Ebenezer Singh

Rosebud Contemporary is proud to present Horseplay, an exhibition of paintings by Ebenezer Singh. This is the artist's first solo show with the gallery. The exhibition contains five new paintings from the artist showing the interplay of corporeal and conjectural play of horses as his self- images.

Horseplay: the word indicates rude, rowdy, or inappropriate play. The artist engages himself in the mischief inherent in this term, flouting audience expectations and anchoring us to his imagery. He announces a certain irreverence for boundary, for orthodoxy. The artist becomes a winking deity, taking on known challenges and relying on the imagination to generate a metaphysical, moral reality. Singh’s horse is the intuitive, sensitive messenger that translates his image-ideas from the metaphysical world to ours. Bold lines, subtle tones, and paint-heavy brushstrokes carve out the physical lineaments of these animals – a bridle, a leg, a hand cue, all exist at a delicious interface between the real and the fantastically unreal. Like ‘Frou-Frou’ of Vronsky in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Ebenezer Singh’s horses play to the artist’s desires, fancies, and fantasies before becoming his canvases.

The work ‘Bucephalus’, oil on linen, 66” X 48” references Alexander’s horse, which stood with him in all his gallant battles from Greece to India. Although the skull under the horse’s hoof possesses a psychological, sensory nature, the image poetically implies the might of myth and heroic tales. With his unique and cathartic rendering style, Singh layers and builds his canvas space with broad brush strokes, making sure to leave breathing spaces for the previously laid colors.

‘Horse Girl’ is a poetic take on Virginia Woolf’s quote, “I believe we must have the sort of power over you that we are said to have over horses.” The intellectual facility that the female has long possessed over the male captivates the artist to whimsically combine the horse and a woman. From the bright yellow background, the horse girl looks at the viewer both quizzically and confidently, certain of her cerebral prowess.