in art, shaped by individuals unafraid to break with convention and define the progressive values of tomorrow. The BMW X7 will be the platform for the theme and mission, and the canvas for the winning artist of the Commission, who will design a wrap for the car showing us what taking a leap into the future looks like to them.

The shortlisted artists for the Commission were selected by a jury that represents some of the most influential voices in Indian art — Dr. Deepanjana Klein, the Director of Acquisitions and Development at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra, acclaimed artist duo, Shalini Passi, collector and founder of MASH, and Jaya Asokan, Fair Director at India Art Fair. “Our focus as a jury this year was to pick out artists truly charting their own paths and making the art of the future, with the aim of passing the baton on to this next generation of artists to design our collective tomorrow,” shared Jaya Asokan on the process of selecting the shortlisted artists.

For Sajid Wajid Shaikh, “the future is a dream.” The Mumbai-based artist, known for his colourful and “trippy” digital art, brings a psychedelic and surreal vision for the future in his BMW X7 wrap design. “The images on my wrap reflect a lucid dream, encouraging the suspension of disbelief,” says the artist about his method of ‘psychic automatism’ in which the unconscious mind takes control over the artistic process. In a vision that’s uniquely his, the artist offers a deeply emotional and psychological interpretation of what the future holds for all of us, with humour, colour and wit. 

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Bank of New York commissioned me to portray everyday India in its most colourful and vibrant identity through its people.

the result was a series of six digital paintings of street vendors showing the joy of being in the moment.

Occupying the space between dreams and reality, Surrealism is a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious. Explore this heady bed collection brimming with the beauty of the unexpected and uncanny.

Agency: What's Your Problem 

n the early 1930’s, a little boy named Pheeko would wait for a traveling fakir to stop by his home village of Kotla Sultan Singh and follow him on his rounds, imitating his chants as they went along. Later, living in the cultural and film hub of Lahore, Pheeko hummed songs during work at a relative’s barber shop. Customers noticed his talent – as did his brother, who arranged for Pheeko to train under Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan in the face of immense opposition from their father.

Pheeko grew up to be Mohammed Rafi, the king of playback singing in India. Pheeko has nearly five thousand songs to his credit across a range of genres (including romantic ballads, rock and roll, and classical music) and languages (including Hindi, English, Arabic, Persian, Sinhalese, Creole, and Dutch).

The dreamy romance of ‘Chaudhvi ka Chand’ won Rafi his first Filmfare award in 1960, to be followed by five more. In 1977 he was awarded the National Award for ‘Kya Hua Tera Wada.’ He was feted by the Indian government with the Padma Shri in 1967.

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Born on this day in 1944 to a family of musicians, Lachhu Maharaj (born as Lakshmi Narayan Singh), was one of the most celebrated tabla players of his time. Maharaj trained under his father,

Vasudev Maharaj, and started performing at an early age. As a child, his gifts caught the attention oflegendary tabla player Ahmed Jaan Thirakwa, who was deeply impressed by Maharaj’s performance at just eight years old.

Lachhu Maharaj was best known for his inherent sense of rhythm which was best exemplified in his solo performances. Even though he played alongside nearly all the greatest tabla players of his time,

his solo performance are the most remembered. Girija Devi, whom he often collaborated with, claimed that “he would play for hours without repeating himself, new gats, tukras and

parans, leaving his audiences awestruck.”

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Animal collaborated with 6 artists to design 6 stunning surfboards for adidas Originals to

launch their new Pharrell Williams ‪#‎PinkBeach‬ collection in India.

I recently volunteered to take a tour around Dharavi, One of the largest slum in the world and portray the small scale industries around in a positive light and also explain how Reality Gives helps as an NGO to empower people in the area with better educational facilities and employment schemes. For an initiative called india starts with I. 
Reality Gives is the sister organisation of ethically run tour company, Reality Tours & Travel. Reality Tours was created in 2005 by Krishna Pujari and Chris Way, with the main objective to show the positive side of slums and to break down negative stereotypes about its residents, and Dharavi in particular. 
After discussing the community's needs with its residents, in 2007 Reality Tours set up a Community Centre in Dharavi to provide English and computer classes, using tour revenues and as Reality Tours grew, the founders decided to expand on their social work. In August 2009, the NGO Reality Gives was born. 
Reality Gives was formed with the view of getting involved in education, a focus driven through consultation with residents of Dharavi, who felt this was the area where they most needed help. The vision and mission statement hence evolved from that as well as from our experiences meeting people and organisations in the education sector.

Since it's inception Reality has worked close with established and esteemed organisations to ensure the opportunities it provides are of the highest standard, which has seen educational non-profit Muktangan and organisational development consultant ATMA providing vital support.

Brick gym is one of the leading fitness chains in the US of A, BBDO NY comissioned us to create a

series of fitness matryoshka dolls that we designed  by hand to bring to life the essence of the campaign.

It received rave reviews and when the campaign ended we were awarded with a Clio nestled inside.

Agency: BBDO New York

Client: BRICK

Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars

Chief Creative Officer, New York: Greg Hahn

Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Bianca Guimaraes

Senior Copywriter: Rodrigo Linhares

Senior Art Director: Florian Marquardt

Director of Integrated Production: David Rolfe

Executive Producer: Neely Lisk

Lead Integrated Producer: Courtney Fallow

Photographer: Billy Siegrist / Koji Yahagi

Physical Designer/3D Model: Jeian Jeong

Type Designer: Marcelo Righini

Digital Production Company: Visorama Diversões Eletrônicas

Account Manager: Samanta Martins

Stop Motion Artist: Luciano do Amaral

2D Digital Animator: José Bessa

3D Modeling Artist: Elisa Branco

Illustrator: Sajid wajid shaikh

fitnestingdoll.com

adidas Originals Gazelle : The Concept

Being relevant is what sparks the need to be creative. Gazelle, another iconic sneaker from the house of adidas Originals will make some serious noise this fall-winter. Having been stood the test of time by being constantly re-appropriated, Gazelle celebrates the truth that creativity rarely occurs in a vacuum, but often ends up borrowing and adapting itself to a pre-existing something.

Re-Appropriation Art : What's that?

Re-Appropriation is using an already available palette, an already existing piece of art perhaps, that is dated - and to take that piece, and play with it visually and conceptually, in order to 're-appropriate' it to a contemporary context. Popularly confused with stealing - our idea is to change the purpose of the artwork, and in that process, creating something relevant to today. 

For Gazelle, we got a few young connoisseurs together and shot them in iconic clothing from past decades starting from the 1960's to 2000's. However, they will be sporting the Gazelle sneakers. These photographs are then used by 5 artists in each city to re-appropriate and re-use in their own style (Digitally or by hand). All artworks will be displayed at adidas Originals stores in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore

for the launch of Gazelle

Creative Director : Kunel Gaur

Agency : Animal

Illustrate a set of 24 stickers for use across Google products including their new messaging app, Allo.

P.S This set is currently the most used in global top 5 (Google Statistics)

Assigned Theme: Prem Pyare. This poet-lover is a man of many emotions, but he expresses them in a special andaaz of his own.

Art Direction : Sanket Avlani (A good feeling)

Animation : Rajeev Maurya (Kreative Garage)

Elle Magazine India Approached me to design there Annual Horoscope 2016