Sixteen Goa based artists showcased their creativity at the NIV art gallery in Delhi
Sorrow, brutality, dire straits and sex dominated the works of Goa-based artist Kedar Dhondu. The question then comes up as to who would be interested in buying these art pieces to decorate their homes as they are full of brutality like dying people and blood shedding. Maybe no one, but people are drawn to the paintings, which were on show at the NIV Art Gallery in the Capital last week, and forced to rethink about them.
Though his works contain brutality and sexuality, the way it was depicted certainly caught one’s attention and prompted one to take home a painting. “I took at the theme of ugliness and pain because everybody experiences pain in his life once in a while. Therefore, you can find suffering in my work. Anyone can connect with my work and feel the same sorrow,” explained Dhondu.
The exhibition, titled Goa Reloaded, was at display between 21 January and 22 February at the NIV Art Gallery in Neb Sarai. As the NIV Art Gallery is basically known for providing a platform to budding talents, this time too 16 artists from Goa presented the show. “This time there were 16 artists from Goa. But the thing which they bring with themselves is their culture. Goa is among those cities, which has the most influence of western culture. Thus, you can notice it in their work as well. Many have portrayed Jesus Christ and Mother Mary as well as pubs, beer bar, dancing girls and much more,” said Mathew, the owner of the gallery. “But one more difference is in their work. They have used minimum numbers of colours. They were to stick to black, white and grey only.”
Not all the work of these artists has an influence of European culture. There is also an impact of their own regional cultures. Some have canvas on cardboard, sublime aspects of a philosophical life, life of a common man and woman of Goa. And the list goes on.
In one of the portrayals, acrylic on paper, titled Mining Boom or Cruse, Ramdas Gadekar depicted the life of miners. Through his art Gadekar tried to find out the other side of greenery and how development is costing our environment. “During childhood, I used to go to my village. That time it had lots of greenery. But now I can’t find it because of mining. At the same time I depicted the other side of the nature unlike other artist who prefer greenery,” said the artist Ramdas Gadekar.
The opening of the art exhibition witnessed the playback singer/pop artist Remo Fernandes along with Shaistah Thapar and Sanjay Srivastava, chief secretatry, government of Goa, and also the renowned installation artist Subodh Kerkar.
