The group exhibition at the gallery by 18 artists is a delight for those who love celebrating the dark clouds and the dance of peacocks. Titled ‘The Land Prepares for well Being’, the artworks are apt with swollen skies filled with grey clouds while the rain sluices down the glassy windows.
The paintings brim with water in shades of blue, grey and silver which seems as if there was a pre conceived harmony among them all. For example, in one of the artworks one sees just the rickety body of a rickshaw and its puller carrying the burden through muddy waters.
The artist has used the long shot technique from above. The rickshaw puller is the lone warrior in the stormy street water paddling his way through a city choked with wet walls, dripping roofs and coughing people, but he must go on and he does go on. It’s a symbol of life itself making way through turbulence and finding a way.
Another artwork shows a long-legged figure walking comfortably in rain, perhaps enjoying every drop of its coolness. It’s seen from behind a glass wall on which rivulets of rain-flow dividing the figure in ways unconceived or unheard of. The colour palette, though sombre, has a sense of playfulness in it which frames the canvas making it whole in its brokeness.
The exhibition is on till July 21
— Saima Afreen
saima@newindianexpress
@Sfreen