Indian Galleries
Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai presents ‘A PERSONAL ODYSSEY’, a group show featuring the works of artists Vivek Anand, Arpana Caur and Shakti Maira.
Movement and space characterize the work of all three artists. Pheroza J. Godrej mentions in an introductory note: “Each is making their personal statement through the mode of a visual depiction, transposing the written letter into a visual signature. Their work amply demonstrates their current thinking and concepts using pigments and material of various strengths. They break their surfaces into various zones of colour to satisfy each ones theme.”
Each one of these artists has over the years worked in various mediums from painting and sculptures to photography to videography. However, each has chosen one’s particular facet of work for this exhibition.
Vivek Anand, formerly a photographer, diverted his artistic skills to painting. Drawing inspiration from his extensive travels, he maintains the best of both art mediums- painting the hues of Mumbai through photographic compositions with a twist of fantasy and imagination.
Arpana Caur, a self taught artist grew up in an environment rich in art, music and literature. With her main focus on the status of women, she draws artistic inspiration from Punjabi literature, folk art, and Pahari miniature paintings.
Shakti Maira, renowned author has artistically portrayed his sanctified views through his bronze sculptures series. According to him, these bronzes “represent the quintessential human urge to seek spiritual goals — profound understanding and its power to transform.” It has been a pleasure to have viewed the work of Anand, Caur and Maira at various stages in their artistic growth, and host their shows at Cymroza. These three major artists of our country stand out amongst their contemporaries.
Arpana Caur’s drawings are delicate studies where the human and the divine eclipse. Caur has sprinkled her series of line drawings with restrained doses of colour that appear at geometric angles.
This recent body of work stems from her battle to survive open heart surgery that she has had to undergo. Engaging with a small format may have come about due to her inability to work with the larger canvases that she is known for, but it has brought in its wake, its own rewards.
On the other hand, Shakti Maira’s approach to art is deeply spiritual; in his writing and his art he strives to capture the quintessential human urge to transcendence. Maira’s most recent body of work is a series titled The Seekers – a suite of bronze sculptures. The exhibition also features four of his canvases from the Transitional Self series, in the format of 6x3 feet 6x1 feet 6x5 feet and 6x2.5 feet. The narrow canvases accentuate the vertical, linear character of the figures.
Vivek Anand is a photographer turned artist stirred by the city of Mumbai and its dichotomies. The series Mumbai Blues approaches the metropolis that appears to the artist in fragments. He also draws inspiration from his travels around the country, especially Himachal Pradesh, where his other series, titled Genetic Flight, took birth.
In Mumbai Blues, one sees disjointed bodies, balloons in flight, red hot colours that lend the city its frantic energy, where traffic signals clash with the calm of meditating yogis and street dwellers and balloon sellers play out their lives on footpaths.
‘A Personal Odyssey’ show continues at Cymroza Art Gallery till December 15, 2007.
View the ‘A Personal Odyssey’ show
