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CREATIVE DISPLAY Of the female form

That is a part of the purpose statement of ‘Synergy: Shakti’, an exhibition of the works of six women artists—two French, one German, and three from Chennai. They have come together in a celebration of womanhood and cultural harmony at the Prakrit Art Gallery.

And what a celebration it is. Almost every canvas in the gallery is a splash of joyous colour, from the blue-greens and aquamarines of Ka.Ty Deslandes’ paintings to the dark blues and yellows of Chantal Gowa’s, the reds and browns of Gita’s works to the bright blues, reds and oranges of Nele Martens’.

Then there’s the use of texture. French artist Ka.Ty, for example, makes wonderful use of mixed media such as jute, wood and metal—including her masterpiece done entirely on jute fabric painted in shades of aqua and gold, slashed, cut and re-stitched all over with large, looping stitches. Cool, calming and close to nature—Ka.Ty’s works make for a charming contrast to those of Nele’s, a German artist from Auroville.

It isn’t just the brilliant solid colours Nele uses, it’s also the movement she captures with her brushstrokes that make her paintings positively pulse with energy. She seems to play with the white space of her canvasses, filling in searing colour here while teasing out the blank interstices there.

The glimmering abstracts by Chantal, a French artist from Auroville, on the other hand, are enigmatic, whimsical. She uses geometrical shapes in golden yellows, holes and protrusions, rough texturing and pale patterning to make her midnight blue canvasses arresting and soothing.

Of the lot, Gita’s striking abstracts are the only ones to directly reference the feminine form. Using warm, earthy tones of red, yellow, orange and brown, her paintings are a celebration of the female figure.

In contrast, Cynthia Prabhakar’s works draw inspiration from damp and discoloured walls, rust and fungus in cracks and crevices. Using splatters of vibrant colour as varied black and brown in one and orange, green and white in another, she succeeds in turning these ignored spaces into works of art.

Benitha Percival’s paintings feature the young artist’s trademark spare, muted works of leaves, seeds, etc. that remind one of the carefully tended scrapbook of a nature lover. With typical simplicity, this series depicts the human palm holding various elements of nature.

For some, women artists are invisible, “swallowed into the deep of mediocrity.” ‘Synergy: Shakti’, with its exuberant, confident display of creativity and expression certainly makes a strong statement against that kind of thinking. The exhibition ends on January 20.

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