Galerie Geek Art announces the curatorial vision for 2024-25- Medium as the Muse, presented at the 16th edition of the India Art Fair (IAF), bringing together artists GOMA, Harsha Durugadda, Mari Ito, Motoi Yamamoto, Pannaphan Yodmanee, Shun Sudo, and Tarini Sethi.

Medium as the Muse explores how artists interact with their chosen mediums—as catalysts, collaborators, and source of inspiration. These interactions shape both their creative process and expression. From pigments, sumi ink to wood, metal, cement, and washi paper, each artist works through a distinct material language, forging a dynamic exchange between form and essence. Layered surfaces, carved textures, intricate patterns and fluid compositions illuminate the curation’s deeper exploration of creation and materiality.

Galerie Geek Art continues to cultivating artistic innovation, presenting works that expand creative horizons, redefine form, and invite deeper contemplation on the evolving lexicon of creativity and expression.

Pannaphan Yodmanee
B. 1988 in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand

Pannaphan Yodmanee  is a renowned contemporary artist who began her journey with traditional Thai art and temple wall restoration at Wat Ka Pied temple. She further honed her skills at Silpakorn Art University in Bangkok, where she embraced installation, performance, and film, exploring contemporary art’s diverse possibilities.Her art blends found objects, rocks, minerals, and painted elements, creating immersive works that bridge Eastern and Western influences and evoke spiritual dimensions. Based in Bangkok, Yodmanee gained international recognition with exhibitions at London’s Saatchi Gallery and the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.In 2016, she won the Benesse Prize at the Singapore Biennale for Aftermath, an installation merging Buddhist cosmology with modern techniques. Subsequent installations, including The Last Day (2018) and Quarterly Myth (2019), explored themes of time, memory, and myth. Her work is now featured in prominent collections, including the Singapore Art Museum and the Queensland Art Gallery. 

Shun Sudo
B. 1977 in Tokyo, Japan and currently in Tokyo & New York

Shun Sudo is a contemporary artist based in Tokyo, known for his diverse works in painting, sculpture, and drawing. Raised in Tokyo, Sudo was influenced by both traditional Japanese culture and the city’s evolving street culture. His art explores themes of connection, peace, and love, alongside the relationship between art and movement. After moving to the U.S. in his 20s, Sudo taught himself art techniques while traveling the world.Sudo’s practice blends elements from Japanese and American pop and street cultures—such as skateboarding, graffiti, manga, and anime—alongside traditional Japanese painting and Sumi-e (ink painting). This fusion creates a harmonious yet heterogeneous aesthetic, breaking the conventional boundaries between “high” and “low” art. While his paintings draw from Pop Art, they also carry a critical perspective on social and political issues, reflecting Sudo’s unique viewpoint on contemporary life.

GOMA
B. 1973 inTokyo, Japan

GOMA is a celebrated didgeridoo player and painter, renowned for blending tradition with contemporary artistry. In 1998, he became the first non-Indigenous winner of Australia’s Barunga Didgeridoo Competition. Returning to Tokyo, he founded the Jungle Rhythm Section, merging dance and world music with his didgeridoo innovations.A near-fatal car accident in 2009 left GOMA with traumatic brain injury and anterograde amnesia, yet it sparked an unexpected passion for painting. Diagnosed with acquired Savant Syndrome in 2018, his intricate dot paintings reflect vivid landscapes he visualized during comas, capturing subconscious realities.Despite challenges, GOMA resumed his music career in 2011, gaining acclaim with the award-winning film Flashback Memories 3D. His journey, featured on Japanese TV, highlights resilience and creativity. Today, GOMA inspires global audiences as a musician, painter, and lecturer, embodying the transformative power of art in navigating adversity.

Mari Ito
B. 1980 inTokyo, Japan and currently based in Barcelona, Spain

Mari Ito is a contemporary artist specializing in Nihonga, Japanese-style painting. After moving to Barcelona in 2006, she expanded her practice to include 2-D and sculptural works, blending traditional techniques with a unique, bold aesthetic. Her art draws from childhood experiences and explores animism, desire, and the primal aspects of human nature, often featuring flowers with faces to convey humor and emotion.Ito’s work has been exhibited internationally in cities like Barcelona, Basel, Istanbul, and New York. Notable exhibitions include Gaudi’s Casa Vicenç in Barcelona and the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid. She has also participated in major art fairs in Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore, Miami, and Tokyo, and was a featured artist at ARCO Madrid in 2023. Her collaborations with brands such as Lilien Berg, Bershka, and Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi showcase her versatility in blending art with contemporary culture.

Motoi Yamamoto
B. 1966 in Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan and currently Based in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan

Motoi Yamamoto is a Japanese artist known for his poignant explorations of memory, time, and commemoration. Using salt, a symbol of purification and memory in Japanese culture, he creates intricate labyrinths that symbolize the gathering of departed souls’ memories. His process is ritualistic and meditative, inviting contemplation on life’s transience and collective memory. Graduating from Kanazawa College of Art in 1995, Yamamoto currently resides in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. In addition to his salt installations, he produces detailed acrylic and pencil works and collaborates with various companies. Yamamoto’s work has been exhibited globally in renowned venues such as MoMA P.S.1 in New York, The Hermitage State Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and the Setouchi Triennale. His solo exhibitions have toured extensively across the United States, reflecting his profound exploration of memory and ritual through art.

Tarini Sethi
B.1989 in New Delhi, India

Tarini Sethi is a contemporary artist whose practice delves into themes of intimacy, sexuality, and mythology. Drawing inspiration from folklore and traditional Indian art forms like Kalighat, Miniature painting, Kavad, and Tholu Bommalata, Sethi constructs dreamlike worlds through a multimedia approach, including painting, drawing, and metal sculpture. Her works have been featured in Architectural Digest India and showcased at events like the Mumbai Urban Arts Festival. Sethi’s art navigates complex realities, addressing mental health, political skepticism, and environmental concerns. Her subjects—hybrid beings that blur the lines between human and animal—inhabit intricate, labyrinthine spaces. These figures explore emotions and interactions, challenging societal norms around gender, beauty, and identity. As an Indian woman confronting issues of scrutiny and sexual oppression, Sethi’s work centers on bodies as vessels for agency and liberation. Her creations envision a utopian space where traditional boundaries dissolve, inviting freedom and transformation.

Harsha Durugadda
B. 1989 Hyderabad, India

Born in 1989, Harsha Durugadda is a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture and performance art, known for his explorations of sound, vibration, rhythm, and separation in sculptural form. Based in Hyderabad, he creates large-scale interactive works that encourage tactile engagement and participatory relationships, blurring the line between form, sound, and movement. His artistic process investigates how interaction itself becomes a performative act, shaping meaning through experience. Harsha’s sculptural language incorporates various materials, primarily wood, drawing from medieval and modern architectural references to create works that oscillate between past and present, regional and personal, material and spiritual. His layered wooden forms echo geological strata, referencing timelessness, coexistence, and transformation. Harsha studied Visual Communication at WLC College, New Delhi (2011) and Arts and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU, 2016). His work has been exhibited at Nord Art (Germany), CICA Museum (South Korea), Sculpture by the Sea (Australia), and Art Centrix Space (New Delhi). In 2014, he was invited by the Courtauld Institute of Art to present at the British Museum, London. His accolades include the Rio Tinto Sculpture Award (2017), Biafarin Award (2018), and the Andrea Stretton Memorial Award (2016). Harsha’s practice continues to redefine sculptural expression, engaging with the poetics of material, space, and interaction.