It’s a magical art land — fantastical, absurd, abstract, and a bit dark at times. The Kerala Lalithakala Akademi’s 52nd annual exhibition, And I Rise Again, is a juxtaposition of the developments and trends in the art world and the past, present and future directions of our society.
This year, the exhibition is being held in two different galleries, with Durbar Hall Art Gallery, the main venue, as the centre. The entire gallery has transformed into a wonderland of traditional artworks — paintings, sculptures and installations of award winners, artists and students fill the walls here.
The second gallery, The G Memorial Art Gallery, is the hub of new media, photographs, and everything technical. This year, the number of new media works has increased, says Akademi Chairperson Murali Cheeroth.
“Initially, we received over 900 works in total. From them, first, we made a large shortlist of over 700 works and then selected over 300 to be exhibited. We can see the new, hopeful, experimental and aesthetic direction the Kerala art movement is transforming into from these curated pieces. And this year, we can see an even more increased presence of women artists, a mark of the shattering gender divide in the contemporary art scene,” he adds.
It takes time to take in all the works, which brutally honest judges term as both extraordinary but needing more improvements, especially in the case of new media experiments. A new world has emerged in these halls, that requires quite introspection and breaking the traditional concepts of beauty, aesthetics and art sense. It’s a treat for everyone, be it art commissioners or common people who want to get a glimpse into what contemporary art is all about.
The show concludes on April 4
