The toil of working laboriously and then wanting things to work out becomes a crusade against all odds. But in the end, if victory still evades, it dampens the spirit like nothing else. For far too long, art curator Manjeet Kaur saw this happening to her husband, artist Sarnjeet Singh and children, Jasleena and Jaskeerat, also artists, when despite harbouring immense talent, their work wasn’t getting well-deserved recognition. Today, as Kaur curates the exhibition, Vignettes of Passion, she promises herself to be the facilitator her family once needed. Through her curatorial endeavours, she provides encouragement to upcoming and promising artists and also a platform to showcase their work.
For this exhibition, she has shortlisted works by 22 artists to be displayed at the Visual Arts Gallery – a space she got to curate at after waiting patiently for four and a half years. “I didn’t mind it as these artists deserve the best viewership ground. It was important to display at a venue where along with potential buyers, there’d be those who appreciate art for art’s sake,” says Kaur.
Works by Kaur’s chosen artists include Bharti Indorkar, Divyaman Singh, Vandana Sethi, Divya Kohli, Khela Banerjee, Sumati Malik, Rakesh Dayal, Shweta Goel, Arushi Dubey, and others. The collection is a conversation between artists and their viewers. Of how we can experience, respond and connect with one another for reason larger than our individual selves. It is also a reflection between the artists themselves. Together they portray innate reflections of their perceptions and preoccupations.
Kaur says the artists were not given a theme, as no artist needs is to be restricted by any external directive. Their instincts, she says, are enough to inspire originality. Freedom in expression raises curiosity, and that gets translated as probing investigations for viewers to take with them home. An assortment of mediums including watercolours, acrylic, oil, and tempera have been used to convey the displayed landscapes, figures, portraits and abstracts.
Vignettes of Passion
From: May 3-7,
11 am to 8 pm
Visual Arts Gallery,
India Habitat Centre