Fresco Impasto – a recent week-long solo art exhibition at the Central Lalit Kala Akademi’s Regional Centre gallery in Bhubaneswar was a distinct debut by Ankita Goenka, a young doctor-painter who was born in Assam, and now settled in Odisha. A cosmetic dental surgeon by profession but a painter by passion, Ankita’s large body of 55 works displayed at the gallery spoke volumes of her inherent talent.
As one entered the gallery, one came across a riot of colours and concepts on canvas. Each of the frames arrested the attention of the viewer – such was the theme and the treatment of the art works and the exhibition that was conceptualized, crafted and mounted professionally and aesthetically. Though most of her works were in mixed media on canvas, she also tried her hand at water colour, oil colour and even 3D glass fusion.
The first frame that a visitor to the show came across – Transformation – aptly introduced the artist and her art as well. A little girl is seen flying in the sky dreaming big, of constantly stretching further – for her the sky is the limit. The next one – Wings on a catapult – showed a grown up girl on a swing and with wings; her dreams and imagination taking shape.
Moving further, frames that one came across with catchy captions like ‘Freedom from anarchy of destiny’, ‘Nature undwelling the caged’ and ‘Descended from the crescent’ had a female figure celebrating joy and freedom – all these works of art apparently bore Ankita’s autobiographical signature as a child with a dream to be an artist who could fetch her freedom from the pressure of the career.
Though the artist had more of her abstract and experimental works in the show that many professional artists admired, her figurative frames were quite touching for art lovers. ‘Against the Wind’ was one such work in oil colour that showed horses on the move. The strokes of the brush beautifully brought life and force on the piece of canvas. Similarly, ‘In you, I see the world’; two faces were shown magnetically drawn towards each other showing a beautiful and strong bond of love and trust.
Ankita’s amazing artistic expressions were reflected in her creations with 3D glass fusion. Aquarium, Ferns, Soft coral polyps, Inside the ocean, The butterfly fish and The jelly tree – all these appeared animated with the artist’s ability in special effects. The distinct manner in which she mounted her art works made them more meaningful and attractive. To paint four parrots, she used five frames and put all together in The Macaws. Similarly, The Dancing Quadra had five dancers painted on two frames and put together to give the impression of a single frame.
In everything, from the well-thought out captions to the visitors’ book made of hand-made paper, Ankita infused the highest degree of aesthetics that is rarely being seen in such shows.
Why didn’t this highly promising artist take up art as her profession? “I was quite passionate about art and I started painting at the age of six. But, my mother - who could do her doctorate degree even 20 years after her marriage, always insisted that her daughter should be sound in academics while pursuing artistic creativity. And she was wise. I could be a doctor and a painter simultaneously and I didn’t have to depend on art for my daily bread and butter. Art continues to be my passion and mission in life,” says Ankita with conviction.
