P. Udaya Bhaskara Rao, who hails from Chirala, and Keerthi Kankipati from Baptala are unpretentious when they explain their method of work. Inspired by Richard Estes, the pioneer in photorealist paintings in the 1960s, these emerging artists try their best to depict everyday objects in their paintings.
Udaya Bhaskara Rao’s oil on canvas works bring to life the different vegetables one finds heaped in markets — yellow cucumbers, ridge gourd and tomatoes. The paintings are convincing in showing these objects as they are, with their imperfections. The colours vary from unripe green to ripe yellow and a tad overripe orange hues. He creates an optical illusion to show blemishes and wrinkled surfaces.
Keerthi’s canvases have blooms, foliage and cows. Her photorealist paintings comment on the urban space and its impact on flora and fauna. The lotus leaves are bereft of dew drops and don’t emerge from romantic water bodies. The setting is dry. The cows too are painted against an opaque, grey background to indicate they inhabit a concrete jungle where vegetation is scarce.
For their first major exhibition, the former Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University students have used high-definition photographs to replicate life-like images on canvas.
Sight & Insight is on view at Kalakriti Art Gallery, road no.10, Banjara Hills, till April 14.
