BHUBANESWAR: Portrait of a dusky, beautiful Bonda woman welcomes visitors to a contemporary art exhibition at the regional centre of Rashtriya Lalit Kala Akademi here.
Despite adornments with thick silver bands, beaded necklaces and headpins, the woman bears a confused look. She is shown standing in the backdrop of a concrete jungle that threatens to consume the lush green forests that she and her ilk are so used to living amidst. Through this untitled piece of work in acrylic, the artist, Subrat Sethi, questions the purpose of urbanisation and industrialisation and their impact on the primitive tribal groups in the State.
This and 74 more such works have been lined up in the gallery by young painters from Odisha, Assam and Tripura. The 3G Artists Group, as they call themselves, includes 31 artists from the three States.
Artist Sonali Mishra joins colourful dots in circles to create an interesting imagery. Through marker on canvas, she prepares flower like images in an abstract form. Parameswar Samal, on the other hand, has drawn shiny skeletal frames of leaves that have been eaten away by neon coloured caterpillars. Giving a three-dimensional look to his works, Parameswar draws small birds perched on each of the veins of the leaf. It is interesting to look at the manner in which the painter treats his medium and the style that he has evolved over the last few years.
Both Sonali and Parameswar have been working on dots and neon 3D paintings series respectively for quite some time now.
Paintings of Divyasingh Swain and Kailash Nayak are decorative in nature, both of them drawing a stone imagery of Lord Ganesha and a caparisoned sacred bullock like those seen during Dussehra celebrations in Dhenkanal, respectively.
Premchand Rout draws a farmer tilling his agricultural land with cattle, while, Hindu pantheon of Gods and Goddesses dominate the creative imagination of Santosh Kumar Routray. Like Routray, Sangram Kumar Majhi explores the theme of Buddha and peace in golden and orange hues.
Among the impressive exhibits, Assam’s Monika Paul, who drew a fisherwoman with her catch, stands out. Her drawing is influenced by the Kalighat and Battala style of paintings. Somava Dutta, also from Assam, creates an interesting view of urbanisation taking over Nature through a Lotus flower in ink.
With pink ink, she draws buildings and high rises in the large petals of the lotus flower. Both Rumki Dutta and Rajesh Bhowmik of Tripura work on ‘Staircases’ and ‘Drinks’ as their themes.
The 3G Artists group was formed four years back when some of the painters and sculptors from these three states came together through a group exhibition. With a majority of art events giving scope to senior artists, they decided to host an annual exhibition that could give a platform to budding painters and also facilitate cross cultural exchange.
The group members come together through social networking sites to expand their professional network and bring in more young artists into their fold. “We have been participating for the last two years and sharing ideas through such exhibitions has helped us in improving our creativity and style,” said Manas Bhattacharjee, an artist from Assam, who is exhibiting an abstract work titled ‘Haven’ at the exhibition.
The contemporary art exhibition that opened on Tuesday will close on Sunday.