With his parents looking on proudly, Sai Akhil Anand moved from one artwork to another, pausing occasionally to inspect a texture or take in the finished result. While his family is widely recognised for excellence in chess, Sai has been building a creative identity of his own. The 15-year-old artist seemed completely at home among the zebras, giraffes, tigers and mythological figures that populate his canvases, to be displayed at Gallery G, Lavelle Road on Saturday.
The exhibition, titled Bindu and Rekha (Sanskrit for dot and line) brings together his nearly 40 works created over the past few years, ranging from conservation-themed pieces to interpretations of stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, brought to life through dots, dashes and recurring motifs.
The idea for the exhibition began with a close observation of the world around him. “When I looked around the garden and outdoors, I realised there were many patterns in nature. I was reading books like Patterns in Nature by Philip Ball and discovered these patterns in animals – the stripes of a zebra, a tiger, a squirrel, the markings of a giraffe and the spots of a deer,” he shares.
These discoveries gradually became the foundation of his artistic practice. Rather than seeing animals merely as subjects, Sai began viewing them as arrangements of rhythm and form. Wildlife is the heart of the exhibition. “When I started watching documentaries by David Attenborough, I developed a strong love for animals. I started studying animals from different regions, such as Asia and Africa – the kinds of animals I focus on in my work,” he says. The collection bears the imprint of countless hours spent observing and learning about wildlife, be it Circle of Love, which depicts giraffes in a lush landscape, or Zebra Crossing, which transforms one of nature’s most recognisable patterns into a visual study. His favourite work in the exhibition, Scribble Species, reflects his concern for the fragility of wildlife.
His parents have played a steady role in his journey, mainly through travel and early exposure to nature. Safaris and trips, including a visit to Gir National Park in Gujarat, helped him observe animals more closely. Son of chess legend Viswanathan Anand and Aruna Anand, the young artist sees an unexpected connection between chess and art. “There are patterns in chess and here, I’m bringing patterns into life. The idea was to show black-and-white animals against a coloured background because I grew up in a house full of black-and-white chess pieces,” he shares, adding that his parents’ response to his growing interest in art was encouraging.
His inspiration also extends to mythology. In his Sita series, he explores ideas from the Ramayana by breaking them into repeated visual elements as dot and dash, Bindu and Rekha, the title of this exhibition.
He also refers to artists and wildlife conservation figures like renowned wildlife artist and conservationist David Shepherd and Indian artist Manisha Agarwal as people he looks up to. These influences, along with his interest in wildlife, have also moulded his thoughts about the future, where he feels drawn towards working in the field of wildlife conservation, even though he is still figuring things out. Balancing school with art continues to be a challenge but he’s prepared to do what it takes. Straightforward, Sai says, “It takes a lot of hard work and patience. That is something I am still learning as I continue working on this exhibition.”