ART INSPIRED

 NAGUESH  RAO  SARDESSAI

‘Art Inspired’, an amorphous group of artists that is open to expansion, has recently organized an exhibition of art works titled ‘Chitrasangam 2014’ at the ESG Art Gallery in the INOX courtyard, Panaji.

Ten enthusiastic artists with varied educational and professional background have united to showcase a truly pure confluence of diverse ideas, concepts, styles, ideologies and efforts – as the title of the show suggest.

They have given collective approach a new ray of hope. Bringing assorted genre and seemingly paradoxical and unconventional art pieces under a single umbrella with a view to consolidate the collective social standing of artists remains the primary aim of this newly formed group.

Led by Damodar Madgaonkar, the brain behind this group, the exhibition showed the works of Cassica Castelino, Clarice vaz, Julius Rocha, Mridula Shanbag, Prerna Neelavar, Medha Monteiro, Shammiulla Sayyed, Sunil Shirodkar and Antony Mascarenhas

Spiritual to downright terrestrial, realistic to surrealistic, representational to abstract and philosophical to comical – one can find multiple approaches to art in this current show featuring these enthusiastic and refreshingly approachable creative minds.

Each of these artists has given space to their dormant feelings through the displayed works. Cassica, the lone academically trained artist in the group, and Damodar endeavors to tap the subconscious and uncharted realm. Spiritually oriented Cassica infuses her paintings with uplifting messages. By painting the canvas with serene and meditative scenes that idealizes beauty and idealism, she intends to increase the pulsating frequency of the surrounding as seen in one of her painting titled ‘Lavender Field’. Damodar grapples with the world of dreams and attempts to give pictorial shape to the mysteries hidden in the subconscious. ‘Dream Of The Desparate City’ has all the fantastic forms dancing randomly over the canvas to create a visual orchestra.

In ‘Perception Of Freedom’, Medha captures the essence of Goan architecture and touches upon the fundamental character of human beings. ‘Among all the God’s creations, only man has made cages for himself and others,’ says Medha before adding, ‘and now seeks freedom and happiness.’

Prerna’s metaphor laden canvas makes a poignant observation of irony that life throws up from time to time. Dreams, at times, grow far bigger than what is practically manageable. Man, as in ‘Contrast’, is holding the pinpricked balloon sporting a grim expression.

Senior citizen Mridula displays ingenuity and passion. She is a nature lover and does explore the stunning beauty in this God’s creation. Her work titled ‘Man In The Boat’ produced during her college days is a fine example in deftness and keen sense of observation. Apt hues and neat composition adds charm to her works.

Anthony uses graffito technique by which the artist makes a deliberate mark by scratching or engraving on a large surface such as a wall. Her he does on the paper and canvas. Anthony’s work titled ‘Old Warhorse’ displays uncertainties and lifetime struggle of an old man.

Shammiulla is a noted professional photographer and creative artist who dabble in spontaneous paintings. Deeply committed to protecting natural wealth and an extremely upright individual, Shammiulla has displayed a tapestry of bright green leaves developed by the usage of palette knife. The works reflect his photography background.

Julius does speak of the problems looming over mankind like wars, famine, poverty etc. A religious person, he attempts to highlight the plight of the downtrodden through his paintings and wishes to bring about awareness in the people and motivate them into action.

Sunil preoccupation with the social ills like gambling and dhiryo (bullfight) prods him to paint them in his independent way. Work titled ‘Dhiryo’ reflects the passionate and deft brush strokes of the abstract expressionist. An installation that is made out of a discarded fuel tank of two wheeler bike and satin cloth brings alive, albeit in a stylized form, the bull used in the dastardly yet passionately watched ‘Dhiryo’.

Members don’t harbor vague hope of bringing in a paradigm shift in the approach towards pure art; however, the originator of this group has introduced a novel and democratic idea. Certain percentage of the sale amount will accrue in a collective pool before getting uniformly shared amongst the exhibiting artists.