Youngo Verma (b.1938)
A painter and sculptor par excellence, born 1938 in
Kherikalan, Haryana in India. Graduated from Delhi College
of Fine Art in Sculptural Art in 1964. He has had the
good fortune of learning from and working with the great
Indian masters BC Sanyal and KS Kulkarni. After his
graduation, he taught Art and Sculpture for few years
in Jamia Millia College Delhi. In 1971, influenced by
the Bauhaus school, he moved to Germany to study art
at Frankfurt Stadel College under Michael Croissant,
where he further honed his skills in sculpture and bronze
castings. During his 10 years in Germany, Youngo worked
tirelessly sketching, painting and sculpting from live
models. He held several solo shows, group exhibitions
and commissioned works. In 1981, he moved to Toronto,
Canada. A man of strong conviction, Youngo has worked
for the last four decades exploring the subtle and intense
interface of light and dark, and the presence of duality
in everything around us. He has come up with highly
evocative expressions which transport the viewer into
a galaxy of discovery and inspiration. Genre of Youngo’s
work Is as eclectic, diverse and unique as that of the
European masters Rodin, Degas and Brancusi. |
His three dimensional graphite sketch
work bears his signature of originality, labour of love
and uncompromising commitment. He captures elemental
forms close to human sensitivity with ease and precision.
He brings complexity, ambivalence, tension and paradox
to play upon these forms by intertwining them, inverting
them, and twisting them rhythmically while giving a
fine texture and plastic like effect to his drawings.
His use of colour, form and light in his paintings add
a mystical streak that evokes eroticism. He has incorporated
Tantra in his work, while preserving the sanctity of
its pristine spirit. Youngo has also created many sculptures,
murals and installations in wood, ceramics and metal.
Some of his statues and fountain figures adorn public
buildings across India, Nepal, Germany and Canada. He
has made portraits and busts of many celebrities. There
is a strong element of modernity in Youngo’s work.
His sculptures are minimalist in their form yet offering
a wide variety of details for the inquisitive eye. The
interplay of dark and light with granularity around
the periphery is the magic and essence of his artistry.
Scientific explorations in astronomy and cellular biology
reinforce ones sense of wonder and mystery in his work.
Youngo’s graphite drawings, taking off from his
metal sculptures of yore, lead us directly to the question:
What is art, and what is the role of an artist in this
end-century? These are crucial issues arising from his
affirmation of the transcendent imagination, his conception
of art not as career but as vocation. Different from
mere self-flattering pictures, Youngo’s work has
the sense of someone seeing things through a transforming
glass. It is the transmuted substance, the metamorphosis
perceived and arrested in the instant of change which
defines the artist’s eye. Without the transformation
process, the inscribed line, would remain grounded.
Most recently, he has been working on a series of drawings
on cosmic forms.
Major Exhibitions
1963 – National Exhibition of Art, New Delhi
– India 1965 – Shridharni Gallery, New Delhi
– India 1965 - National Exhibition of Art, New
Delhi – India 1965 – All India Art and Craft
Society Exhibition, New Delhi – India 1968 –
National Exhibition of Art, New Delhi - India 1968 –
Ceramic Masks (Sculptures), New Delhi – India
1968 - Triveni Kala, New Delhi – India 1968 –
All India Art and Craft Society Exhibition, New Delhi
– India 1970 – Gallery Ventura, New Delhi
– India 1972 – Gallery-Puth Hessen Center,
Frankfurt – Germany 1973 – Galeries Des
Artes, Dusseldrof – Germany 1974 – American
Army Chapel Art Show, Frankfurt – Germany 1975
– Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi – India
1975 – Union Club International, Frankfurt –
Germany 1978 – Frankfurt Artists Annual Exhibition
– Germany 1979 – Gallery “Der Laden”
Frankfurt – Germany 1979 – BFG Gallery,
Frankfurt – Germany 1979 – Opera House,
Orillia – Canada 1980 – Gallery “Der
Laden” Frankfurt – Germany 1980 –
Exhibition of three Indian Artists, Mainz – Germany
1981 – Exhibition of sculptures, Manheim –
Germany 1981 - Goethe Institute, Toronto – Canada
1981 – Gallery “O”, Toronto –
Canada 1981 – Artists’ Space, Toronto –
Canada 1981 – District Burnhamthrope Library,
Mississauga – Canada 1981 – Gallery College
Park, Toronto – Canada 1983 – Harbourfront,
Toronto – Canada 1983 – City Hall, Mississauga
– Canada 1984 – Central Hospital, Toronto
– Canada 1985 – Sensuous Art, Atelier J
Lukacs, Toronto – Canada 1985– Central Hospital,
Toronto – Canada 1985 – Alliance Francaise
de Toronto – Canada 1988 – Region of Peel
Art Gallery, Brampton – Canada 1989 – Municipal
Building, City of York, Toronto – Canada 1992
– Gallery Pegasus, Toronto – Canada 1993
– Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi – India
1998 – Studio “55”, New Delhi –
India 1998 – Government College of Fine Art, Chandigarh
– India 2003 – Springbank Art Center, Mississauga
– Canada 2004 – Design Exchange, Toronto
– Canada 2005 – South Asian Gallery of Art,
Oakville – Canada Major
Collections
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA Royal Palace
of Nepal, Khatmandu, Nepal South Asian Gallery of Art,
Toronto, Canada City of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Toronto School Board, Toronto, Canada.
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