Fourteen young artists, 14 different points of view. That's the Young Contemporaries exhibition at Contemplate Art Gallery for you. Each of them has a different tale to tell.
Aditi Patel's sculpture, “Every rose has its thorn” leads the way. Carved out of fibreglass, in a soothing olive green, the angelic face of a woman is at the centre. Her face, covered by a sheath of cloth, is impaled by thorns shaped like butterflies. The sheer size of the piece is arresting.
What sold like hot cakes was the artwork of Shilpa Mayankar. Ants scurrying around in interesting patterns, moths and cockroaches… Her works feature brilliant detailing that could leave your skin crawling; yet, there is a certain earthiness to it all. Within 10 minutes of the inauguration, her works were snapped up by eager collectors.
The favourite of Rajshree Pathy, industrialist, art connoisseur, and owner of Contemplate Art Gallery, is Jagdish Shreyas' ‘Float series'. There are around 20 tiles — each depicting a suspended object in black and white. Headphones placed near a dead bird, a grinder with cacti inside, a polluting factory placed in a box choked with black smoke are a few of the images on the tiles.
The juxtaposition of Nature with machinery does the trick for this ensemble. Industrialist Vikram Mohan wishes he could “buy all the works”. “But, for now, I have my eyes on the Float series,” he says.
“This is the first time we have so many sculptures,” points out Nivedita K Mohanraj, curator of the gallery. Manas Ranjan Paridha's creation, ‘Traction', sculpted out of wood and fibreglass, intrigues many.
Life-like
The teapoy in the middle of the gallery almost looks out of place in a gallery devoted to art. But, take a closer look and you'll realise that the three dailies placed on the table are carved of marble! A life-size silver gleaming male figure with four hands holds aloft a block where the head should be. This, Praful Singh calls ‘The Reality'.
The favourite of Konangal's Pon Chandran was Aadhi Vishal's creations that seemed to encompass an array of elements. A splash of orange and purple with a girl in one corner, a flurry of diamonds, the moon, the sun, and a green bottle at the other end…
Vivid imagery
A splatter of green on the canvas, trees everywhere. But behold in the centre, there's a woman standing atop a fish holding a lamp while the man in the next painting with the same background stands on top of a crocodile with an arrow at the ready — the artist is Umesh Unni, in his 20s.
Old Mughal buildings glimmer through the champagne glasses of Tauseef Khan's paintings. Purnna Behera's black and white portraits of everyday faces done in pen and water colour have smatterings of chamkis and cutouts.
The traditional depiction of the Kaliyamardhanam in bright hues is given a different spin by Vijay Arumugam. This artist chooses to uses light pink and blue pastels, yet the power of the scene is unharmed. Krishna, in a much smaller form, is enveloped by serpents on all sides.
You wish you could have got to meet the artists who came up with these creations. But, Nivedita says that the aim was to “sell these pieces for them, so that these youngsters can get the recognition they deserve”.
The show is on till September 15 from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. For details, call 0422-4226357/56.
