Over 17 upcoming artists, including over four photographers have their works put up at the re-launch of Sublime Galleria on UB City's sky bridge.
There are some breathtaking wildlife photographs by Ashish Parmar, Amit Sharma and Anoop H. Asish has shot African wildlife — zebras drinking water with their faces touching, lionesses playing after an unsuccessful hunt and a micro-photograph of two ants head-to-head. The African wildlife safari continues with Amit's captivating photographs of “The Greatest Show on Earth”, a docile leopard, a wounded lion's portrait, a tiger cautiously walking forward into enemy territory and flamingos standing together, looking for fish.
Farah Ahmed has worked with photographs to produce images akin to watercolours. “Medieval painters wanted to make their paintings look like photographs. But I've done the exact opposite. I'd like to call my works impressionistic photography. I've tried to make my photographs look like paintings by working with negatives. I think the art of working with negatives in a dark room is dying down,” says Farah.
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She has photographed lights strung in helical and wavy shapes and printed out the negatives, so the photographs look like sci-fi inspired watercolours. The radiance around the lights has actually a nice blue shade in the resultant photographs, an opposite of the yellow they were in the original, adding to the charm and the effect.
Among the paintings, there are quite a few abstracts, a lot them are interesting mixed-media works. One such artist is Simran Lamba, who has an eye-catching series of works predominantly incorporating coal tar and construction materials, including mesh and metal.
Then there are the mixed-media works of Priyanka Agarwal featuring bell pins, red thread, money bills and other motifs. Her works address issues of displacement and the to and fro between countries.
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“My works try not only to depict personal displacement, but also addresses the socio-economic philosophy behind moving to another country. I've tried to map how it feels to move abroad and come back through the conscious present and the subconscious past through my experience,” says Priyanka, who moved to the U.S.A post-marriage and currently lives in Bangalore.
Srividya G.S's landscapes are quite intriguing. In her works, the landscapes and nature take precedence over people, highlighting their importance and their growing disappearance. She has also used her colours strongly, capturing the viewer's attention to the objects within the canvas. “My paintings depict the vanishing markets of Mysore and Bangalore. I have captured the dwindling local, seasonal flowers through my watercolours,” says Srividya.
Pragya Jain has also done a few abstracts based on keys, inspired by her experience of moving back to India from abroad. Geometric shapes interact with each other to recreate the depth of her ideas on the canvas. “When I moved back to India, I found myself responsible for a lot of keys. They have a mystery about them, about what they're going to reveal. I tried to bring this theme forward in a fun way,” explains Pragya. There is a “quirky” element in her works, emphasized by her use of bright colours like pink, orange and yellow.
There are quite a few more artists to look forward to at Sublime Galleria including Pallon Daruwala, C.B.P. Prasad, Amina Shazi, Rupesh Patrick, Shukla Chowdhury, Soraya Taher Merchant, Tala Afshin and Kalabhakesari.
The exhibition at Sublime Galleria, UB City will be on view until December 4. Call 25001236 or visit www.sublimegalleria.com for details.