love for art and the search for tranquility find a new home in Inner Konnect Art Group's 'Collectively Independent', an ongoing group painting exhibition. Vijay S Kumar reports
Artist friends Gaurav Chawla and Richa Chaddah got together to create a space for artists across the country to share their work, enabling them showcase their talent. Konnect Art Group, an initiative they started years ago to provide a platform to artists, who were otherwise left unnoticed, is now organizing 'Collectively Independent'. As the name depicts the exhibition has a collection of works by many artists. The exhibition going on at the Visual Art Gallery at the Indian Habitat Centre here, showcases paintings from all walks and elements of life, some captured human emotions, while others concentrated on inner peace, nature and landscapes.
On talking about the initiative Richa Chaddah said "I started from a very young age. I was lucky to born in a family that allowed me to choose my path. But there are lot of others who have talent and who work hard but are forced to leave art due to many compulsions. Me and Gaurav launched Konnect Art Group to provide a platform for those who, would otherwise don't get a space to showcase their talent", she says. The exhibition is the group's first collective one.
what first caught our eye while maneuvering our way past all those beautiful art pieces was, a painting so pristine that it almost felt as if the woman in the painting is breathing. But, it did not end there, we soon found out that it was the work of a 12-year-old girl Mishika Chawla! She started to paint at the tender age of 3. "I like to read a lot, I love to observe", she says. Professor SN lahiri, principal at the College of Arts, University of Delhi, then guided us to show his paintings. His paintings are about the influence from the Ghats of Banaras. In the paintings we observed something strikingly dissimilar from what the Ghats usually like, he said "When I have to work, I just look at some spot for a while and then go back home, sit, relax and then start again".
Gaurav Chawla's works, on the other hand, were abstract, with a liberal usage of colors, some with vertical stripes while some others are horizontal, all connect to inner movements. He says "I meditate on colors. For me it is a natural way to get rid of my anxiety and stress". On being asked why he left his paintings untitled Gaurav said "I don't want to name works. You are free to see what you want, feel what you want, you may like my work or may criticize me. I am not here to get universal acceptance, I am an artist who loves colors and here I am."Award winning artist Jyoti lahiri's, paintings reflect the search for inner peace. "Ultimately it is inner peace we all search for. I don't follow a specific pattern for work. I paint when I feel like", he says. "When I was young, I was asked to copy Mona lisa which I hesitated to do wondering that what would then happen to my outlook" Jyoti added.
"It is a rare thing, at present, to see artists come together in a common platform. What they normally do these days is to simply judge other's work. They don't work hard. Neither they do read books or experience life in a way an artist should do", says Proffessor SN lahiri.
Artist Mange Ram Sharma, recipient of many National awards also welcomed the idea of artists coming together in a common platform. On being asked if art was limited to those who are born with itIJ "In most of the cases the answer is yes. I can teach you the technical aspects of sketching a face, looking at an object, and the usage and meaning of colors, but what you do with it, is matter of your inner self. You need to have it in you", he says. The exhibition concludes today.