Pixographic art, Vadodara art and diplomatic art

      By Madhusree Chatterjee

     New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS) India is no stranger to ultra-modern art like installation art, digital art, mixed media art and video art. And the capital has just had a dazzling display of pixographic art.

     On show is "The Abstract Haze of Reality" by designer-architect Khushroo Kalyanwala at the Windmill Gallery in Mehrauli. The exhibition is made of a series of photographic images, which have been interpreted graphically and touched up with digital technology to the point of abstraction.

     A plank of wood on a muddy surface for instance floats in a composition of digital shapes, broken pixels and colours - unrecognisable yet familiar. The work was broadly categorised into landscape, nature, architectural and inanimate objects.

     The photographer has chosen subjects from the everyday sphere of work and modified them in his camera and in the processing lab so that they acquire more depth, layers, new surfaces and colours to emerge as something new. It is easy to relate to the frames because of two reasons - they are refreshing, sensitive and intelligently captioned.

     "I have not seen pixographic art happening before - it's not only digital art but a concept that has not been touched before. The initial part is photograph, but it is known as pixographic because I have enhanced certain things in the photograph graphically," Kalyanwala, a collector himself, told IANS.

     Class act from Vadodara

     A group of seven young artists from M. S. University in Vadodara is in the capital with an innovative cache of works titled "Class of 2008". The spread comprises installations, textile art, tapestries, linear pencil drawings on paper and experimental art on pencil, charcoal and ink on large format canvas frames.

     The backdrop is urban and the "school boy" squiggles on paper cover a variety of subjects like men at work, robots at work, beast-men (part animal, part human) at work, the Indian Griha Lakshmi, search for identity, women power and installations that include a manual drinking water cooler - operated by a hand pump - in wood and metal. Christened "Piau", this last piece is reminiscent of Pablo Picasso's later body of metal work.

     The works represent the journey of the artists' personal growth as students to individual creative artists. "Each of my frames tells a short story. Earlier, my work was full of tonal variations, but now I stick to linear patterns," Bhrigu K. Sharma said.

     The artists include Sandip M. Pisalkar, Bosudhara Mukherjee, Shreyas Karle, Bhrigu K. Sharma, Swetha B.V., Bhavin Mistry and Nibha Sikandar. The show at Art Konsult Gallery closes Jan 10.

     India through foreign eyes

     The exhibition, "India Through My Eyes", captures the perception of the spouses of diplomats posted in the capital as they showcase the entire gamut of the India experience with their paintings, sculpture and photographs.

     The 50 frames are simplistic but colourful and spontaneous, depicting the rich colours of the country. The show has been brought by the TMZ Group, The Metropolitan Hotel and the Dhoomimal City Gallery.

     The show also marks the entry of TMZ group into art investment in a big way.

     "We at TMZ believe that this purity of intent and change needs to be supported and preserved for posterity. And we intend to continue this journey into the present continuum," said Viraz Gupta, chairman of the TMZ Group.

     It also has a cause as proceeds from the sale and a calendar that was culled from the show will go to the Cheshire Homes for the destitute.

     Indo-Asian News Service

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