Manu Singh

Blessing

Mandeep Singh Manu the young, budding artist has a great sense of colours and produces wonderful compositions by using mouse and keyboard as his tools, and monitor screen as his canvas.

At this young age, he has achieved so many goals. He has already a berth in the National Exhibition at Lalit Kala Acedamy New Delhi and some international exhibitions. His personality is going bettor and bettor after getting recognition in international exhibitions.

His colour sense, the flow of colours in his creations, the small and background figures, made him so strong to overcome his physical handicappedness. No doubt he will touch new heights in his creative world.


Avtar Singh Sculptor
Amrisat

Awards
1.Punjab Govt. Honored me by STATE AWARD (PARMAN PATRA) during Independence day by CM PUNJAB S. Parkash Singh Badal at Ferozpur ,(15 Aug. 2010)
2.2nd Agnipath All India Art Competition and Exhibition in Travancore Art Galleries, Delhi (2006)
3.2nd Annual Indian Royal Academy Awards –2005 at Gulbarga, Karnataka
4.70th All India Exhibition of Fine Art in Amritsar - 2004
5.Vocational Award-2004 by Rotary Club Amritsar North.
6.Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan Award for Excellence in teaching at Year 2006 from
Spring Dale Educational Society, Amritsar.

Physical disability no constraint for this artist
Sanjay Bumbroo
Tribune News Service

Physical -disability is no constraint for 24-year-old Mandeep Singh “Manu”, a self-taught computer graphics artist, who has carved a niche for himself among the renowned artists of the Holy City.

While talking to The Tribune, the artist said he got attracted to computer graphics after he started learning accounts on the machine. “With encouragement from Mr Avtar Singh, a sculptor who runs the Thakur Singh Art Gallery, my art got a voice.”

Also impressed by his work was Mr Parminderjit Singh, the editor of Akkhar, a weekly magazine. “He used some of my works as titles in various issues of the magazine.”

Describing the art of computer graphics, Mandeep Singh said it was like a collage. “There are pictures of sceneries, faces and figures. All of them have a meaning. The artist breaks and joins these pictures to create a composition, which in itself is complete and different. It’s different because there is no need for colours, brushes and canvases. Here the computer is the tool and the monitor is the canvas.”

“Sometimes it happened that I tried to depict one subject, but the end result turned out to be different,” he said.

A student of B.A. (Major) in History from IGNOU, the artist has won an award in the 70th All India Exhibition of Fine Art, in the 2nd Annual Indian Royal Academy Awards – 2005 at Gulbarga in Karnataka. He also got the Vocational Award in 2004 from Rotary Club (Amritsar).



2005/20051229/aplus.htm

Self-taught graphics artist wins state award
G.S. Paul
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 17
Here, computer mouse was the ‘tool’ and its monitor was the ‘canvas’, the rest was his own conception, which got him to share the dais with other renowned artistes chosen for this year’s state honours.

Meet Amritsar-based Mandeep Singh Manu, who was conferred the “Praman Patra” award at a state-level function held at Ferozepur, on the occasion of the Independence Day celebrations this year.

The government awarded 25 personalities of Punjab in different categories during the function.

Manu bagged this award in the category of visual art. He was presented with a certificate, a medal, a shawl and a cash award of Rs 11,000 by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Presently working at Cambridge International School as graphics art teacher, Manu has been suffering from Cerebral Palsy from his lower limbs since birth.

Nonetheless, the physical-disability was no limitation for the 29-year-old. This self-taught computer graphics artist, indeed, stands tall in the crowd and has earned himself a name among the noted artists of the holy city.

While talking to The Tribune, Manu said after coming across an advertisement asking applications for “overall contribution in art”, he though himself to be eligible. “I never dreamt that I would be chosen for the award. Though I had full confidence in me which I earned by winning various national or international competitions in art,” he said.

It all started by chance when he opted to learn accounts on the computer. Then, he realised that computer graphic software can be put to use in a better way to project one’s feelings.

“Every picture speaks for itself, I believe. You just need to feel it. Once you get deep into a picture, a spiritual feel which overcomes you,” he said.

Manu, a graduate in history from IGNOU, has been felicitated with a number of awards.

His work was included during the International Touring Collection art exhibition in Common Ground 2008, which was organised at Haun Tie Art Museum, Beijing, during Olympics. This exhibition toured around 20 countries.

An year ago, he participated in Visual Aid’s “get out of jail free” art exhibition at the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Gallery in the San Francisco, 9th Tehran International Poster Biennial 2007 at Iran, besides 20th All India Art Exhibition 2007 at Lokemanya Tilak Smarak Mandir, Pune and group exhibition Young Call held at Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal 2007.

He won an award in the 70th All India Exhibition of Fine Arts, in the 2nd Annual Indian Royal Academy Awards - 2005 at Gulbarga in Karnataka and also got the Vocational Award in 2004 from Rotary Club (Amritsar).

Camp/Workshop
1.Senior Students Graphics Workshop organized at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal (2006)
2.Painting Workshop organized at Virsa Vihar Society in Amritsar (2010)
3.Water Colour Workshop organized at Indian Academy of Fine Arts in Amritsar (2010)
4.1st All India Art Workshop organized at Virsa Vihar Society in Amritsar (2012)




Workshop / Demonstration/ Conference
1.Workshop on Digital Art in Dept. of Computer Graphics, Government College of Art, Chandigarh - 26 Sep to 30 Sep, 2011
2.Workshop on Digital Art in Dept. Fine Art, BBK DAV College, Amritsar, Punjab-10 Jan to 14 Jan, 2012.
3.Workshop on Digital Art& Adobe Illustrator in Dept. Computer Science & IT,
DAV College, Amritsar, Punjab -5, 6 March, 2012.
4.Workshop on Digital Art in Dept. Fine Art, Ramgharia Girls College,
Ludhiana, Punjab - 29 Feb to 2 March, 2012.
5.Participated in International Conference A Visual Dialogue On Contemporary Indian Art Sponsored by UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSSION, NEW DELHI Organized by PG Dept. Fine Arts BBK DAV College for Women Amritsar. (Nov. 10-12, 2010)

A r t P o r t f o l i o
Mandeep Singh Manu
(Self-Taught Artist)
R-36, Focal Point, Near old Water Tank, Mehta Road, Amritsar-143006, Punjab, India
Contact Numbers: 09646166204
Email: ,
Website: manusingh
Date of Birth:
Oct 6, 1981
Qualification
B.A (Major in History from IGNOU)
Awards
1. Punjab Govt. Honored me by STATE AWARD (PARMAN PATRA) during Independence day by CM PUNJAB S. Parkash Singh Badal at Ferozpur ,(15 Aug. 2010)
2. 2nd Agnipath All India Art Competition and Exhibition in Travancore Art Galleries, Delhi (2006)
3. 2nd Annual Indian Royal Academy Awards –2005 at Gulbarga, Karnataka
4. 70th All India Exhibition of Fine Art in Amritsar - 2004
5. Vocational Award-2004 by Rotary Club Amritsar North.
6. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan Award for Excellence in teaching at Year 2006 from
Spring Dale Educational Society, Amritsar.

Exhibitions

1. Solo exhibition held at S.G.Thakur Singh Art Gallery Amritsar, with collaboration
of IAFA (Oct. 2003).
2. Solo exhibition held at Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar. (Dec 2003)
3. Solo exhibition held at Punjab Natshala, Amritsar. (May 2004)
4. Group exhibition “Young Call” held at Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal (Sep. 2007).
5. Group Exhibition held at Virsa Vihar Society in Amritsar 2008
6. Slide Show in Virsa Vihar Society in Amritsar 2009
7. Group Exhibition held at Virsa Vihar Society in Amritsar 2011
8. Group exhibition Dustak-II held at Gallery Artmosphere Ludhiana 2011.
9. Group exhibition held at Varnam Art Gallery in Madurai Tamil Nadu 2011.
10. Group Exhibition Art Persons (contemporary Artists OF Amritsar) held at
Alpha One Amritsar ,2012

International Participations
1.International Touring Collection art exhibition in Common Ground 2008, which will be organized at Haun Tie Art Museum Beijing.
2.Participated in Visual Aid’s “Get out of Jail Free” art exhibition at the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Gallery in the San Francisco LGBT Community Center from CA April 2 – May 12, 2007.
3.Participated in 9th Tehran International Poster Biennial 2007 at Iran.
4.Art Work selected at Malaysia in MIMF 2009.
5.Participated in Wroclaw Mail Art Project 2010 Poland
6.Participated in Mail Art Project “Mournful demon is spirit of banishment (love story)” 2010 Russia
7.Participated in Mail Art Project "TIME" in Russia 2011
8.Participated in I 104 ARTISTI PROVENIENTI DA 25 NAZIONI PARTECIPANTI AL PROGETTO MAIL ART”LORENZAGO APERTA 2011”In Italy
9.Participated in Mail Art Postcard Exhibition in USA-2011
10.Participated in5th Edition of Open Doors Mail Art Exhibition in Argentina 2011
11.Participated in KAUNAS BIENNIAL TEXTILE’11 satellite exhibition “GEORGE MACIUNAS AND BEYOND : FLUXUS NEVER STOPS” in Lithuania 2011
12.Participated in Mail Art Amazons on the occasion of the event in October 2010 in France.
13.Art Work selected at Malaysia in MIMF 2012
14.International Mountain Day - International Mountain Day 2011" held in the International Year of Forests, Rome hosts a major event of art and culture in the headquarters of the FAO, the United Nations.






Participations in India
1. Participated in 69th All India Exhibition of Fine Art in Amritsar (2003)
2. Participated in 46th National Exhibition of Art 2004 at Lalit Kala Akedemi Delhi, held at Kerla
3. Participated in 76th Annual Art Exhibition 2004 at AIFACS Delhi.
4. Participated in 70th All India Exhibition of Fine Art in Amritsar (2004)
5. Participated in 71st All India Exhibition of Fine Art in Amritsar (2005)
6. Participated in 2nd Annual Indian Royal Academy Awards –2005 at Gulbarga, Karnataka
7. Participated in 2nd Agnipath All India Art Competition and Exhibition at Artist’s Centre, Mumbai & Travancore Art Galleries, Delhi (2006)
8. Participated in 71st All India Annual Art Exhibition at Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (2006)
9. Participated in 20th All India Art Exhibition 2007at Lokemany Tilak Smarak Mandir, Pune.
10. 12th Annual art Exhibition The Creators in Ambala
11. Participated in 76th All India Exhibition of Fine Art in Amritsar (2010)
12. Participated in Annual Art Exhibition at Punjab Lalit kala Akademi Chandigarh (2010)
13. 1st International Drawings & Graphic Prints Exhibition in Chandigarh 2011
14. 2nd All India Digital Art Exhibition in AIFACS New Delhi Feb- 2012
15. 2nd International Exhibition in Chandigarh 2012

Camp/Workshop
1. Senior Students Graphics Workshop organized at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal (2006)
2. Painting Workshop organized at Virsa Vihar Society in Amritsar (2010)
3. Water Colour Workshop organized at Indian Academy of Fine Arts in Amritsar (2010)
4. 1st All India Art Workshop organized at Virsa Vihar Society in Amritsar (2012)




Workshop / Demonstration/ Conference
1. Workshop on Digital Art in Dept. of Computer Graphics, Government College of Art, Chandigarh - 26 Sep to 30 Sep, 2011
2. Workshop on Digital Art in Dept. Fine Art, BBK DAV College, Amritsar, Punjab-10 Jan to 14 Jan, 2012.
3. Workshop on Digital Art& Adobe Illustrator in Dept. Computer Science & IT,
DAV College, Amritsar, Punjab -5, 6 March, 2012.
4. Workshop on Digital Art in Dept. Fine Art, Ramgharia Girls College,
Ludhiana, Punjab - 29 Feb to 2 March, 2012.
5. Participated in International Conference A Visual Dialogue On Contemporary Indian Art Sponsored by UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSSION, NEW DELHI Organized by PG Dept. Fine Arts BBK DAV College for Women Amritsar. (Nov. 10-12, 2010)

Work Experience
5 Year Teaching Experience in Spring Dale Senior School in Amritsar.
Now Teaching at Cambridge International School, Amritsar.

Imported Information
My Work accepted for the research topic “Indian Digital Art in Contemporary World–A Critical Survey” from Banasthali University by Dr.Tripti Singh, Ph.D. (Digital Art), Lecturer,
D.G.P.G.College, Kanpur.

Collections
S.G.Thakur Singh Art Gallery Amritsar, Heritage Fashion House New Delhi, Padamshree Dr.Daljit Singh Eye Surgeon, GNDU, USA, China, Japan, Delhi, Punjab at some private collections

Publications
Catalogue Designed of IAFA, AIFACS, GNDU, Many work published as title of books.

‘THE SOUNDS OF RAGA AASA’

A call from a friend
“A boy from Amritsar wishes to meet you.
He is an artist, Manu is his name,
He has been nominated and awarded by some prestigious institutions,
his elder brother Sandeep will call you soon they are in Delhi these days”

“so you have come from ‘Guru ka Ghar’( Amritsar )
.. welcome Manu, Your work is really very good, imaginative, soulful, living, lots of colors, hues and variations.”
No, these paintings are not coming from age experience; they are coming from within and a bliss from some where unknown, unexplained existence
He is very young, he has not learnt techniques to paint.
He is working on a virtual surface of computer screen on a very high-tech software
with the help of sixteen million colors and unlimited hues.

All over the world, these days artists are using different mediums to express themselves. The role of Multimedia is very important in art expression.
Expressing ones ideas is a virtual reality. On internet blogs and web pages are becoming more important means of communication, faster and necessary.

Manu is expressing himself with this new medium
Working on the virtual space and get them printed on the real space of paper.
These wonderful graphic prints, could be enlarged up to any size, on the canvas media, to the vinyl and on the archival paper which could last for a century and more.

What images are appearing on his virtual space?
his own- the universal sounds from the deep rooted genes,
and I think these are letters to unknown
which have transferred in visual forums and colors.
He is singing a raga through his colorful virtual paintings.
While witnessing them
I could hear a morning prayer -
A raga aasa
The morning dev on the grass.
Like the jewels on the lotus.

Sidharth
New Delhi

All art and all creations, in any discipline, whether a painting, a sculpture, a picture or a graphic are independent identities. This can be further elucidated that when an artist sits in front of a blank canvas (in my case the blank screen of my PC), his mind, like his canvas, is also blank.

Like meditation it is a dialogue between one blankness with another. The nothingness addressing the myriad layers of nothingness within the artist and the shapes, the sounds, the colours, the flames, the angels and the demons all start waking up and they reverberate.

When I was growing, I saw, heard and imbibed a little more than the other children of my age. And today when I sit in front of my PC I am in fact trying to catch and snare my memories and all that which went into my making. Needless to say that I chose to be a graphic artist because I am physically challenged and cannot move about. So this challenge to exist, to somehow control certain realities eggs me continuously.

So far I have worked in my graphics with existing forms and form less entities and I am not very satisfied with my harvest. Now I am trying to go a little deeper into this challenging ocean without any tools or with VERY minimalist tools and shall delve deeper into colours. I actually wish to go beyond the established format which most of the graphic artists are using. I only want to work with basic colours and then add different elements in there in order to enrich my creations.

Till now my artistic process did not have many layers and I want a breakthrough wherein there is no cerebral activity nor attention, nor groping but a journey of simplicity going towards the heart bypassing the mind.

During this project/tenure, as I have already said I plan to work in such a way that colours imbued with elements will harmoniously co-exist and the visual will speak about no intervention of the tools of the craft. So far my journey has been to master the tools, to master the craft, to master the fusion and the synthesis of the colours and the forms. But now the tools will vanish, the craft will vanish and there will be a very eloquent soliloquey of colours.

Am I setting myself onto a path which, hitherto none has ventured so far? Even if the answer is no I am committed to do something that hasn't 'been' so far. How an artist is supposed to venture into alien shores without any tools? Chasing memories, giving them shapes only in colours? The most powerful example and visual I can give here is that of Michaelangelo during the period he was doing the Sestine Frescoes. The Pope had asked him to paint God Whom he hadn't even seen. And the rest is history. Humbly I say here I am neither being presumptuous or over-ambitious because I know that colours have a way of unfolding and throbbing and if one's receivers and antennaes are properly tuned, mesmerising and miraculous creations can always be fished.

Coming back to my work so far I have relied heavily on religio-classic and ecclesiastical imagery, mostly lying dormant in my mind with whom I am in a comfortable dialogue. But now it seems that my journey with that is coming to pass. May be that is because I have felt a very strong pull of doing 'simple' things which in fact have always been extremely challenging.

Hence the colours, hence a graphic made without any tools, interacting with elements. Its a challenge I have set myself up with so that I can set an examplary path for my other artist brethren, so that one day a more simple, a more functional PC will be made which will take people like me away from being crafty and cerebral.