As I walk into Vinnyasa Premier Art Gallery’s The Annual Affordable Art Show , I’m intimidated by the quiescence. As I move from one exquisite painting to the other, I discover that each one has a fascinating story to tell, deciphered only through silence. The daring play with colours and textures are spell-binding.
“Anybody can afford this, even the middle-class. In fact, we’ve requested the artists to bring down the prices for this exhibition. We have works by established artists who have reduced the size of their paintings to accommodate an affordable price.” says Irfan, manager of Vinnyasa. “The paintings are priced below Rs. 20,000.”
Colours and characters
The exhibition encompasses a wide range of drawings, paintings and art work. A black-and-white drawing done in pen on canvas by Gavi Gangadhar depicting the tribal life in Karnataka stands out for its intricacy and fastidiousness. Brothers Elayaraja and Elaiyabharathy leave me open-mouthed with their representation of characters from a typical ‘adutha theru’ (next street) scene done in acrylic on canvas. Water colours on canvas, comb patterns, metal embossing (by a carpenter!) and paper collages comprise the rest of the art works.
“This exhibition also aims at encouraging young artists and self-taught artists, by incorporating their works alongside those of established artists such as Gavi Gangadhar, Mark Rathinaraj and Prakash Deshmukh,” says Irfan. The show, the 15th consecutive one since 1999, includes paintings and art work by artists from all over India, including cities such as Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
It is on till June 15. Till the same period, Vinnyasa also offers a discount of 10 to 20 per cent on paintings not part of the show. There are also prints priced from Rs. 50. Vinnyasa Premier Art Galery is situated at No. 21 / 11, C.I.T. Colony, First Main Road, Mylapore.
