Monsoon Shades: Seasons of life

Hyderabad: Monsoon Shades, the group exhibition at Gallery Space, of 15 artists from across the country, is an amalgamation of spiritual, realistic and metaphysical art.

Works of Amit Bhar depict the architectural splendour of Varanasi and Hampi. “I feel that we are all here because of a supreme force guiding us, and my art is a tribute to that spiritual entity. I visit Varanasi every year because the environment and the architecture there urge me to paint,” he says.

Artist Srikanth Kurva’s artwork was inspired by the spirit of the city. As a young BFA student in the city several years back, Srikanth used to visit Begum Bazaar and in the cacophony of the market, it was the goats, cows and bulls which got his undivided attention. He says, “Bulls are symbols of great strength and resilience and in order to capture that I made a cloth collage. After sketching the bull, I paint its body with one common colour and then put patches of cloth of same shade to accentuate its form.”

Veteran artist Laxman Aelay’s signature Telangana art was accompanied by an abstract titled Earth Meets Sky, on a scratch board, a technique that is yet to catch on in the country. “As a medium it accommodates both soft and bold strokes, but the only downside is that it’s permanent; once you sketch something it can’t be removed,” he adds.

Meanwhile, artists Payal and Priyanka Aelay’s semi abstracts, tried to explore issues related to women. While Payal correlated nature and women as nurturers, Priyanka tried to probe how social media affects how women are seen.