Suresh Vedak was born in Bombay, British India (now Mumbai, India) in 1943. After obtaining his painting diploma in 1960, he immigrated to London, where he continued his studies at the Central School of Arts and Crafts until 1965. Alongside designing theatre sets, he became a member of the Indian Artists UK (IAUK) and Rainbow Art Group, designing and exhibiting in exhibitions associated with these progressive collectives.
Artist and designer Suresh Vedak was born in Bombay, British India (now Mumbai, India) in 1943. He joined the Fine Arts Faculty at Sir J.J. School of Art, Bombay where he obtained a diploma in painting in 1960. The following year he immigrated to London, England to study at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (now Central Saint Martins, UAL). Specialising in theatre and television design, he was awarded a ‘Highly Commended’ diploma in 1965 (Diaspora Artists).
Vedak worked with highly acclaimed theatre designers for the English National Opera and Royal Opera House, London, and Sydney Opera House, Australia. He also designed the Mandeer Restaurant on Hanway Place, London and, with Yashwant Mali, co-organised exhibitions there between 1974 and 1978. Vedak then immediately joined Indian Artists UK (IAUK), a growing artistic collective organised by Mali, Ibrahim Wagh, Lancelot Ribeiro and Balraj K. Khanna as a revitalised version of their earlier, diminished Indian Painters Collective (Ribeiro, 2019; Diaspora Artists). At the same time, Vedak joined the closely-related Rainbow Art Group, a multi-cultural initiative bringing together an ethnically diverse group of artists from London, with IAUK’s Ribeiro as one of the founding members (Ben Uri Research Unit, 2020). Subsequently, Vedak was included in a string of exhibitions in London related to these collectives, including Rainbow Art Group: Paintings and Sculptures at Action Space in 1979, and Exhibition of Paintings by IAUK Indian Artists living in U.K. at Burgh House Museum. The 1980 exhibition catalogue, which highlighted the event as part of a wider cultural initiative known as ‘Indian Month’ (January-February) stated that ‘IAUK’s aims are the recognition of its members’ work of an equal basis with their British contemporaries and the fulfilment of their rights to the amenities and facilities available in the democratic society’, and that ‘through exhibitions at 8 South Audley Street, London W1, and other selected places, it will attempt to create a growing awareness of the Indian arts and culture among the general public’ (Diaspora Artists).
With Wagh, Vedak co-oraganised and designed the IAUK’s major Between Two Cultures show held in the Concourse space at the Barbican Arts Centre, London in 1982. Coinciding with the wider cultural initiative, the Festival of India, the exhibition catalogue raised questions of cultural identity and the lack of attention placed on Indian artists (Ghosh, 1982). IAUK, renamed the Indian Arts Council in 1983, subsequently founded the Horizon Gallery, located at 70 Marchmont Street, Bloomsbury, London. The gallery, which was directed by Wagh, gave particular focus to artists of dual cultural heritage, especially South Asian women and was active between 1987 and 1991 (VADS Collection). Vedak exhibited there on a number of occasions, including in the Kaleidescope Group Show (1987–88) and a solo show, Suresh Vedak (1988). He also exhibited alongside Amal Ghosh, Prafulla Mohanti and Wagh in the gallery’s fourth instalment of their In Focus exhibition series (1990). In the mid-1990s, Vedak designed a backdrop of an Indian village for a British theatre show called Routes, telling the story of Indian experiences of migration. The brown and white palette was inspired by the village art-form of creating pictures by setting rice grains into the dung walls of houses. The show toured Asian day centres, clubs, temples and community centres in London, and was then taken to other areas in England, where there was a large Asian minority (Schweitzer, 2007), including the West Midlands, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.
It is presumed that Suresh Vedak continues to live and work in London. His works are not currently represented in any UK public collections.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Suresh Vedak ]
Publications related to [Suresh Vedak ] in the Ben Uri Library