The Usha-Pariksha Collection is a diverse group of artwork by contemporary artists working in South India. It was carefully selected and assembled over the course of a year, purchased piece by piece, directly from individual artists. The Usha-Pariksha Collection, Collect World Art's first, is so named because this pair of Sanskrit words can be translated as morning light, or dawn (usha), and a trial, or testing (pariksha). This name, then, suggests something of the unique, experimental approach to world art that Collect World Art aims at with its debut collection.

Art in Context / Art Contextualized

Underlying this unique, experimental approach is Collect World Art’s commitment to acquiring art that has been created in particular contexts, including regional and personal contexts, and to present it within those contexts. In the Usha-Pariksha Collection focuses on the regional context of South India. These artists draw on a regionally-specific, shared bank of cultural, linguistic, and stylistic symbols, which inform their respective works in disparate ways. All of the artists represented in the Usha-Pariksha Collection make use of traditional images and forms in their art, but each makes significant departures from the traditional. Collectively, their artistic sensibilities are shaped but not confined by their regional context.

Each work presented here was created in, and acquired in, a personal context. In most cases the artist has had extended discussions with us about a particular work’s content and the circumstances surrounding its creation, usually in the artist’s own home, in their first language or “mother tongue.” These pieces were hand-selected in conversation with the artists, and with appreciation of the personal contexts the artwork was embedded in. This collection showcases the talent of a number of extraordinarily creative artists who are engaged with Collect World Art in an ongoing cross-cultural exchange.

This cross-cultural exchange is exemplified perhaps most clearly by the individual artist’s enthusiasm about participating in this new and experimental art venture. In conversations with us about some of the diverse uses for their artistic creations, many of the artists took on the role of collaborators, making suggestions and sharing their own ideas. Several were eager to develop and apply ideas that emerged in these conversations to new paintings and collages they were working on, and to extend the dialogue about innovative applications for their art. This willingness to experiment with new forms and functions and to craft new iterations for elements of traditional Indian art characterizes the Usha-Pariksha Collection and characterizes the contemporary South Indian artistic idiom.