Artists experience different realities and the sensibilities vary, Manifested, through their artistic expressions. The conceptual and perceptual realities remain at the heart of their works. In this exhibition, it is both these realities that the artists will negotiate as it is theme-centred. The thematic content that the carefully selected twenty-five artists will negotiate is focused on Walls and Doors or the Urban and Rural Landscapes.

Walls and doors serve as metaphors representing barriers and transitions. Walls symbolically manifest impediments, separation and also mental or emotional obstructions that prevents progress or connection; though in reality it offers protection and privacy. Doors, on the other hand, often represent opportunities, choices, or transitions between different states or situations. Dependent on their sensibility, the artists will explore their expressions, through an interface with the theme, which is considerably broad- based to offer opportunities for investigation and innovative approaches in their visual aesthetics and language that could be realistic, abstract or expressionistic.

The artists are from various metropolises, such as Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Vadodara, Pachmarhi, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Pune, Nanded, Nagpur, Dehradun, Kochi, Hyderabad, Kumbakonam, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur and Bengaluru. These artists have visualized the theme according to their empirical experiences and their perceptions translated through apt visual vocabulary and language, technique and medium that include textile and innovative engagement and articulation with paper. India with its rich cultural diversity also offers a kaleidoscopic palette of a wide range of hues and tones evident in its architecture, mountainscapes, rural ambit and of course, the chaotic metropolis. The artists have responded with verve, enthusiasm and dedicated commitment in their creations.

The show offers a broad canvas of India’s contemporary reality viewed through the artistic lens of creativity and the versatility of the artists. The colours vary in their range from kaleidoscopic brilliance to muted soft tones, a range that metaphorically is the representation of the Indian nation. The artists inspired by their local/regional environment have produced their assimilated experiences to make this exhibition as interesting as it is evocatively poetic and dramatic.

-Dr. Ashrafi S. Bhagat. Ph.D.

Amita Raj Goyal

Aashima Mehrotra

Anjani Reddy

Chintan Zalavadia

Gurudas Shenoy

Hina Bhatt

Maitreyee Nimbolkar

Muralidharan K.

Mallika Madhavan

Namita Nirmal

Nilesh Ravindra Vede

Priti Vadakkath

Punkaj Manav

Preetha Kannan

Pradeep Ahirwar

Raja M.

Ruchi Atreya

Prof. Dr. Ranjan Kumar Mallik

M. Rama. Suresh

Raju Durshettiwar

Santhana Krishnan

Smruti Vinod Joshi

Sovan Kumar

Vaishali Oak

Dr. Ashrafi S. Bhagat, Ph.D., was the former Head and Associate Professor (Retd.), Department of Fine Arts, Stella Maris College (Autonomous), Chennai. She is an independent art historian, critic, author and curator. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Art History and Aesthetics, Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda. Her thesis was titled A Critical Study of Modernity in South India with Particular Reference to the Madras School, 1960 to 1970s. This research is a pioneering work on Madras Modernity.

She has to her credit a research paper titled Lineage of Abstraction within the Madras Art Movement, published in the book The New Art History: Studies in Indian Art (2003); a book on the seminal sculptors of Madras, Sculptural Configurations: Retrospective Progressive, published in April 2003 (OUP). She has written monographs on eminent Madras artists such as A.P. Santhanaraj, K.C.S. Paniker, S. Dhanapal, S.G. Vasudev, R.B. Bhaskaran, P. Perumal, R. Vardarajan, K.S. Gopal and T.R.P. Mookiah, as well as on Delhi-based artist K.C. Aryan and Hyderabad-based artist P.T. Reddy.