Be it a huge canvas or small format, artist Shuvaprasanna has mastered them all. And his latest offering is his ongoing solo show The Last Human Kingdom. Using small format and mixed media, including acrylic, charcoal and special ink, the artist has opened up new possibilities of the intimate format and the medium, both technically and aesthetically.
Amidst his busy schedule, the artist talks to us over the phone, letting us know more about his artwork. “It has been so long that I have been working as an artist that every exhibition of mine is a new way of expressing myself.
The current exhibition is a continuation of my previous art works but the texture and the motifs are a part of my mixed media, small format art,” shares Shuvaprasanna who created the texture using multiple layers of colours. “For the ink drawings, I have used layers of waterproof inks with the finishing done by acrylic using a rough brush,” adds he.
The exhibition is the first in a series of forthcoming Art Indus exhibitions exploring ‘pure reflections’ in art and literature. It revisits Shuvaprasanna’s mythical surrealism, contemplating his ethereal anthropomorphisms in light of Jibanananda Das’ epic poem Mrityu-r-Agey (before death).
Portraits dominate Shuvaprasanna’s current work along with the occasional use of animals. “The portraits are of common men and women with a typical gesture that unknowingly comes when we are alone. It is this variety of expressions that I’m trying to explore in my art work,” shares the artist who uses a contrast of white and red to highlight the expressions.
The animals that he portrays in his work are a glimpse of our life. “One will notice that I have various animals like crows and cats in the series. All these animals are a part of our life. And I wanted to capture them in various postures. And this was my sole intention of making them a part of the series. Though there is abstraction but it is for the viewers to interpret on a personal level,” shares the 78-year-old artist.
Shuvaprasanna graduated in fine arts from the Indian College of Art Calcutta in 1969 and has had over 55 solo exhibitions in India and abroad. The exhibition is open for all till January 7 at Art Indus gallery, 8, Race Course Road, Chanakyapuri.