The three-day national-level art exhibition hosted by Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi at Jaydev Bhawan here last week was an amalgamation of various themes brought out in different mediums. While some of the works reflected the changing landscape of cities and the country’s rich tribal culture, the others delved into abstract and still life.
Of the participating artists, 12 were awarded by Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi prior to the exhibition for their contribution to painting, graphics, sculptures and photography.
‘Journey Through Folk Art’ of Veenita Sadguru Chendvankar, an awardee, showcased a work involving folk art of Warli. Decorative and stylised forms in her painting were borrowed from the art form and she modified them to suit the contemporary taste. “Nature is my muse and my formal source of inspiration. Be they as civilised as human beings or even animals or supposedly insignificant insects. These forms hold my creative attention and fire my imagination,” she said.
Colours played a significant role in her painting and each hue, shade and tint helped to create multi-coloured emotional drama on the picture plane. Lines in her painting synchronised with colours to give shape to ideas and concepts.
Sonal Varshney from Agra, another winner, used a symbolic representation of Goddess Shakti in an abstract figure with striking patterns in the backdrop in her etching. Sonal, an artist and printmaker has mostly dealt with mythological series and aspects, which include Goddess Durga, Goddess Kali, Lord Krishna. She designed her work ‘Shakti Lalsa’ using a distinct style called cholo graph that involves use of many colours in a plate.
Titled 365 Days, Birendra Pani’s creation in archival ink dealt with life of a human presented with a contemporary tone, while Tanu Prakash Khandual in his painting ‘Era of An Era’ drew a group of broken lanterns to establish his theme. Likewise, ‘Symphony’ by Abhijit Pathak from New Delhi, showed a collection of abstract images arranged in a set of squares and Trinath Mohanty used bright colours in his interesting graphic work ‘Electronic Cashew’.
Sonali Laha from Hyderabad used silk, lace and fabric in her untitled watercolour work that showed a curtain hiding a girl sitting in the background. The painting being autobiographical, Sonali said she used a curtain to add mysticism to the work. Similarly, painter Chuna Ram Hembram of Jharkhand exhibited a mixed media piece depicting what seemed like mechanisation of lives.
In photography section, two beautiful works on display were ‘Summer Shot’ by photographer Shiba Prasad Sahu and ‘Meeting Faith’ by Ramhari Jena. While ‘Summer Shot’ dealt with a bunch of kids jumping into the sea in a hot sunny noon, ‘Meeting Faith’ depicted Boita Bandana ritual at the Bindu Sagar in Bhubaneswar.
While Sahu was felicitated with the Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi award for photography, it was Trinath’s graphic design’Electronic Cashew’ that bagged the award in graphics section. For sculpture, Kanndasan Ram Kumar, Rakesh Sadhak and Vipul Kumar were awarded. The show concluded on Sunday.