An affair to remember

Here’s a treat for the art lovers - an exhibition that brings together the works of 20 artistes from across the country. Art Nouveau brings to you an eclectic mix of various contemporary artworks under one roof. 

The themes are varied, the colour palette vast , and the styles individualistic and unique. The media which they have used range from oil , acrylic and ink on canvas to watercolour on paper. However, the thread that united them is the aesthetic and visual appeal - each one being a vibrant and beautiful piece of art. 

There are 20 participating artistes hailing from different parts of the country. Jagannath Paul and Dilip Choudhary hails from Bengal and Anand Panchal and Vivek Kumavat from Maharashtra. Nagesh Goud and Ramesh Gorjala from the South of India brings a unique diversity to the canvases with their intricate detailing. Choudhury’s works depict the Bengali countryside and his hometown Kolkata bathed in the monsoon rains. His black and white works are ever popular though of late he has been dabbling in colour. Chaudhury has been painting various scenes from everyday life of Calcutta and sometimes Banaras, in water color.

My perspective is of a villager,’ says Panchal. In his paintings, the upper portion of the canvas is often devoted to iconic images that indicate the dreams of the fore grounded figure. Of his influences, Panchal names Rembrandt, Renoir, and Gauguin.

About his works of art, Mukherjee says, ‘It is a pleasurable exercise for me to create art work on glass or acrylic sheet. The concept of doing art work on glass came to me while I was studying painting. I just started it with a curiosity of developing a work of art on the reverse side of the glass.’ 

Ramesh Gorjala’s works are characterised by his focus on Indian heritage through sensitive and detailed portrayal of gods and goddesses from Indian mythology.

Mythology as a subject is not new to the world of art, but what makes Gorjala a force to reckon with is his unique interpretation and expression of the subject.

Jagannath Paul’s works are a combination of his thoughts and experiments with the traditional methods of painting. His works are minimalist in approach and hues. His magic also lies in the medium he uses-which is tough to work with and hence less tried charcoal and acrylic on canvas. Paul worked as an art director in films, designing the indoor sets of Rang de Basanti the famous Aks chair of Amitabh Bachchan and many such others.

These artistes have painted mythological subject and forms. The uniqueness of their artworks lie in the intricate detailing of the canvases with minute ink drawings within the  main composition. These drawings have a narrative related to the characters portrayed.

The participating artists include Nagesh Goud, Ramesh Gorjala, Jagannath Paul, Dilip Choudhary, Anand Panchal, Vivek Kumavat, Ananda Das, Shekhar Roy, Subrata Das, Sukanta Das, Kishore Roy, Prashant Nayak, Shyamal Mukherjee, Sachin Jaltare, Swaraj Das, Rajat Nandi, Jiaur Rahman, Asit Sarkar, Ramonkar and Shan Bhatnagar. This show is curated by Ameeshi Tapuriah.