Harsimran Juneja
Harsimran Juneja is a self-taught artist who reflects upon living life within a society of contrasts.
My art is a reflection of our society; motivated by contrasts, contradictions and conflicts within; interpreted through history, memory, fantasy and perception of reality. I attempt to reconstruct narratives that habitually draw inspiration from social observations and personal experiences; often culminating as statements relevant to the current socio-political and cultural landscape. My visual language oscillates between representation and abstraction, inspired by primitive imagery, mythology and spaces. While figures, the idea of space and texts dominate my works, nature, everyday objects and enigmatic symbolisms are just as recurring. The tenets of my own nature that drive my work lay an emphasis on my personal conflicts, and also reflect on the politics of human nature. And in pursuit of understanding these conflicts, my resulting works are hence revealing yet concealing. An outcome that echoes on my existence within society; or perhaps without society.
Lina Stallmann
Curator
“Harsimran Juneja’s paintings give a real sense of hope in between all the other works from the open call. He seems to recollect places and memories from far away with layers of different marks. He has a wonderful range of colours that exactly funnel hope and sadness - these little blue bits on the left and right between the yellow, okra, white and brown colour fields. In the flesh, I am sure that the size will make the figure very present.”
ArtConnect asked the winning artists to share with us a glimpse into their creative life to get a sense of their personal inspiration and artistic process.
What are some of the central themes you pursue in your work?
I am motivated by conflicts, contradictions and contrasts within society the most, it somewhere also reflects on my own nature. However, these ideas are drawn from personal experiences, observations and memories which culminate as works that can be interpreted plurally, even thematically.
How has your art practice developed over time?
I wanted to be an artist ever since I was 17, but life took me on a different path and I started painting consistently only in 2020 when the pandemic forced us indoors. All those years of suppressed expression started to come out and I could see myself enjoying the process. I decided to commit myself to it completely and started to train myself and teach myself everything I could to develop my career as an artist!
Photo from Harsimran Juneja
What drew you to work with your medium/media of choice?
I started by painting subjects that expressed my thoughts and emotions at the time. But with reading, writing and taking online courses, my practice has evolved into a much deeper journey into myself and my relation with society or perhaps even without society. There are aspects about myself that I have discovered which are completely new and I am trying to make sense of them while I also continue to be heard and viewed by audiences through exhibitions and features.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an artist?
The biggest challenge that I still face is knowing myself. How can one be absolutely honest about one's work unless one knows oneself within? There have been times where I have removed completed paintings from the storage to repaint them because on reflection, they did not feel honest enough. This journey may honestly be an everlasting one since we evolve with time. But to be honest and true about your work with so many potential influences around you, in my opinion, is the hardest.
Harsimran Juneja in Studio
Describe a typical day in the studio/wherever you make your work.
It starts with staring at the painting I am working on or a blank canvas - which is painted with unbleached white - for sometime. Staring helps me rebuild some of the thought process I left my painting with in my last session and it also helps me reflect upon why I am painting that particular piece of work. Once I reach a state of flow in my thought process, I pick up my materials and get to it. All my paints are always ready. I work with emulsions that have the exact code for the exact colour I wish to use and there's very little time that goes into mixing colours. I don't always draw or write while I'm in the studio, but I do when I feel like I'm having a block. I never prep for any of my paintings either - I feel it restricts my thought process while painting. I paint intuitively.
What future directions do you envision for your work?
Sculpture and 3D collage. I have always been moved by the collages that Robert Rauschenberg used to make and I'm eager to attempt something like that. In sculpture, I have attempted to work with clay and soft stone, but I would love to attempt working with wood someday.
What are you currently working on? / What’s coming up next for you?
I am currently working on 2 different bodies of works titles 'In Search of Self' and 'Memoirs'. These explore conflicts between desires and values, past and present, and fantasy and reality to reflect upon myself living within society. I have a group exhibition coming up with Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans this September and I am also hoping to sign with a gallery for representation this September!
Mine Kaplangi
Curator
“In capturing the complex mental states and reactions to the everyday conflicts without presenting any bodily emotion, Hansimran Juneja's works embody human-animal hybrids and their fictional stories to reflect his own experiences as continuous layers of time and space in our contemporary societies.
The artist's new series of paintings from this year show a mutual concern reflected in the choice of colours, use of materials, disappearing faces of the figures and short writings that almost work as accidental graffiti/s. With this self-taught artist's unique painting style, the human-animal hybrids are chosen to tell the stories of their surroundings affected by the traumas, insecurities, and injustices of a long-lived anthropocentric view of humanity.
The result is a series of paintings almost taken apart from a continuous moving image work demonstrating our contemporary contradictions from personal and socio-political narratives. Human beings write humanity's cruel history, yet with Juneja's choice now told by the ones who got affected and hurt by the most – non-humans.”
See more of Harsimran Juneja’s work
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