HYDERABAD: Artist Vallery Puri’s canvases spill over with flowers and foliage amid which a woman, quite the protagonist in her series of artworks, feels quite at home with herself. The trees and flowers around her seem to be extended forms of her ‘self’. Sometimes one also sees the presence of a furry feline complementing its pretty-petite mistress.
“That’s Geisha! My cat, who passed away. But not without leaving memories behind,” says the chirpy painter. But Geisha? Was the cat from Japan? Jingling laughter. “No. As you know Geisha means ‘artist’ in Japanese, and the pet was almost always around me. An artist’s cat can also be an artist, no?” she says.
That why one sees Geisha jumping on the sofa or on the floor with the mysterious mistress who is, perhaps, going to prepare something for herself. The opus is aptly titled ‘Kitchen Kahaani’. What’s most striking about this artwork that the window near the sink has a heavy populace of green, yellow and blue foliage sometimes dotted with white star-shaped flowers, not very uncommon in Hyderabad. “It’s actually not. It’s a snippet from my home which is so thickly surrounded by greenery that I very seldom see the blue of the sky,” she shares details about her home at Jubilee Hills. So, is the series devoted to her solitude? “It’s about me finding ‘myself’.”
Though the series also gives a sense of loneliness, the lacunae are filled with a happiness which oozes from her entire being. And it’s this energy which presents itself in the form of beauty which draws one to her works. Not only the beauty, but the artworks also celebrate a multitude of hues especially blue, yellow and red. This is what makes this exhibition worth visiting. The series titled ‘Home’ will display Vallery’s artworks at Park Hyatt Hyderabad.
The exhibition begins from November 17 and will be on till December 15
— Saima Afreen
saima@newindianexpress
@Sfreen