The Faraway Tree Gallery showcases figurative and quasi-abstract works by a clutch of artists who have rendered their creations on paper in acrylic, pen and ink, pastels and water colours.
Aneesh K.R., Aparajithan A.L., Laxman Aelay, Pradeep Puthoor, Ritesh Meshram, Selvam M., Suriyamoorthy M., and Vishwajyoti Mohrohff are based out of Chennai, Kerala, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Puducherry.
Aparajithan's small but compelling works are part of his “Underground” series. The simplified and restricted imagery heightened by discordant colours evokes a sense of mystery, arising out of his subconscious realm investigating memories and objects. He extends this concept to animals living in burrows; the burrow is used as a metaphor for underlying desires and feelings.
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Pradeep's style is lyrical, and borders on the surreal. His works boast an organic flow of lines and subtlety of colour and technique, and his drawings are rendered with precision. With his imagination, Pradeep gets you curious about his forest of imaginative flora and fauna.
Aneesh's pen-and-ink brush drawings titled ‘Its Nice To Be Under A Tree On A Vacant Land', have a ring of nostalgia — perhaps of a carefree childhood and joyous adolescence spent on an open land. Those cheerful memories have been translated into potent black-and-white works that lead the viewer on a sentimental journey.
Echoing similar sentiments of love for Nature are the works of Vishwajyoti, who has made portraits of select species of flowers, intimately rendered with defined details against a rich background of foliage.
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Ritesh's quasi-abstracts have a ring of Paul Klee's imagery with fragmented forms juxtaposed with geometric interplay of shapes. The colours have a magnetic quality about them, thanks to the dissonant combinations. His conceptual works inscribe a message, perhaps relating to contemporary social, cultural and environmental problems, as in his ‘Flying Seeds'.
Rural life is well articulated in Aelay's acrylics and drawings that echo of folk art. The artist's strong sense of nostalgia comes through in his vibrant lines.
The clamour of colour and bold lines defines the signature style of Suryamoorthy, who engages with organic pigments and binders in his art. His protagonists are women involved in their daily household chores, and children are an integral dimension of his compositions, rendered in intimate detail.
Selvam's pen-and-ink drawings, rendered with precision, hark back to representations of meditative Buddhas.
The works are on display until August 18 at The Faraway Tree Gallery, 6th Street, Rutland Gate.