Gunjan Aylawadi

STATEMENT + BIO

Gunjan Aylawadi is an Industrial designer and a self taught artist. She was born in India and currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia. 

Placed between an exploration of memory, materials and meditative sensory pleasures, Aylawadi draws inspiration from repetitive geometric patterns and relief work found within arabesque art & architecture that she grew up around in India. Influenced by her education in the sciences and design, Aylawadi’s work is textural, pure and distinct. She takes her memories of the vibrant collage of the rich cultural environment in India and processes it through a filter of modern design and aesthetic. Her work, geometric in its formal language, is an abstraction of those visuals of wonder and tactile memories of handmade objects of her growing up years. 

In their current form, her works are meticulous paper weavings where paper is both material and colour. Aylawadi uses geometry and the tension in curled paper strips to create relief works that rise up from the surface and reveal their richness to the viewers as they come closer and move around them. You will see textural bands of deep contrasting colours that represent a remembrance of the rituals, ceremonies, smells experienced in a specific place or moment in time. With a unique technique born out of a longing to touch & feel her medium and to slow down in a fast paced world, Aylawadi's works articulate the her desire to draw out meaning from mayhem. 

Since 2013 Aylawadi has been a part of several group exhibitions and art events like the Paper Art Biennale in Netherlands 2015 and Sydney Contemporary 2015. She has been a finalist for several prestigious art awards and been highly commended for her work at the Woollahara Small Sculpture Prize 2014 and the Alice Springs Art Prize 2014. 

CV

Education

2015     - Product Design at Enmore Design Centre, Sydney, NSW

2012     - Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Science, MD University, India

Awards and Exhibitions

2017    - Miniature, group show, Collab Gallery, Sydney

            - Emerging Artist award, finalist Craft NSW, Sydney

            - Place for Prayer, Solo show, Koskela, Sydney

            - For Art's sake prize, Finalist, Sydney (Highly commended)

            - A two person show at Wellington street projects, Sydney, coming up in Nov 2017

2016    - Alice Springs Art Prize (finalist)

            - Artists playground, The Galeries, Sydney

            - Works on paper, group show, Manyung Gallery, Mt. Eliza

            - Art Pharmacy x Deloitte - group show - Playing with perspectives

            - MPRG, National works on Paper award, Victoria (finalist)

            - Gunjan Aylawadi, Kevina Jo Smith, A two person show at Folonomo Gallery, Sydney

            - Group show at Long View Gallery, Washington DC 

2015    - Linden Projects, Melbourne, Australia 

            - CODA Paper Art, CODA Museum, Netherlands 

            - Installation Contemporary at Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia

2014    - Summer Daze, He Made She Made Gallery, Sydney, Australia (Solo Exhibit)

            - 38th Alice Springs Art prize, NT, Australia (Highly commended)

            - Workshopped 2014, Moore Park centre, Sydney, Australia

            - Flanagan Art prize, Ballarat, Australia (finalist)

            - Woollahra Small sculpture prize, Sydney, Australia (Highly commended))

            - Craft NSW emerging artist award, Sydney, Australia (finalist)

            - Raw Sydney, Sydney, Australia

            - Hornsby Art prize, Hornsby, Australia (finalist)

            - Blacktown Art prize, Blacktown, Australia (finalist)

2013    - Creatives Uncovered, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia

            - RAW Sydney, Parramatta, NSW Australia

            - Stimulate Sedate, Ambush Gallery, Sydney, Australia

Collections

            - Allens - Linklaters collection

            - Private collections

Press & Publications

             - Hi-Fructose Magazine, June 2017

             - The Creator’s Project, Vice media

             - Jealous Curator, March, 2016

             - Design Files, May 2015, June 2017

             - Design Sponge, January 2015, June 2017

             - Telegraph Australia, September 2014

             - Mosman daily, September 2014

             - Vogue living, August 2014

             - Home design, July 2014

             - Colossal, April 2014, December 2016, June 2017

             - Partfaliaz, January 2014

             - Strictly Paper, January 2014

             - Paper convention, October 2013