The latest exhibition by a group of artists from Kolkata who call themselves “The Triangular Bond”, at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, shows a combination of traditional and Western influences.
The exhibition, curated by Anup Sankar Paul, features 10 upcoming artists and four established artists — Dwijen Gupta, Prokash Karmakar, Rabin Mondal and Samir Aich. Dwijen's work comprises fluid portraits of a contemplative woman. Prokash paints a clump of trees that appears like a swathe of green against the light sky. A scratched and marked face outlined in black occupies Rabin's canvas, while Samir's work is a complex, semi-abstract, textured work in shades of white and black.
The most interesting of the other ten are Arpita Pradhan, Jayanta Bhattacharya and Kamal Kumar Mukherjee. Arpita Pradhan works with a cityscape of black and white buildings repeating in a chaotic grid-like structure and adds quirky elements, like a tree or a pink frame, as the sole spot of colour in a bleak background.
Jayanta Bhattacharya too has towering skyscrapers as one of the major elements, with the hazy figure of a skier, a masked face and a boy bent over a reptile in three different works. Kamal Kumar Mukherjee places random objects together in a black space in both “Myth Poses” and “Anti Terrorist Band”. In “Myth Poses”, the central space is occupied by a statue of a lion on a broken stone pedestal. A medal with Gandhiji's face emerges from the top of the canvas next to a few coloured scarves or pieces of cloth with writing. Under the lion several headless figures of Gandhiji march forward.
Sadikul Islam's series of acrylics of old city streets (possibly Kolkata) with all their chaos, traffic, decaying buildings and vendors is charming, especially in the way he plays with the light and shade and renders architecture. Anup Shankar Paul's Jesus with a crystal cross, Asim Goswami's forms of women, Debaprashad Guha's circus-like characters, and Sekhar Biswas's underwater women are some of the other works that stand out. The exhibition also features work by Kamal Aich, who juxtaposes figures of desolate-looking men against consumer goods, and Purnendu Bikash Mondal, who lends his perspective on the desire for women.
The group exhibition by “The Triangular Bond” will be on view at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Kumarakrupa Road, until March 7. For details, contact 22263424.
Art for all ages
The latest exhibition at Renaissance is a reflection of voices from across age groups. There's six-year-old Anirudh Kannan with his abstract works, largely bold patches of colour intermingling and co-existing quite well. Sometimes it's a mixture of blues and greens, at other times there are patches of yellow, red and brown included. In one such abstract work, he uses only black and white.
“My son started painting when he was three years old,” says Anirudh's mother, Aarthi Kannan. “One day he saw some poster colours and started painting. We noticed that his concentration levels were high while painting. He has done over 75 paintings since then. When we show his works to experts, they tell us that he has good colour sense, and that there's maturity in his works.” Anirudh was the youngest participant at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath's Chitrasanthe in 2011 and 2012.
Jereen Susan John's experimental works in ink on washed effect and ink on wet canvas make up a youthful, exuberant series. Jereen has put up three bodies of work, titled “Naatya Collection”, “24hrs series” and “Shades of Blue”. In the “Naatya Collection”, she expresses different components of classical dance, like “Bavam” or expression, “Rasa” meaning emotion or aesthetics and “Lasya” meaning grace. “I used to learn classical dance as a child, I suppose it was always inside me,” explains Jereen. “At the same time, I was also exploring different media and I began with the canvas. I didn't like what I painted so I washed over it. It struck me that I could use this as a base for ‘Naatya' since it already contained so much drama. Also, using a single medium for a theme like that didn't seem appropriate.”
Her other bodies of work, the “24hrs Series” and “Shades of Blue”, are all born out of an urgency to paint. “These works reflect what was inside me at that point of time.
They are an exploration of my thought process,” she adds. The “24hrs Series” encompasses four paintings, each accomplished within a day. And “Shades of Blue” was born out of a necessity to use just two colours — pink and blue.
The 39-year-old Delhi-based artist Keshaw Kumar has on display some colourful landscapes and figuratives of folk-inspired characters including Krishna. The exhibition also features works by Raghunath F. Miskin and Kumaraswamy. It will be on view at the Renaissance Gallerie, 13, Cunningham Road, until March 7. For details, contact 22202232.
