S Gopakumar, the famous architect from the city has turned many a number of hotels, banks, open spaces and homes into a beautiful place of living with his aesthetic skills. And now the architect is back with his first solo exhibition titled Fire at Durbar Hall Art Gallery from February 22.
For Gopakumar, painting has always been his first love. In the exhibition he will be displaying mostly acrylic-based works and the reason for using the medium is its fast drying nature so that he can save time within his regular working schedule. The paintings deal with the pleasant themes which enlightens one’s soul and spirit. His earlier paintings were monochromatic.
The artist is known as an architect who runs the firm Kumar Group, since 1976. Before starting the firm he was working with architect Padma Bhushan Charles Correa. He had worked with Charles Correa on the Kovalam Beach Resort which is now with the Leela Group.
Gopakumar, a product of College of Engineering Trivandrum, showed great interest in art right from his college days. He was secretary of college painting club. More importantly he was also the founder member of Trivandrum Art Group (TAG), which is supposed to be the first association of artists to be formed in Kerala. Some of the members of this group were Malayattoor Ramakrishnan, Gopalan and Sarala Gopalan, an IAS couple, Purinjukutty, former head of the School of Arts, Trivandrum, artists Sanathan and Dathan to name a few.
Gopakumar has received many awards for his artistic and photography skills including the Lalithkala Academy award in 1970. But the talented artist could not dedicate his time for art once he started his firm Kumar Group. Some of the architectural projects he has done are Taj Hotel at Calicut, HDFC building and DH Ground in Kochi, Thampanoor bus station and Ghandhi Park in Thiruvananthapuram, to name a few.
The inauguration will be by Artist Namboodhiri at 5 pm. K A Francis, Lalithkala Academy chairman, K L Mohana Varma, wirter and artist Kaladharan of Kalapeedom will also be present for the event.
The exhibition will be on till February 28.