BENGALURU: An exhibition of prints, created by artists over a two-week printmaking workshop, will be open to public viewing at Art Houz till June 30.
Titled The Limited Edition, the event at the gallery in Vasanthnagar will showcase the works of Aditi Hazra, Chaithra Puthran, Dimple B Shah, Papil Manna, Suresh Krishnamurthy, Urmila V G, Venugopal V G, Vijay Pichumani, Rajesh Prasad and Posi Prasad.
Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix or a prepared screen onto paper. At the workshop, the artists explored ancient methods of printmaking — woodcut and etching.
Woodcut is a relief process where the embossed surface of a wooden block catches the ink and transfers it onto the paper, whereas in etching, the etched lines on the metal plate retain the ink and when passed through a press transfer it onto the paper.
While the former restrains the artist from achieving fine lines, the latter enables intricate rendering in the work.
The artists have displayed 10 limited edition prints of each kind, which reflect their individual styles and philosophies, at the gallery. City Express had a quick chat with the group.
Chaithra Puthran
Chaitra completed her diploma in painting at Ken School of Art, Bengaluru, and postgraduate diploma in printmaking from Bengaluru University. Her works have been displayed at group exhibitions in India and abroad. Chaitra says. “I draw body hair, stretch marks and other natural aspects of the female body that are not considered beautiful.”
Aditi Hazra
Born and raised in Bengaluru, she completed her BFA and MFA from Kala Bhavana, Shantiniketan, West Bengal. She has been working here since 2012. Aditi portrays sensuous, fluid and fragmented female forms. “My works feature disjointed figures of women. I am trying to show how both men and women are feminine. We never respect that. It’s all about gender equality,” she says.
Papil Manna
Born and brought up in Bhopal, Papil did his BFA and MFA in printmaking at Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya, Chhattisgarh. In his woodcut, he has depicted a bird’s form with lines. In the etched print, he has portrayed the fears of an old woman. “After a certain age, people develop fear — fear of what will happen tomorrow and the fate of their dreams. Using lines and colour, I have shown the fear on her face. It depicts the uncertainity of life,” he says.
Dimple B Shah
She says, “There are certain things in the society that need to be changed. But people let them be and they become set in stone, hard to break. We become stagnant.” Her woodcut print bears the image of a cloud, representing a free spirit. After graduation in commerce, she did a diploma at Ken School of Arts and a PG diploma in printmaking at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda.
Urmila V G
Urmila completed her MFA in printmaking at Visvabharati University, Shantiniketan (West Bengal) and her BFA in painting at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath. Her works are primarily based on environmental issues. “I have tried to focus on the need for peaceful co-existence and also the fact that nature is becoming adaptable by finding new, unusual places to grow,” she says.
Suresh Krishnamurthy
Suresh has created art across mediums like paintings, prints, digital prints and installations. He is known for his works using homeopathy medicine bottles that he fills with wool or paints landscapes on. He shows us a collage of things from his workstation. He shows us the toys his daughters play with. “They love their toys. I enjoy watching them play. It funny how we cannot see our own childhood, we can only see others’,” he says.
Venugopal V G
Venugopal completed his MFA in printmaking from Chitrakala Institute of Advanced Studies. “I work with urban images. It shows how people are isolated in this world," he
says of his work on display. "In my woodcut, I have portrayed a golden deer. It is in reference to Ramayana. You keep chasing it but never can catch it.”
Rajesh Kumar
Rajesh’s works reflect his nostalgia of his village days. The fantasy of a comfortable city life pushes villagers to migrate and work as laborers and live in slums in big cities. He says, “We shifted to the city in search of a job two years ago. We are stuck as we cannot go back to the village.
We need money. Everyone is busy here. Nobody has time to interact.”
Vijay Pichumani
Born in Kanyakumari, Vijay Pichumani has a BFA and an MFA from Government College of Arts and Crafts, Chennai. “My work depicts the anatomy of a cow with lines. I feel the lines inside our body are similar to the lines in nature like sound waves in the air. That’s what connects us,” he says.