B.F.A (Painting), Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U Baroda (2006)

2014 – Present – Faculty, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology

2023
● Curated and exhibited, ‘Who are these Outsiders?’, a group show at the India Art Fair for Gallery XXL.
● Executed Mural on the Indian Constitution in collaboration with eminent Gond artists and Padma Sri awardee Durga Bai and Subhash Vyam for Azim Premji University.
● Curated and exhibited, ‘Outsiders’, a seminal show of 25 artists about the post graffiti and street art movement in India, for Gallery XXL.
● Conceived, Scripted, Directed and Illustrated Immersive Reality installation for Art & Found.
● Presented paper on Art Pedagogy and Practice at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, with Ramesh Kalkur.
2022
● Collaborated with Ramesh Kalkur to Design, Implement and Administer the Visual Arts program for ASoSE (Dr. B.R Ambedkar School of Specialized Excellence), a project run by the Delhi Board of School Education
● Co-Curated and Produced BLR Design Week 2022.
● Part of the Core Team setting up the World Design Protopolis project, in collaboration between Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, ADI, Government of Karnataka, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the World Design Organisation.
● Hosted the first session of ’ LAFA: Art Practice & Pedagogy’ residency in Mussoorie, Uttaranchal.

2021
● Mentored online creative process of site specific response to Narrative provided by Jaaga India and Executed Mural under Wheeler Road Flyover, Cox Town Bangalore for Jaaga India
● Co- curated ‘Back to Square One’, an online dialogue on Indian Comics History, Forms of activating the Archive and it’s Pedagogical future with Abeer Gupta.

2020
● Contributing Artist and Editor for ‘Beloved Book’ a dark love story anthology of silent comics.
● Participating Artist, Abhivyakti Public Art Festival Ahmedabad

2019
● Executed Mural at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Official Residence, Patna.
● Participating Artist for ‘Graphic Content’ , Gallery Ark, Vadodara.
● Artist is Residence India – Hamburg weekend as part of the Hypercultural Passengers program in Veddel.

2018
● Produced the Indie Comix Fest, in the Rangoli Metro Art Center
● Co-Produced ‘The Comix Courtyard’, an open market for comix in the Courtyard
● Invited to display artwork at the Aicon Gallery, New York for a show titled ‘Thought Bubble’
● Presenting a paper at the Graphic Storytelling in India, a symposium jointly organized by Ambedkar University Delhi and Kiran Nadar Museum.

2017
● Curated and Produced the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Festival of Stories in the Cubbon Park Metro Station. The Festival happened once every two months and included works of students along with established and emerging artists.
● Invited as an Artist in Residence to the Facebook Office in Mumbai to create ‘ The Fire Cloud and Friends’ a site specific mural.
● Invited as artist for the Abu Dhabi Art Fair , created a site specific vinyl installation on public service bus.

2016
● Commenced work with the Art in Transit Project in the Cubbon Park Metro Station, Bangalore
● Curated and Produced the First Festival of Stories in the Cubbon Park Metro Station.
● Curated and Produced the Bangalore edition of the St+Art Festival.

2015
● Facilitated in creation of artwork in the Peenya Metro Station with Students from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology

2014
● Initiated the ‘Art in Transit’ project with Arzu Mistry.

2013
● Invited Artist for the Srishti Interim Program for the RBANMS walls near Ulsoor lake.
● Solo Exhibition, Message to Zero – 50 propositions to the public, The Guild, Mumbai
● Solo Exhibition ‘Projectile Prophecies’ Diesel+Art, Mumbai.

2012
● Participating artist, Indian Art Fair
● Participating Artist , Hong Kong Art Fair
● Participating artist, 2+2=5, Palette Art Gallery
● Participating artist, Glitch Frame Lollipop, Lattitude 28

2011
● Visiting Faculty, Srishti College of Art, Design and Technology

Since 2014 he has been Faculty at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology and from 2015 – 2019 was project lead in Art in Transit, a public art lab initiated with Arzu Mistry, which works extensively across public spaces in Bengaluru, focussing on the emerging Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation. Through the Art in Transit project, he has orchestrated a series of wide ranging, high intensity public events that included public propositions around comics, public murals, performances, installations, poetry, technology and a range of other creative practices.

As an active member of the Srishti Manipal community, he locates his interests in the intersection of pedagogy, policy, and art practice. This manifests in his continued initiation of framing institutional collaborations with state run bodies. He was part of the core team that resurrected the BLR Design Week project and relaunched the Protopolis campaign. He was elected the Events Lead for the ADI BLR chapter 2022 and collaborated with Bruhat Bengaluru Municipal Corporation (BBMP) and the Government of Karnataka to produce BLR Design Week 2022 and rebid for the World Design Protopolis award for the city of Bangalore. During this time, he was also the Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Skill Based Program (UGSBVP) and thoroughly enjoyed learning the administrative management of an Industry led pedagogic proposition. His tenure in the B.Voc. program gave him a broader perspective in curriculum design, pedagogic definitions, and student learning. He was allowed to further deepen his interest in these by being made the Project Manager for the Dr. B.R Ambedkar School of Specialised Excellence, Visual Arts Program. The project was to not only create Visual Art curriculum for grades, 9,10,11 and 12 in government schools run by Government of Delhi, but also run the program on ground, train the teachers and administer it for a period of 3 years. The project is still active. His continued work with state, educational and creative contexts allow him to explore ways through which art & design can be socially accessible & relevant and led him to co-author papers with Ramesh Kalkur that were presented in Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, The World Design Protopolis 2023 Symposium and most recently in a Design Education intensive hosted by IIT, Delhi.

Keywords: Image Making, Sequential Story Telling, Public Art Practice, Event Production, Creative Pedagogy as Art Practice, Curriculum Design

In the last academic year he has been actively building vision for the grades 11-12 for the ASoSe project with the Delhi Government – while continuing to successfully administer to running operations for grades 9 and 10. He has also taught a workshop on non static images, took a studio that helps 2D artists enter into the 3D illustration world, and for the last semester has been working with the graduating students of Srishti to explore the emerging creative economy. Rabbit Hole Radicals is a Final (8th) Semester project that locates itself in the expanding realms of creative practice and how rapidly evolving eco systems allow us newer ways to imagine our identity as artists, designers, and creative practitioners. With a wonderful bunch of 31 students, the project also allowed Amitabh to define attitudes and approaches to cultivate diversity and individuality in the learner, build criticality in the hyper systematised space of higher education and better shape creative identities of the future. If seen cumulatively, his work both in the school and higher education learning allows him a unique perspective into a broader 13-23 year old creative learner profile. He intends to deepen his study in this field and enrich the Creative Education program in Srishti through the adventures to come.

001_NonStatic Image – I always look forward to teaching CAP units, and a workshops makes the engagement only richer. With a learning through making intensive, where we explored the relationship that media, material and metaphors had with time – I encountered some remarkable student journeys and learnt a lot more about student vision empowerment, the role of a facilitator and learning from failure.

002_3D – the 3 D illustration unit was wonderful for me both as a visual artist and a facilitator – it allowed me to understand light, tone, texture and volume as elements that inform an image. For the students the classroom shifted from the lanes of Yelahanka, to the familiar comfort of their digital tablets, to material recreation of images, and finally to blender and digital illustration. Me and the students are indebted to Archit Vaze for selflessly giving time and mentoring the students during their final phase of blender production.

003_WallCall – Interim is always an exciting an expressive time for both students and faculty – and this time I worked with a 6 other faculties, 105 students and the amazing street art collective , Trespassers. The result is experienced everyday in campus and it gives more motivation for a robust culture of expression in the campus walls.

004_RHR_1- The 8th Semester has by far been one of the more profound and meaningful experiences in my decade long time at Srishti. Working with a motivated and self motivated bunch of 31 students – the project had many experts and luminaries share their understanding of the Creative Economy in the early stages of the project. Primary amongst them was Anil Kumar, pedagogue, artist and a cultural figure in Bangalore talk about the Chitra Santhe. Here is an excerpt from the invitation:
TRADING ART
(how not to lose money in art & art in itself)

Art Economies are a fraught idea, hegemonized by gallery oriented market values that don’t allow either access or metrics for gauging a social relationship that art has to the viewer and sustainable eco systems for the artist. Art becomes an idea trapped in an ivory tower- with many platforms and imaginations attempting to decontextualise and liberate it. Amongst the initiatives that have tried to disrupt this relationship, primary amongst them is Chitra Santhe – a peoples art market started by the Karnataka Chitra Kala Parishad that cuts away the middleman and gives artists direct access to patrons and art lovers. Join us for a session with artist and educator H.A Anil Kumar, as he traces how and why it began, who were the major proponents in its evolution, what does it come to mean today and what that represents for the larger artistic eco system.

This talk is part of a series of public events hosted by the 8th semester project, ‘ Rabbit Hole Radicals’ – it attempts to build a discourse around emerging creative economies and the mutating figure of the artist.

005_Manipal Foundation – this was an out of curriculum interaction with two students I had worked in the B.Voc. program. They had now joined the PGDP Bridge program and volunteered to paint this Mural for a primary school adopted by the Manipal Foundation.

006_RHR_2 To end with, it has been a wonderful year where I constantly feel that I have learnt more than the students. A group photo with the Rabbit Hole Radicals.

Amitabh has been able to, over the past decade, assimilate many worlds within his practice. In the past year itself he has displayed in and curated prominent contemporary art shows, collaborated with celebrated craft maestros for a mural, made story, script and art for an immersive reality projection mapping project. All this without compromising his duties as both SMI faculty, and running live classes for grades 9,10,11 and 12 in Rohini, Dwarka, I.P Extension and Andrewsganj in Delhi. He is currently trying to build definition for the Creative Education program at Srishti Manipal as its new Academic Dean and looks forward to learning more about creative pedagogy, building learning approaches for diversity and his own image making practice, which he is convinced is interconnected. There are lateral learnings that feed in from one form of practice to another – in as much as there are similar cadences to making an image, administering a curriculum and defining pedagogic agendas. Keywords: Street Artist, Comic Book Artist, Event Producer, Publisher, Curator.