Madan Meena
Born in 1974 at Narayanpur Tatwara, Rajasthan.
Education & Scholarships
2006 Ph.D. on the subject 'Art of Meena Tribe' at Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur.
2000-03 Research Fellowship (NET), University Grants Commission, New Delhi.
1999 M.A. in Painting (University Gold Medal) Government College, Kota.
1998,99 Granted Students Scholarship by Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academi, Jaipur.
1998 Indian Art & Culture Certificate Course, N.M.I., National Museum, New Delhi.
1997 Fresco & Mural Painting Certificate Course, Banasthali University, Rajasthan.
Solo Exhibitions
2009 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2008 Artchill Gallery, Amber Palace, Jaipur
2007 Juneja Art Gallery, Jaipur.
2002 Triveni Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi.
2001 Taj Art Gallery, Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai
1999 Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta.
1999 Ravishankar Raval Kala Bhavan, Ahmedabad.
1998 Rabindra Bhawan, Lalit Kala Academi, New Delhi.
Awards
2002 Tulika Kalakar Parishad, Udaipur.
2000 Annual All India Art Exhibition, AIFACS, New Delhi.
2000 Annual Art Exhibition, Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academi, Jaipur.
1999 South Central Zone Cultural Centre, Nagpur.
1999 Himachal State Museum, Shimla.
1998 Students Exhibition, Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academi, Jaipur.
1998 AVANTIKA, New Delhi.
1998 Awarded at Rajasthan Kala Mela by Central Lalit Kala Academi, organised by Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academi, Jaipur.
Participation
2003 Contemporary Art of Rajasthan organised by Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academy, Jawahar Kala Kendra and North Zone Cultural Centre at Patiala & Chandigarh.
2001 Contemporary Art of Rajasthan organised by Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academi at Lucknow, Goa & Kota.
2000, 01 Indian Academy of Fine Arts, Amritsar.
2000 West Bengal State Academy, Calcutta.
2000 The Bombay Art Society, Mumbai.
2000 Millenium Exhibition, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta.
1999 Annual Art Exhibition, Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academi, Jaipur.
1998, 99 Kala Mela organised by Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academi, Jaipur.
1998 All India Exhibition (Drawing), AIFACS, New Delhi.
1998 All India Exhibition of Drawing, Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academi, Jaipur.
1997 All India Art Biennial of Rajasthan, Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academi, Jaipur.
Camps & Workshops
2009 Young Painters Camp, Neerja Modi School, Jaipur.
2009 Artist Camp organised by Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academy-Jaipur.
2005 Contemporary Painting Workshop organised by North-East Zone Cultural Centre-Dimapur at Naharlagun (Arunachal Pradesh).
2004 Publication Design Workshop organised by Seagulls Publication at Kolkata in association with ARCE-American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi.
2002 Painters' Camp organised by Rashtriya Lalit Kala Kendra-Lucknow at Jhansi.
2002 Young Artists' Camp organised by AIFACS, New Delhi.
1999, 2001 Art Awareness Camp at Kota.
1998 National Students Camp organised by Bareilly College, U.P.
1997 Zonal Contemporary Painters Camp organised by West Zone Cultural Centre-Udaipur at Daman.
Group Exhibitions
2009 Group Show at CRIMSON-The Art Resource, Bangalore.
2005 Group exhibition by Bougainvillea Gallery at Udai Villas, Udaipur.
2004 Ravishankar Rawal Kala Bhawan, Ahmedabad & Art Gallery, Kota.
2003 'RECONNOITRE' organized by Gallery Space, Hyderabad.
2003 Group exhibition organised at Bangalore and Chennai by Laxshana Art Gallery.
2003 'WE' at Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur & Art Gallery, Kota.
2001 Group show 'spectre' at Srishti Art Gallery, Welcomgroup Rajputana Palace Sheraton and Gaurav Towers, Jaipur.
2001 Krishna's Collection Art Gallery, New Delhi.
2000 Gallery Ganesha, New Delhi.
2000 Group show 'expressions', at Jawahar Kala Kendra-Jaipur, Kota, Bundi & Gadepan.
1998 Two-men show at Contemporary Art Gallery, Ahmedabad.
Others
2010 Assistant Director for a film on Broom being made for Arna-Jharna Museum, Jodhpur. The project is supported by Ford Foundation, US.
2008-09 Designed exhibition on Brooms for ‘Arna-Jharna: The Desert Museum of Rajasthan’ of Rupayan Sansthan, Jodhpur.
2009 Curated exhibition of Meena women wall paintings along with Tara Books on launch of ‘Nurturing Walls’ book at Jaipur Literature Festival.
2006-07 'Creative expressions of the Meena women' exhibitions of collection and research work on Meena tribe organized at:
National Centre for the Performing Arts-Mumbai.
Bharat Bhawan-Bhopal
Hutheesingh Visual Art Centre-Ahmedabad
Karnataka Chitra Kala Parishad and Gallery Time & Space-Bangalore
2004 Invited as resource person for making of documentary film 'Creativity of Meena Women' by Educational Media Research Centre-Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur.
2002 'Creativity of Meena Women' exhibition of collection and research work on Meena Women at India International Centre, New Delhi.
Research Projects
2010 Research Grant from Cambridge University, UK under the World Oral Literature Project (WOLP) for documentation and publication of book and audio DVD on Tejaji Ballad sung in Hadoti region of South-Eastern Rajasthan.
2006 Genealogical study of Jaga community residing in Eastern Rajasthan. This was to study the system of keeping written records of family lineages. The project was funded by Department of Culture, Government of India.
2007 Documentation on Folk Epic of Devnarain sung in Eastern Rajasthan. The project was supported by Geeta Sarabhai, Sangeet Kendra, Ahmedabad.
Books
Nurturing Walls-Animal Art by Meena Women’ book on Meena women wall paintings published by Tara Books, Chennai.
‘Joy of Creativity’ (self published), based on motifs of Meena women wall paintings.
Madan Meena is a visual artist and researcher. He has worked extensively with artists and craftspersons from local communities in Rajasthan. His doctoral dissertation from University of Rajasthan was on the subject 'Art of the Meena Tribes'. He continues to work as a researcher with the women of the Meena tribe and has documented and exhibited their mandana wall paintings across the country. He has published two books on the subject, Joy of Creativity and Nurturing Walls. As a visual artist, Madan has exhibited his work extensively in various galleries across the country and abroad.
As a curator, he has designed an exhibition on brooms for the “Arna Jharna: The Desert Museum of Rajasthan” of Rupayan Sansthan (Institute of Rajasthan folklore studies) in Jodhpur. For this he widely travelled throughout Rajasthan studying the broom-making communities, their socio-political and cultural issues. He was Assistant Director for the film ‘Jharu Katha’ on the same subject.
His association with late Komal Kothari, one of India's leading folklorists and oral historians inspired him to start his independent research and documentation in parts of eastern Rajasthan where he is based. One of his important researches is based on genealogists of his own community in which he traced history about the formation of his native village and its past 22 generation spanning to some 500 years. He has been regularly recording oral traditions among the Gujjar (shepherds), Meena (tribal), Jogi (musicians), Mali (gardeners) and Kumhar (potters) communities.Madan has received a grant from Cambridge University under the World Oral Literature Project (WOLP) to document Tejaji Ballad sung in south-eastern Rajasthan. Under the grant he has published a book ‘Tejaji Gatha’ and an audio DVD which will be freely distributed to the singers and villagers. His interest in languages has led him to start his work on the secret language of the Kanjar community residing in Rajasthan. For this he has received fellowship from the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research, US. He currently works and lives in Kota in Rajasthan.