Uma Nair highlights some of the pieces on display during the the ongoing group exhibition at Triveni Kala Sangam
At Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi, one gallery that is a must see is Art Pilgrim which is nestled down the corridor next to the cafe. Gita Singh, its director, is a well known collector with a deep interest in the masters as well as emerging talent, and often curates historical exhibitions.
The opening of the physical space after the pandemic brings Art Pilgrim’s show Bloom Time with a suite of splendid works that celebrate the flowering of life and its many facets in myriad ways.
Just as you step down into the gallery on the left is a magnificent B Prabha. This 1989 oil on canvas is a unique composition of Prabha’s trademark fisherfolk — always graceful and simply clad in white with an odhini standing against a field of blooming flowers. Rare, perhaps, in the study she offers, this masterpiece is an inspiration for all of us because it speaks in equivocal ways about life and its many predicaments.
Down the wall, as it continues, is a heady meditative mooring of the brilliant Shobha Broota.This oil and acrylic on canvas (2015), is a savouring of contemplation; it is a distinct entity of the moment of rapture of the suffusion of particles of energy that form a bloom of the moment of meditation which is at once soft and tranquil and one that seeps into your senses. This work reaffirms the truth that abstraction is a journey that travels inward into the realms of the conscious state of being. Shobha also brings home the words of Wassily Kandinsky when he said, “Repetition is a potent means of heightening the inner vibration and is, at the same time, a source of elementary rhythm which, in turn, is a means to the attainment of elementary harmony in every form of art.”
Jayashree Chakravarty’s Sun Rays (2017), a rare oil on canvas is a study in evocative elegance and the magnitude of nature and the sojourn of full bloom in the living spirit of the tree. At once, a signature of being autobiographical and dream-like , here is an exercise in transition and transformation of the personal experience into mystical truth. Her imagery, because of her fluid and transparent images, reflects the unity of man and nature. The detailing in her work is an array of arresting elements that spell infinity of earth’s bounty.
In that same vein is a sienna toned landscape by Shabir Husain Santosh which captures the tonal tenors of a sunset. Modernist in its mappings, it creates an evanescent tone of fervour and flavour. The show has something for everyone including a magnificent set of tree paintings which must be written about at a later date.
(Bloom Time, the group exhibition at Art Pilgrim Gallery, can be viewed till September 27, 2021.)