Ved Prakash Gupta is not afraid to speak his mind. This young, Baroda-based Indian artist creates blatantly satirical works intended to mock, provoke, and parody. For Gupta, art is a way of commenting on a contemporary India struggling with corruption and greed, caught in the whirlpool of rapid globalization. Based on personal experiences with India’s caste- and class-conscious society, Gupta’s works make no attempt to mask their social commentary and are paradoxically both painful and refreshing to view—painful because they bring up truths that we would rather brush aside and refreshing because of their innate honesty and often tongue-in-cheek humor. Yet Gupta wants more from his work than just a critique of social mores—it must also provoke a desire for change. As he emphatically states, “The aesthetic experience of my art is important, but the message is more valuable.” …see the entire article in the print version of January/February’s Sculpture magazine.
