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Layered thoughts on canvas

V. B. Venu's surrealistic preoccupations create an interesting mosaic of images on canvas

DISTRCT PALETTE Artist V.B. Venu with a few of his recent works on show PHOTO: H. VIBHU

Interpreting a V. B. Venu painting is like peeling an onion. With each layer that comes off, a new meaning of the work surfaces. And the several layers that emerge eventually blend thought, aesthetics and a moral. The 24 works, mostly untitled, that are on show at Bobsun Art Gallery, carry forward the characteristic traits of the artist. Venu is the essential painter-teacher. All art should teach something, is what he firmly believes. Venu dresses his thought in figures, lines, flowers and fish: images from around. But a recurrent image in his latest works is the mask. It figures prominently and Venu uses the mask metaphor cleverly as seen on a 4x5 canvas. Here four women stand around a pond of masks. While one wears a mask, one holds it but the central figure is blind. "That according to me is cheating," says Venu leaving the viewers to interpret it as being faithless or of humanity groping in the dark alley of deceit and lies.

The present show is untitled with a few exceptions like Buddha in meditation, Enlightened Buddha, Jacob's dream, Ups and downs of life, Surrealist play and Christ. Here Venu ties you down to his didactic art parameter, but he generally leaves the viewer alone. "This gives me freedom," he says "Let the viewer draw his own meaning. I like to teach through art. The viewer should get something from the painting, something more than delight, so I mix reality with surrealism." And Venu's preoccupation with surrealism leads to an interesting mosaic of various images done in different mediums on one canvas. Watercolours, mixed media, acrylic and oil on canvas, skin tone pencils are all used artistically to convey and delight.

Myths play an important contextual role. Mythical figures, shuttling between time and space, conjoin the past and present. The usage of space between figures is prime for Venu. As an art teacher he takes care of composition, placement of images, colours and space utilisation and as a painter he lets go of his imagination to draw from the inner recesses of his mind.

With an art career that began in 1986, Venu has held art shows in several Indian cities and abroad. The frames in the ongoing show range from Rs.6, 000 to 60,000 and come in small to large frames of size 5x3.

From his first solo show, `Story of forgotten ancestors' in 1990 to the present one the artist has come a long way and has made a distinct place for himself among the galaxy of Malayali and Indian artists.

PRIYADARSSHINI SHARMA

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