Crafting her First Decade: Gunjan Gupta
TAKE on art|July - December 2016

Most design-artists would be pleased to participate in one international design show in Italy to mark the 10th anniversary of their practice; Gunjan Gupta gets to celebrate the milestone with two.

Aparna Piramal Raje
Crafting her First Decade: Gunjan Gupta

The internationally acclaimed, Delhi-based design-artist and Founder of Studio Wrap, is presenting furniture pieces at both the Triennale di Milano, a design museum in Milan, from April to September 2016, as well as the prestigious Venice Architecture Biennale from May to November 2016. Both shows have been sponsored by Alamak!, a pan-Asian curated design collective that has provided Gupta with the ideal platform to present her works. The Indian government’s ‘Make In India’ initiative has also supported the Venice show.

Each show presents dramatically different aspects of the designer’s work. When seen together they trace her evolution as a contemporary Indian design-artist, credited with introducing an inventive cultural narrative to community-based crafts production.

At the Triennale, in a show called ‘21st Century Design. Design After Design’, Gupta showcased a trio of street stories: the Bori Throne, Gadda Throne and Potli Chair. Each piece elevated ordinary elements of Indian street life — bicycle parts, mattresses and jute sacks — into objects of artistic discourse through larger than-life storytelling.

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