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Exciting visual treat

PHOTO: VIPIN CHANDRAN

AESTHETIC STORY Some of the works from the show

Well curated! Kudos to the art gallery, Ishka and the people behind ‘FACET 1’ an exhibition of paintings by six artists – E. H. Pushkin, Jeevan Thomas, Sunil Gangadharan, Sreenandanan, Bini Roy and Aditi Nayar.

Each painting is a visual treat, the kind where you can keep looking at each painting and still not tire and still keep coming back for more. Aditi Nayar’s ‘Collector’s Item’ is indeed a collector’s item. The huge frame, an oil on canvas, is delightfully mischievous. On the canvas is an ostrich, there are only the legs and the plumes to suggest what it is. As one admires the visual and technical quality of the work comes the twist in the tale. If you suddenly feel like you are being watched just look to the top-right and voila! You have the ostrich (head) looking at you! Rich tones dominate the palette.

Aditi Nayar’s paintings appear to be part of a series on ostriches; ‘Full Feather’ and ‘Birds of a feather’ are among the four paintings by the artists which are on display.

Bini Roy’s four paintings are devoted to flora, ‘Lotus in red and gold’, ‘New life’, ‘Anthurium in red’ and ‘Blossom’. ‘New Life’, ‘Anthurium’ and ‘Blossom’ tell an interesting story told in reds and greens, the strokes are almost tangible in that you can almost feel the textures of the strokes.

Sunil Gangadharan’s ink on paper drawings capture the languidness of the sea, the supine figure and the motion of the bobbing sailboats.

Pushkin’s and Sreenandanan’s works turn political or rather ideological. There are the personal ideologies and the political leanings. Therefore we have Pushkin’s ‘Revolution and its betrayal’ and ‘Beyond the Window’ besides which there is an installation too.

Sreenandanan’s works capture the violence in the idiom of daily interactions – in relationships between human beings or the violence wreaked on nature.

Jeevan’s work is a single frame of influences and preoccupations. Each painting has a story to tell, what an aesthetic story!

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