Three artists and a gallery

Nature Morte and Contemplate Art Gallery present ‘Intersecting Geometries’. They exhibit the works of three internationally renowned artists, quite different from each other. Ajay Desai and Manisha Parekh are Indians, while Seher Shah is a ‘very-much-in-demand’, young and renowned artist from Pakistan. It is a rare opportunity for art lovers to view their paintings

Shapes, colour, imagination and sensibilities Three artists show their work at the Contemplate Art Gallery. Photo: M. Periasamy

Ajay Desai

The senior most of the three artists on display, Ajay Desai is also a graduate of M.S. University Baroda, and The Royal College of Art, London. He has shown his works extensively across the country and abroad. His paintings draw the visitor in with their sheer size and the palette of colours. The images look faintly industrial and his canvasses dominate the room.

Seher Shah

Born in 1975, Seher lives and works in Brooklyn. A trained architect, the structure and rendering of her work shows that influence. Since she is from Pakistan, one automatically looks for reference to India and there are a few works that feature soldiers, the disputed borders and the mountains.

Seher has worked with drawings and photographs. Her recent work investigates idealised modernist subjects ranging from housing projects to Utopian city plans. She breaks down their components, and using the basic elements of architecture such as the wall, grid and column, examines the qualities of Brutalist architecture within the landscape. She has exhibited her works widely all over the world.

Manisha Parekh

A suite of graphite drawings draws attention. They are the works of Manisha Parekh who has an M.A. in painting from both M.S. University Baroda, and The Royal College of Art in London. Manisha is one of the few artists working in India today who continues to explore an exclusively abstract language.

Her work has often been said to draw from the ethereal abstractions of Gaitonde, the geometric draughtsmanship of Nasreen Mohammedi (who was one of her teachers in Baroda), as well as the ink drawings of Jeram Patel.

On display are also four paintings from her series “Pomegranate Bloom”. Worked on hand made paper, it is embellished with silk. Manisha is known to refer to the craft and textile traditions of Gujarat.

Manisha has shown her works around the world.

The gallery will hold the exhibition till November 20, between 10 a.m to 6 p.m (Sundays closed).