BENGALURU: The pandemic changed life as we knew it to a considerable extent. As for artist Gurudas Shenoy, he found a new perspective to look at art. The well-known artist’s latest solo exhibition, 730, which is taking place at Bangalore International Centre from May 27-29, is a collection of paintings that he created during the lockdown. After the physical show, the exhibition will also be held on artisera.com till June 30.
730 is an unusual name for an exhibition. Shenoy breaks it down, saying, “The duration between the March 2020 lockdown and my exhibition is 730 days which is how the name came to be.”Talking about the two-year period, Shenoy adds, “It was the first time that I was confined to my home-cum-studio for such a long period. But even though I could not travel, in a way I embraced the calmness. This time gave me the opportunity to go deeper into my works. I became bolder, started using more layers, and more abstraction.”
Hailing from the picturesque Udupi, which is perched in the midst of the mountains of the Western Ghats on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west, Shenoy takes inspiration from nature. Besides painting his signature landscapes and cityscapes, during the lockdown, he began experimenting with other subjects. Routine objects, along with wider strokes also seeped into his practice.
Hence the show is an amalgamation of artworks from different series, created during a time when Shenoy continued to travel to different places on his canvas, from the safety of the studio above his home. “This exhibition carries works from many different series, all of which were created during the two years of the pandemic. We wanted to do justice to the fact that it was a diverse body of work, and hence the name 730, which captures that two year period”, says Lisa Jain, co founder of Artisera.
To give his work a better understanding, the exhibition has five series. One of them is called the Confined Stories series, which shows the dichotomy of two worlds — indoors and outdoors. Shenoy has captured the feeling of longing to be outdoors on his canvas. Another new series, featuring for the first time in this exhibition is Spiritual Odyssey. The paintings from this series are compositions, inspired by Shenoy’s travels to the Himalayas, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Badrinath and Kedarnath. In the last series named Reminiscence and Resurgence, there is a rhythm of abstraction that breaks the rigidity of constructed form.
(730 will take place at Bangalore International Centre between May 27 and 29)