As the summer descends, artists head towards art camps and galleries towards group shows and displays of their gallery collection. Though this brings a lull in the exhibition, preview and party circuit, it is actually a breather that allows the galleries to assess the response to their artists’ and plan their schedule.
It is also a time for participation in art fairs, biennales and the like that are held in summer in rest of the world where the summers are less hot and more productive.
The artists congregate in art camps that may result in a group show or add to a gallery collection or even the private collection of the sponsor. Artists stay together for about a week and produce one or two works, some are completed during the camp itself and others in later in the studio that is later displayed. One such show My Life, My Way consisted of a representative cross section of painters and sculptors who displayed their works produced during the camp.
Alka Raghuvanshi’s paintings emphasise the use of colour in its pure form. The thick impasto superimposed on intertwining layers of colour is not only ornamental, but also symbolic of hiranya or gold, of purity, and of this world. The deeply feminine works speak of the lure of the gold for bodily and spiritual beautification, in this world and the next. The colour golden and red are reflective of the divine feminine, the Devi who manifests herself through the pure colours.
On the other hand Sangeeta Gupta’s abstract paintings invoke the innerscape through subtle colours applied with bold strokes. Her painterly world is that of peace and beauty of the formless. The swirls and peaks in the work resonate with an internal rhythm and lyricism.
The senior artist, Niren Sengupta, deconstructs the human body in its many postures in his works where the planes and geometrical forms make up the whole.
— Dr Seema Bawa is an art historian, curator and critic