KOCHI: She has dabbled in art in its various forms in a span of time spread over three decades. Radha Gomaty is an artist who stands out, firmly on her own, in the vast world of creativity. She has carved out a niche for her in this very competitive platform where creativity is judged microscopically. The new feather in her, already multi-hued, hat is the Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ (ICCR)invitation to take part in ‘Maitri’, an India- China Women Artists Residency in Shanghai, hosted by Shanghai Women’s Federation (SWF). This is a first for a female artist from Kerala.
The week-long event held last week was attended by nine Indian artists including Gomaty. The artists were also invited to participate in the International Forum on Children at Shanghai later in the week. “I’m ecstatic at being invited to such a prestigious event. This is the first time that I participated in an event dedicated entirely to art and that too at an international forum. I feel proud not just for representing my country but also being the sole artist to be from the state,” said the artist.
A resident of Kochi, Radha has been associated with various forms of art for over three decades. An alumnus of institutes like Kerala Kalapeedom, National Institute of Design, M S University Baroda and Santhiniketan, she has been highly commended by the Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi and was awarded the Central Lalit Kala Akademi fellowship in 2000.
Gomaty’s works were first exhibited at the Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi annual show in 1981, followed by several group shows at various places as well as camps at national and state levels. She had been part of an expedition sponsored partially by Hebbar Foundation on Ganga from its source to the sea with two other women artists in 2010.
Apart from being well-known in painting and sculpturing genre, Radha name is synonymous with Sanghmitra, a small all-women green design initiative that works in collaboration with tiny independent rural stitching units, creating beautiful bags and pouches from waste cloth, since 2009.
She has also dabbled in poetry and published collections of poems, ‘Through Moonless Nights’ is one of them. She has also penned the script for the documentary ‘The 18th Elephant 3 Monologues’, which won seven awards including three national awards, Panda award at Wildscreen Festival, UK and Ram Bahadur Prize for Best Film at Film South Asia, Kathmandu in 2003 and co-directed ‘Silenced Witness’, a short documentary on the plight of elephants which was aired on Discovery Channel in 2007.
Her works, acquired by Martin Gurvich for Museum of Sacred Art, will feature in a global exhibition ‘Forms of Devotion’ curated by Sushma Bahl at the end of this month.