TALE OF TWO CITIES

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The works of two artists, Viraj Naik and Viveek Sharma, representing different perspectives, different life cadences from adjacent regions of Goa and Mumbai are being exhibited in Figurative and Semiotic Urban Legacies at Gallery Nvya. Both artists however, seem to share a very self conscious approach to their art. Viraj Naik tells tales through caricatures, seeking to capture the rhythm, pace and cadences of Goa.

‘Chill’ seeks to capture the ‘sussegado’ laid back and holistically rooted culture which is at once rural and Indian; westernised and in harmony with the milieu.
The predominance of animal forms sinuous, centered and at peace evoke a sense of empathy from the viewer missing in the static human figures. ‘Private’ reinterprets the post-lapsarian Garden of Eden in a luxuriant coconut grove where a couple meets in private. Other works depict family and friends with narratives built in but with different perspective, partly mocking, partly ironic and sometimes affectionate.
There is familiarity of tone and the sense of stillness and timelessness of Goan rural life where nothing seems to happen; an exception being “Folks”, where the fisher and other folk seem to suggest activity. Such depiction is rare nowadays tinted as it were with soft gentle satire.
Viveek Sharma’s large oils on canvas on the other hand even while depicting still figures suggest omnipotent movement and activity. The absence of characters in the backdrop is very evocative of this crowded metropolis. In the ‘The wait for weight’ the artist has shown a porter seated on a bench in an almost deserted platform. The red shirt and a small flying Hanuman on the white cap of the figure are the only relief in the monochromatic works. The Hanuman is a leit motif in the works suggesting perhaps the ubiquity of religious strength, of the sublime that punctuates the humdrum daily lived history.
There is a sense of hyper reality in his these works which resemble black and white photographs and show vignettes of life in the metropolis based on images of Mumbai of the yesteryears; of middle class familial settings.

— The writer is an art historian, curator and critic