India Art Fair - 2021: featuring artists Vinod Daroz
At India Art Fair 2022, Kalakriti Art Gallery featured well-known ceramist Vinod Daroz with his latest creations. Titled "Aikyam: Oneness", the body of work reflects an undiluted celebration of the ceramic medium, as well as the artist’s wide experimentation with technique and presentation. The objects he creates are aptly born from the union of the elements – earth, water, fire, air and space – resonating with the trajectories of inquiry and research that he invests in his artistic deliberations.
In the year 2020: Showcased artist, Avijit Dutta 'SQ' FT solo exhibit. And, the second booth showcased eminent artists, Jogen Chowdhury, Kishan Khanna, Thota Vaikuntam, and Ram Kumar's exclusive sculpture series.
Avijit Dutta 'SQ' FT
Memory, experience, history, nostalgia, and reminiscence have always dotted the oeuvre of Avijit Dutta. The artistic trajectory of Avijit Dutta weaves in multiple time periods and thought processes. Since it is engendered with the artist's experience of reliving moments, it creates a fragment of the continuously evolving, changing, and mutating experience.
Avijit Dutta has a unique way of paying homage to these old memories that are embedded in his own visual language and personal aesthetics. For instance, this thick brocade cloth covering perhaps a partially completed portrait, an artist's unfinished or abandoned masterpiece - something not yet ready for our eyes. Framed in an antique ornate frame, this enigmatic composition of a veil and velvet rope has been witness to ravages of time and has its own story to tell. Like every Avijit Dutta artwork, here the artist has given some clues and at the same time left some things to his viewers' imagination.
It is like solving a beautiful puzzle every time, and thankfully there are no wrong answers this time...
BRONZED - from Paint to Patina
Bronzed brings together the journey of four eminent storytellers—Jogen Chowdhury, Ram Kumar, Krishen Khanna, and Thota Vaikuntam—whose imagery has set ablaze the hearts of art lovers for decades. Their very recognizable style and figuration are the foundation behind this project of transforming ‘paint to patina’. The artists collaborated with skilled artisans to recreate their iconic figures from every angle, thereby looking at their paintings afresh and exploring aspects they had not attended to previously. This project was fulfilled in collaboration with Bronze Age London, a leading sculpture casting foundry in the UK, resulting in the production of the most premium quality bronzes - allowed the artists to extend themselves beyond the two-dimensional constraints of their most distinguished works, and through a stroke of reimagining, brought their iconic artworks to new and three-dimensional life.
In the year 2019: showcased eminent Hyderabad-based artist, Thota Vaikuntam's personal collection of drawings. And a Project booth showcasing artist, Neha Verma.
PROJECT BOOTH 2019
Artist Neha Verma installation titled 'The Layer' at Project Booth: P05.
'The Layer' is an extraordinary installation, a multilayered carpet infused with intricate papercutting work inspired by the architectural motif of 'Jali', hung in six layers and with the see-through mirror in the opposite creating together a neo-dimensional artwork. Avadh-born artist Neha Verma is known for her unique visual language, which juxtaposes the classical with the contemporary. This installation will consist of papers delicately cut to look like carpets, bordered by an outer layer made of actual carpets
Thota Vaikuntam
The eleventh edition of India Art Fair 2019. Kalakriti Art Gallery presented senior and eminent artist Thota Vaikuntam showcasing from his personal collection of charcoal drawings, paintings (still-life, abstracts, and portraiture), and sculptures by Vaikuntam circa 1981 to 86.
Vaikuntam’s artistic oeuvre has forever drawn inspiration from his rustic roots and rural connection. He recalls that decades back when his teacher K.G. Subramanyan said, “Do what is in your story,” he took his words very seriously and worked in sync with them. These drawings unravel the very core of his creative impetus from where his later work evolved. Line plays a prominent role in his work. These works take one back to the time when his ‘line’ gradually detoured from being representational to becoming highly personalized and stylistically individualistic. Exploring every aspect and corner of the village life these visual notes manifest still life, portraits, detailed study of hand movements, and drapery, each rendered with a marked dedication and vigor.
Noteworthy is a set of limited edition bronze sculptures cast in London foundry (from the artist’s collection) that are also exhibited in the show. The busts and full figures of the beloved village folk are like three-dimensional versions of his popular works on canvas. Interestingly, the show also contains some of his old abstract works done on paper with oil pastels. Completely in contrast with the genre and style he is popular for, these works give local art lovers a rare opportunity to witness the artist’s hitherto unseen creative dimension.
In the year 2018: Showcased artist, Avijit Dutta's Life is a deck of Cards', and sculptures by eminent artists, Dhruv Mistry, Bimal Kundu, and Thota Vaikuntam.
Avijit Dutta’s works in the theme ‘Life is a deck of cards' rub shoulders with signature red sculptures by Dhruva Mistry and those on still life by Kolkata-based Bimal Kundu’s sculptures that take a closer look at still life, expect an everyday thing like an apple sculpted realistically with all its finer textures (the artist hasn’t focussed on imported apples with a wax coating) among other objects. The surprise factor is a new series of sculptures by Thota Vaikuntam, in which the veteran artist presented a fresh take on men and women in Telangana who’ve been an integral part of some of his most-prized paintings earlier.
Avijit Dutta each of the 54 cards intends to describe the various phases of human life. Each of the cards are symbolic quotient following the ups and downs of such life. All the fifty-four individual card(s) depict our common stories of life. Each of them is a demarcated phase of life from childhood with its innocence followed by the values, with which we proclaim ourselves to be grown up with the passage of time, with an intention to showcase that would help us to simplify and understand our journey of Life; from a simple to a complex being unintentionally. He draws an analogy between life and the different cards and states that destiny can swiftly change the course of events for the king, queen, joker, and ace. While he feels the winner decides the moves fearlessly and takes risks, the other players also contribute with their absolute participation in the game of life.
