Blend of majestic artworks

In order to satiate the art lovers and to take them into another world through art, globally acclaimed Delhi-based poet, writer, painter and sculptor Satish Gupta will be exhibiting his works in the national Capital from March 24-31. 

His complete collection of sculptures, paintings and haikus will be on display, for the first time in 25 years, in the public space at the Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre.

Drawn to nature, Satish’s journey began as a painter of landscapes. His paintings encompass portraiture, landscape as well as abstract imagery and reflect his deep engagement with mysticism and Zen spirit. The colours used are minimalistic, delicate and understated like blues, moss green, lilac pink, earthy brown and beige make for an ethereal world. 

The exhibition will showcase Satish’s lifetime works of 10 sculptures, eight paintings and 72 haikus.

 In his works there is a sense of calm detachment, an assurance that he is both the participant and the observer in his own life. His collections of Haikus presented in his characteristic and visually rich calligraphic style like “You are welcome to your mansions and palaces, “The empty sky belongs to me” and “Each person’s silence is unique, just like his voice”, captures the subtle nuances of the Zen philosophy, that Satish practices. These haikus are autobiographical as they trace his journey and act as records of the most transforming moments. In ‘Surrender’, an elegantly aerodynamic Garuda is done in copper with Patina, stainless steel with gold and mirror finish measuring 12 x 16 x 9 feet to understand the sheer magnitude of his perspective. It certainly is larger than life in its size but is made in a way that it does not overpower. Despite its size, this sculpture exhibits a suggestion of lightness, the possibility of flight that is more real than imagined. 

Then there are the deeply moving sculptures Shunya and meditations on a Mandala, each is a masterpiece of voids and solids, a Buddha cut from a metal sheet of Buddhas and suspended from a metal rope, to merge one moment and emerge the next, a point of mediation and meditation. 

They make us rethink of mankind’s constant quest and search, a restlessness that can succumb to suggestions of accord only when it unites with, not against, nature. One has to view Satish’s life-size work; a sleeping Buddha’s head reclined at an angle, to understand the quiet repose of his work. 

The sculpture is 23*13.5*9 feet is both meditative and quieting, because of its towering scale has a surprise element. For on the reverse, Buddha’s head is patterned like a cave, its inner walls inscribed with neat rows of Buddhas carved as though by ancient hands on a rock face like edicts from a preceding age. The mesmerising quality of the Buddhas within is hypnotic, yet it is neither old nor rock, but copper, and across the cave’s length sprawls the figure of a gilded sleeping Buddha.

The Sanskriti awardee’s personal collection on display at the sprawling India Habitat Centre will give the visitors a chance to experience the ethereal quality of his works which are lucid, lyrical and profound. 

Speaking about the Delhi born artist’s works which are meditative in nature, renowned spiritual guru Deepak Chopra says, “Going through Satish Gupta’s very evocative artwork in his collections, I found myself seeing the world for the first time again. To read a few lines as in the following Zen like words: ‘It’s amazing – Ganga flows, Moon shines’, complete with artwork, puts you in a state of surrender; but also, in touch with mystery. It becomes the matrix from which insight, intuition, imagination, and creativity emerges.”

Gallery Art & Soul is a large art space in the heart of Worli, Mumbai and enjoys the privilege of working with a huge cross section of artists. Recognised by the artist community as an exciting space with uniquely conceptualised and well executed art events, the gallery has successfully showcased works of over 100 established artists, spanning eight decades.