Nature’s raging fury

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Art loves to mirror the myriad facets of nature — the beautiful, the ugly, the fierce and the unseen. The two come together in “Art and Expression”, an exhibition of paintings and sculptures at Pullman, Gurgaon, in association with the Art Floor.

The vibrant collection on display includes works of 16 artists including Seema Jindal, Rajat Bandopadhyay, Pranav Kaushal, Kaveri Ray, Ankush Safaya, Subodh Kerkar and Neeraj Gupta.
In this exhibition, the artists pay homage to nature. Curator Dashmeet Singh says these paintings are a tribute to the lives lost in recent Uttarakhand disaster.
“This is the third installment of our annual show ‘Monsoon Sutra’. The collection usually displays emotions of love and passion that monsoon evokes. We were preparing for a similar show when Uttarakhand floods happened. The tragedy changed the emotions to fear and destruction and what came forth was the fury of water. In this exhibition, we are showcasing nature in a different mood, and the mood varies from destruction to things coming back to normal. Some paintings by artist Rajat are an apt example to show the fury of nature while the artwork by Jaya Lakshmi shows faith in God who brings everything to normal. With this, we are also paying a tribute to the lives lost in the tragedy,” says Dashmeet.
Artist Rajat, who took a trip to Uttarakhand just before the tragedy occurred, recalls the tragic signs he noticed. “There were landslides and waterlogging at some places, and the thought crossed my mind — what if one is stuck here. However, I dismissed it and tried to capture the rhythm and harmony in nature. The beautiful rivers and big boulders magically balanced on each other. Still, somewhere, the force of water became the talking point in my paintings and this is what you can see in my artwork,” explains Rajat.
Besides nature, the unseen force too is the central theme of many artworks. Artist Kaveri Ray’s paintings are showcasing the unseen treasures of human life.
“Duality of life had always been a focus of my work. I always try to show the unseen in my paintings. The emphasis is more on background and everything else that is beyond a normal understanding. Here, in my artwork, you’d see the play of colours and an owl in the centre, which stands for wisdom. It means the wisdom that many can’t see or choose to ignore. Besides this, vivid colours from nature are an integral part of my paintings,” ends Kaveri.