Priyasri Art Gallery

‘Working with common themes such as time, isolation, and transition, I am interested in the fragility of relationships and people’s awkwardness in trying to coexist and relate to one another. To that end I create miniature-like detailing to serve as evolving still life’s from which I paint detailed narrative paintings. For my most recent series of paintings I built a diorama of a fictional rural landscape and gradually developed it into farmland and ultimately, a town. Beginning with a square of Styrofoam, I carved mountains, valleys, rivers and ponds, and propagated a verdant landscape with wire and foam trees.

My practice is vastly influenced and marked by my shift from Odisha to Delhi and personal encounter with the ever- changing landscape, evident in my recording of minute details – both real and imagined. Fusing stylistic elements drawn from miniature paintings and the traditional Patta paintings. The idea portrayed the value of image reading and sense of diversity between Machine and urban picture. The Machine is the main part for the people in the city. It carried the aesthetic, beauty and ugliness of science. In the painting it gives the scene of man made clouds and deserves the costume of urban.’

Melding the present and the past structures with ease and yet using both narratives to create a future reimagined, Digbijayee Khatua’s technical skill is impressive. He has exhibited nationally and was even awarded the Gold Medal from the Prafulla Art Foundation Mumbai, as a recognition of his creative excellence. From displaying at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum to the India Art Fair in Delhi, Digbijayee continues to evolve and inspire through his intensive practice and work.

Abhishek Salve9

Untitled III

I'm working on establishing a balance between nature and man for the harmonious living of the man, emerges

from my childhood memories that I have of my village and me growing up amidst nature, I have positive memories of it and I feel wronged when that very same nature which made me feel joyous as a child is now being manipulated and moulded by the man for the same of 'development'. The cause I establish here is that nature should not be moulded or manipulated as per the convenience of the man, and especially if the convenience is leading to artificiality and superficiality. Man should be very me callous when it comes to the usage of resources and in that me callousness, he just cannot afford the exploitation of the nature. Urbanization and Modernization is a good thing, but if both are taking place at the cost of nature and the people whose livelihood is based on the resources that come directly from nature, then it's a matter of concern.

Meet our artist from Untitled III

Raja Landa

My day to day life and the conflict between the known and unknown thoughts about reality and imagination is the inspiration for my art practice. Whatever I see and experiences in my everyday life becomes my subject of works. My works talks about the journey which had lead me to the present situation. The stereotypical lifestyle and its existence marks its presence through my imageries. The layers which I create, are like the way incidents in our life become layered over time and leave its impression, I overlap images and juxtapose them to execute the thought process behind. It is like an enquiry for me about the thoughts and its existence. Selecting elements from the nature itself is a critical process and unconsciously they are placed in my work which gives a playful dimension. The constant mental exercise enhances my imagination and creation. In this way, what affects me the best become images and come together in my works, because that is the subject that I understand the best. My work is personal; at the same time, it is not isolated. While I feel that relations can be drawn from it and experiences can be shared. And my exploration and experience is a never ending process.

Meet our artsits from Untitled III

Astha Patel

Nature transformed through industry, agriculture and gardening is a dominant theme in my work. Large landscapes and humbling experiences have highlighted the topics of

anthropocene and capitalocene to me. But I also find inspiration from altered objects and ironies to which we are now accustomed to like gardening, artificial landscapes and new farming trends. I also draw inspiration from my encounters with global ecological issues and untimed calamities. Witnessing events like forest fires, floods and extreme

temperatures make me contemplate our existence and purpose; and in every way has left me feeling amazingly small. Chaos is the same as it used to be; humans only adapted better. But, for how long ?I make visuals which are set at deserted locations with forceful, beautiful; even monumental botches for landscapes. As beautiful and alluring as they look, there is an utter absence of affinity. Everything seems to be displaced, but are aesthetically arranged as tobplease our eyes. The basis of its foundation is natural, yet it is entirely dependent to human touch. It is all well orchestrated. I prefer to make use of two dimensional surfaces to make art, like paper and canvas. I also try to explore various print-making and photo-processing techniques. I usually like to use dark and sombre hues to create a gloomy impending mood of an almost apocalyptic nature.

Astha has done her BFA in Visual Arts (Painting), Faculty of Fine Arts

The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Vadodara, 2015-19.

Meet the artists from Untitled III

Arvind Sundararajan

Arvind Sundar’s work navigates painted space from the geometry of the grid. Contesting its apparent neutrality, Sundar employs the materiality of paint, screen printing and found supports to engage the grid as a performative site. Through push-pull negotiations between drawn lines and colour-fields, Sundar undoes the notion of the picture plane, offering renewed indexes of spatial reference.                                                                               -Vasundra Sellamuthu

This series explores the new order of economy, culture and politics being formed in the midst of COVID 19. For many of us this is the first time we are experiencing this extensive surveillance and control of the state. We are being positioned in the new grid. The new grid puts us in this panopticon terrain and everything is going to be changed.

Arvind Sundar is currently an Assistant Professor at Loyola College

Parvathi Nayar

‘We are particularly involved with the digital in this time. From the studio set up in my home, with my pencils and paint, and with the camera and computer, I find myself seamlessly slipping between media these days whether it’s my works of photopoetry (that combine my poetry with images) or paintings or creative writing.'

I like experimenting with different media, for each different engagement comes with a particularity in how an idea can be expressed – and the work that emerges. Internal collaborations – such as those in the Deep Symmetry series – feel in some way to be both a metaphor and literal expression of these strange times.

I decided to play with these notions, governed by impulses born as much out of playfulness as out of curiosity. The Deep Symmetry series talks about the interconnectedness between the objects of our world, whether as purely visual associations, or internal affiliations, or both.

The Deep Symmetry series speak very much to me about our current transient times, in its pairing of the hand-drawn with the digital. These are deliberately paired to counterpoint each other and affect the way each element of the work is received.’

Parvathi Nayar currently works from Chennai, Tamil Nadu and is an artist who works across a versatile array of mediums and subjects. Her interests range greatly but translate beautifully through her elegantly ‘worded’ works. She has exhibited extensively both in India (Bikaner House, India Art Fair, Gallery OED) and across the globe, written prolifically and delivered TED talks as well. Brilliantly weaving science, art, technology and more through her intrinsic work, she navigates known as well as unknown terrain effortlessly.

Title: Deep Symmetry series

Diptych, each panel approx. 11.5 x 22.5 inches

Panel 1: Handdrawn graphite and mixed media on wooden panels

Panel 2: Archival print on Hahnemule paper

Artist and photographer: @artistparvathinayar

Abhishek Salve

I derive or perhaps intend to derive the concept of my work by juxtaposing nature and the construction of skyscrapers in Mumbai, its natural ecology is being put at stake. It was my necessity to come to Mumbai to pursue my graduation in sculpture. I started to develop my way around sculpture by learning it and taking into account the academics related to sculpture. Through sculpture as an art form I wanted to convey my thoughts to people and began doing so. During that me I used to stay in Siddharth Nagar slum in Chembur, and that experience was life changing for me as I observed around me construction of buildings and skyscrapers taking place and the material being used was cement (the material I'm inclined to in my works). That observation had kept me wondering that the inhabitants of the 'chawl' or slum have barely any fresh air to breathe and any space to even freely move, let alone living a life of luxury! I had inferred from my experience that the inhabitants or residents of chawl need at least some place to live in and have free movements, as this was an expressed concern by the very people of chawl at that me. From what I have observed the people in Mumbai have a very ironical concept of a decent environment and nature because two contradictory things have clashed in front of me and those are, 1) people go to any extreme to fiddle with the natural flora and fauna of Mumbai e.g. mangroves, and 2) prefer keeping artificial flora and fauna in their homes (such as plant vase) and it gives them a feeling of bliss.

Abhishek has studied Masters in Sculpture from M.S.U. Baroda from 2017-19, Bachelors in Sculpture From Sir. J. J. School Of Art, Mumbai 2012-16

He has been awarded by Maharashtra State Art for his Sculpture

Facilitated by Moksha Kumar @vratya.m.art

A note:

The influx of visuals is intense, as social media explodes with various sources of information, and our eyes become accustomed to a reality that is hardly any reality at all. The strange netherworld of dealing with the space that is both shared and personal, is perhaps what this exhibit hopes to explore in its entirety. Not only bringing the world in, but stopping to imagine the silence in the wait as well. Even if our minds arrest their motion and understand the static that is roaming within, we could better configure our own spaces and mental boundaries.

To encourage the discourse of observation, perseverance and resonance; the exhibit will showcase a variety of artists who deal with the broader meaning of ‘spaces’ and could thus interpret it as a bench by the bus stop, if you will. The digital space offers us the opportunity to create digitally as well, thus including works from artists that responded to the concept as well their own philosophy, via a digital work.

Exhibitions will commence on 15th July and will remain till 15th August 2020

This is what Arvind Sundararajan a fellow artists who is part of the show Untitled III & IV has to say.

Arvind Sundararajan is an artist trained in the USA. Have studied BFA from school of the art Chicago and MFA in painting from the University of Cincinnati. Moved to India in 2019 living and working now from Chennai.

Facilitated by Moksha Kumar

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Do have a look before its out - link in bio

From our ongoing show, completes her series of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion world map with its all resources, form and color.

As we continued our activities and believed that focusing on variables and focusing on what we can do rather than what we can’t is important to us.

From our debut virtual group exhibition Untitled I & Untitled II extended till 30th June - link in bio

Using printmaking (woodcut & etching) as a medium, I interpret and depict my experience. The surface of the paper is as essential as the form and its concept. Initially, I used machine-made papers as the surface, until I learned and practiced the techniques of papermaking. I have started creating my surface, suitable for my print artwork, using natural fibres acquired from agricultural waste. For example; like the waste from banana plantation.

This particular artwork captures the contrast between the urban and the rural scenario. Where, in the village, the lazy and careless father seems to be deep in sleep while the mother toils away day and night. She carries the responsibilities of the house and tries to support her children’s dreams; And in the city, the son struggles to make his dreams come true. He lives in a congested house where four people share the same kitchen, toilet and

bathroom. He is meditative despite all this, for the sake of his dreams. This woodcut print on paper made from natural fibre, captures these two visuals in one frame.

#contemporary

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#rootedexperiences

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Grateful to the artists and all those who have supported us in this endeavour. Happy to announce that we are extending the exhibition until the end of June.

Visual arts and writing to express complicated situations like now!

Artists from our ongoing virtual exhibition - Link in bio

"Space is everything for time ceases to quicken memory " (Yi-Fu Tuan).

For me, a place is something that remains for a longer time frame and the architecture of that specific space has

so many significant stories to delineate for, passed about its creation, the story of how we are identified with it,

the way we relate to it and how our observations change with different places. Development of a place influences

our life on an everyday basis to which we adjust and change to our very own personal comforts.

Image 1:

Ideal Home II

Intaglio

31 x 22 inch, Ed 2/4

2019

Image 2:

Acquaintance

Intaglio

3 panels in all: 2 panels: 21 x 11.5 inch, 1 panel: 22.5 x 21.5 inch, Ed 1/4

2019

Image 3:

Ideal Home I

Intaglio

31 x 31 inch, Ed 2/4

2019

Image 4:

Space on a rainy day

Intaglio

3 panels in all: 2 panels: 15 x 11 inch, 1 panel: 34 x 15 inch, Ed 3/4

2019

Image 5:

Ideal Home III

Intaglio

21.5 x 21.5 inch, Ed 1/4

2019

Image 6:

Untitled

Intaglio

36 x 21 inch, Ed 2/3

2018

Image 7:

Untitled

Cyanotype on serigraphy print

18 x 15 inch each, Ed 1/2

2019

Image 8:

Untitled

Silk aquatint print

9 x 6.5 inch each, Ed 1/4

2019