‘Looking Inwards, Looking Beyond’, the on-going exhibition at Forum Art Gallery, is one in a series of affordable art shows planned there.
It features the works of two young artists — paintings by Santhosh Kotagiri from Hyderabad, and sculptures by Vasantharaja J. — that complement one another in theme and style.
Santhosh’s mixed media works are delicate and dreamy, watercolours in muted tones of pink, yellow and green, with gold and silver foil softly shimmering in their midst.
These dreamscapes are filled with stylised imagery of Nature — trees, leaves, birds and animals — and the human faces depicted on the gently textured canvases seem to be looking inward, as the artist is himself. The paintings come in different sizes, their prices ranging from Rs. 22,000 to Rs. 40,000.
Vasantharaja’s bronze sculptures too incorporate foliage and human figures, but here, the focus seems to lie on what lies ahead and beyond.
Each of these compact works — all set in distressed, antique-looking squares or rectangles — feature minimalist figures either trapped in bondage or in difficult relationships, looking ahead into the future. Priced between Rs. 35,000 and Rs. 1 lakh, these neat but evocative pieces seem to speak of the human condition.
The exhibition is on until April 9.
