A black and white painting of Malala invites me in at ‘i’, the art exhibition cum sale organised by Collective Studio. It is one of the 31 works artist Manil Gupta has brought to town. “I do not pre-plan any of my works. All my works are an extension of myself and the people I see around me For example, I did Malala while I was watching an interview of her in my TV,” says Manil. The 40-year-old says human forms are his favourite subject. “I want to reconstruct the way humans are portrayed. The people that I draw are androgynous. It can represent anyone. I sometimes use stripes to create optical illusions. Some people think my art is dark. I use these stripes to balance it out,” he says.
Though Manil’s works are mostly figurative, all of them start off as abstract pieces. “I just draw pattens. But not many people connect with such art in our country. This is why I add humans or other figures later. A lot of my art is in black and white. Colours bring in unnecessary emotions with them. I find this uncomplicated and simple,” he explains.
Though he has now done six solo exhibitions and around 40 group shows, Manil says his first dream was to be a cricketer. “But I was also good in drawing. So after school, I studied applied arts in my under graduation.” He started to exhibit his works from 2003. “It was a good time for art. The market and sales were great, but then came the economic depression in 2009. It was a hard time for artists as our paintings were not sold. One evening, I did graffiti art with my brother, Rohit and I found that his influence helped me bring a different dimension to my work. It excited me.” They collaborated under the name ManilRohit and did a show in Delhi. “But I knew that not many may come to a gallery to see art, so we decided to bring it to the people. We painted on our car, a Mahindra Scorpio in 2012, and that brought a lot of attention,” he says. The duo later conceptualised, directed, produced and hosted a programme called the Creative Indians . “Our idea was to show to the world the different artists that we have. While the first two seasons were aired on television, the third season is available in Netflix. We shot the entire series using iPhone and we are now ready to launch the next season in September.”
- The show is on till August 27; 10:30 am to 6:30 pm
- At Collective Space , 15 B, Tea Estate Compound, Race Course Road
- Price ranges between ₹14000 and ₹ 37000
- Call 0422 496 2632 for details
He says that the show kept him busy for six years. “It is only in the last two years that I made the art works you see here. I drew whenever I found time.” This is Manal’s second exhibition in Coimbatore. “I am excited. I am now working for another that will soon be conducted in Delhi,” he says.
