Screening of Short Films by Sriram Dalton

Sriram Dalton, an artist, writer, director was invited to screen some of his films at Amdavad ni  Gufa @ 6 pm on 21^st Dec  2013 by Arpit Biloria of ‘Studio Verve’. Sriram honed his film making skills through working in Bollywood and assisting noted cinematographer Ashok Mehta in commercial cinema such as ‘No entry’.  However, his own take on cinema as a means of expression is unique and has a style of his own.

The screening commenced with the short film ‘The lost Behrupiya’ which was inspired by the nostalgia of rich traditions remembered from childhood times but fast disappearing in this busy world. The film’s take on  the tradition of Behrupiya is interesting as it shies away from the overt use of voice over and dialogues; instead using audio-visual means to express the essence and pain of this tradition in a metaphorical, poetic manner. The classical rendition in the background and the evocative use of silence complement the strong visual imagery of the film.

Gayatri Menon addressing the Audience

The next short film screened: ‘OP stop smelling Ur socks’ stars actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the main role long before he became famous. The film portrays black humor and is a take on the inner world of the common man and the psychological dimensions of group dynamics controlled by position and power. Shifting between dream and reality the film attempts to capture hidden dimensions and raises questions rather than attempting to give solutions.

The one minute ad film promotes the serious theme of tree plantation in a light evocative manner. The current film being made by Sriram is based on the 14000 kms road journey he has undergone in the last 3 months with his friend, artist-poet Pramod Kumar. The film is about the journey with a love story connecting the same. The first look of the film was screened: the horse as a metaphor, the road journey and the stunning music creates a curiosity and expectation!

All his films have a poetic approach and a strong style of his own– exploring spaces between reality and inner worlds, strong imagery, using rich sounds as a means of expression rather than relegating them to the background and the use of metaphors. In the interaction session with the film maker, he also acknowledged the contribution of his friend, artist-poet Pramod Kumar in developing the idea of the film and his wife Megha  Sriram Dalton for the sound design and music of his films. 

-Gayatri Menon

Special Thanks to Mr. Anil Relia for allowing us to use the AV Room at 'Amdavad ni Gufa'

"OP" Stop Smelling Ur Socks - Sriram Dalton

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World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic victims

Studio Verve was invited to create a public art installation for the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic victims (WDR) which is observed on the third Sunday of November each year. This day is dedicated to remembering both the victims of road accidents as well as the police, medical professionals etc. who daily deal with road injuries and deaths.

Since many of the accidents could have been prevented, the emphasis is on creating public awareness to road safety norms and the dangers of driving irresponsibly.

The venue to create the public art installation was decided as the Paldi bus stop which is a centrally located area in Ahmedabad with a large number of people driving past the same. Keeping in mind the theme of creating public awareness an installation was conceptualized &  executed  by Mr. Gautam Patel, Arpit Biloria & Lalon (Abhijit Paul) along with artists: Mukund Pate, Lalit Garg, Kautilya Vyas, Rokesh Kumar Singh, Mayank Sharma, Sunil Nimawat & Sachin Dadhich within a short time frame.

The visual impact of crushed vehicles in accidents is enormous and is a reminder to people to drive carefully. Considering this factor, crushed, distorted two wheelers and four wheelers were assembled. These vehicles were composed in an interesting manner using cranes on the bus stop roof space to create better visibility and exaggerate the impact.

The installation was executed at night to create a curiosity and buzz from early morning onwards on the WDR. The use of crushed, distorted vehicles as an indirect reminder of the frailty of human body and the need for road safety was well received.

-Gayatri Menon

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XI Strokes – Eleven Different Colours

The exhibition ‘XI Strokes – eleven different colours’ depicts the work of eleven artists and was inaugurated on 26^th Nov 2013 in ‘The gallery’ , Ahmedabad. Apart from fibre work in 3D, the exhibition consists of paintings in various media. Ajay Mistri’s colourful take on human forms through bold paintings on 3d fibre and Sandeep Suneriya’s  humorous take in his etching work were interesting.  The highly realistic works of Dinesh Shrimali and Suresh Rawal depicting day to day life as well as the surrealistic paintings of Mukund Patel and Kalpesh Patel  are appreciable for the highly skilled detailed depiction. Overall, there is a certain freshness to the work dominated by traditional ways of painting and an underlying tension in trying to break through to new ways of expressions.
-Gayatri Menon

Participating Artists: 

Alay Mistry, Bhavesh Raval, Dinesh Shrimali, Jasvant Parmar, Kamlesh Chavada, Kalpesh Patel, Mukund Patel, Radha Patel, Rakesh Dave, Suresh Raval & Sandeep Suneriya.

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Levitate - A Group Show of Paintings Sculptures & Graphics at Amdavad ni Gufa - Ahmedabad, India

Amdavad ni Gufa - Ahmedabad, India

Eleven contemporary artists displayed their work at the exhibition ‘Levitate’ organized at ‘The gallery’, Ahmedabad from 12th to 18th November, 2013. The display included paintings-oils, acrylic; printmaking-wood cutting, etching; sculptures-stone, metal; and mixed media work.  

Sunil Nimawat's Wood Cut on Display

Sachin Dadhich's Sculpture in Mixed Media

Rokesh Kumar Singh's Stone Sculpture

The works of Rakesh kumar Singh and Sachin Dadichi explore the materials in interesting, unconventional ways. Sunal Nimawat’s ‘portrait’ combines the conceptual element and technique of woodcut beautifully.

Lalit Garg's Paintings in Mixed Media

Arpit Biloria’s abstract expression ‘intersectional void’ is an interesting play of geometric planes and positive-negative spaces. 

Arpit Biloria's Sculptures in Metal

Margee Patel ‘s series of birds and especially ‘the swans ‘has captured the grace, beauty and delicacy of birds in the hard medium of stone. 

Margee Patel's Stone Sculptures

Apart from the diversity of mediums what is remarkable is the diversity of approaches amongst the artists.  It will be interesting to observe these artists through their journey in the art field.

- Gayatri Menon

L to R - Sunil Nimawat, Sachin Dadhich, Mayank Sharma, Lalit Garg, Arpit Biloria, Margee Patel, Riddhi Shah, Jyotika Rathore & Rokesh Kumar Singh

Press Coverage

Divya Bhaskar - Ahmedabad - 13 November 2013

DNA - Ahmedabad - 13 November 2013

Ahmedabad Mirror - 14 November 2013

Sandesh - Ahmedabad 15 November 2013

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‘Unconditional love’ An Art Exhibition

The exhibition titled ‘Unconditional love’ is showcasing the work of 13 artists from Studio A simultanoulsy both at The Gallery and at Hutheesing visual art center, Ahmedabad. A majority of artists have done their initial studies at C.N. fine arts and some of them had continued their studies at MS University, Baroda and London university.

One of the facets of the exhibition at ‘The Gallery’ is the exploration of new technique by the artists as a way of expressing themselves. Harshid Patel has experimented with the painting of architectural motifs on gold and silver leaf background. Roma Patel has worked with acrylic – bringing the fluid forms created by acrylic paint on glass onto canvas to get interesting abstract forms. Alpesh Dave experiments with threadwork on human faces – his work with Picasso is especially interesting for the humor it recreates. Bhavin Vaishnav has explored the same form of a boy figure in different media from carved wood to sketches.

The juxtaposition of contrasting images often in relation to the human body are seen in many artworks : among them Kumar’s work ‘peace of mind’ in which the juxtaposition of human face with rockets are seen. The same approach is further seen in sculpture in Chowhan’s juxtaposition of nails on human lips. By juxtaposing the child’s image with objects related to his work Rakesh Patel has tried to bring in the narrative of working children into his artwork.

The art work collection of Sonal Ambani including the works of senior artists such as Nabibaksh Mansuri and Mahendrabhai Kadia as well as Sonal Ambani’s owm work on ‘World peace’ is displayed at ‘Huthessing visual art gallery’.

-Gayatri Menon

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"Full wall empty 27” by German artist Werner Degreif

A solo exhibition ‘Full wall empty 27” by German artist Werner Degreif is being held at ‘The Gallery, Amdavad ni gufa’ , Ahmedabad from 15^th to 20^th October. This exhibition is the fourth of a series of exhibition being held by Zone of Contemporary art, ZOCA. 

Werner Degreif

Werner Degreif has multiple talents as a musician, graphic artist and sculptor and currently stays in Mannheim, Germany. Having spent seven weeks as an artist in residence in Ahmedabad, India, Werner Degreif took 2 weeks imbibing the culture of the place before embarking on his artwork.

In his own words “ My father was an architect and maybe, I might have imbibed some of the sense of architecture from him” and so it seems as we look at how spaces depicting the character of Ahmedabad come alive within the close confines of the gallery. He specialized in site specific work which imparts  a certain amount of fluidity and poignancy to the work. The challenge of the space in the gallery was its length but the artist managed to find a creative solution to the linear space by arranging his work in a perspective form overlapping each other, unifying the work without creating division; keeping us unaware of the transition of frames and helping us experience an unified whole.

 “It seems the lines of your artwork done in Germany is more orderly, neat and emphasis seems to be on architectural elements rather than people… How has India influenced your artwork?” we asked to which he replied ”In Germany, it was difficult to draw people because of their reluctance to be portrayed and it was a pleasant surprise to find people in Ahmedabad greeting me with openness and joy while being portrayed.” And the same sense of calmness and joy pervades in the work too..

The inspiration for most of the artwork seemed to be from the city slums. More exposure to the city with its complexities encompassing the tradition and the modern, the poor and the rich, the indoor and the outdoor, the private and the public spaces could have broadened the canvas of the artwork. However, the raw energy of the lines and the focus on the portrayal of common people from city slums going about their day to day lives by itself bring forth an element of extraordinary to the daily everyday sights of the city!

- Gayatri Menon

(Photo Courtesy - Vipul Prajapati)

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Purvaa 2013 - A Group exhibition of Paintings & Sculptures

The works of 35 artists based in Ahmedabad and Baroda is being exhibited as ‘Purvaa 2013’ from 18^th to 20^th October 2013 at LP Hutheesing visual art centre in Ahmedabad  as part of a unique tribute to late Purvesh Patel by his friend Aditya Vikram. The 45 artworks exhibited include paintings, etching, lithography, paper cutting, mixed media as well as interactive exhibits and sculptures in various media.

Surrealistic images of human faces juxtaposed with a variety of images including merry go rounds, landscapes, mobiles etc. depicting the various moods and thoughts in human beings were found in the work of many artists. The dominant theme in the artwork including paintings,  graphic art as well as sculpture seemed to be the troubles, constraints and difficulties faced by human beings in the modern world and the meeting space between humans and the man made world. This included the works of Nemaram Jangid’s ‘Control of tension’ , ‘Struggle and risk’ and Purvi Parmar’s ‘Freedom’.

Various experimental artwork using unusual mediums such as backlit acrylic with LED lights as well as the use of chrome plated metal and coins on paintings  seemed to resolutely trying to break away from the constraints of two dimensional medium of painting and graphic art.  Experimental artworks also included the interactive artwork of David titled ‘girl with the gun’ in which the viewer became the participant by pumping air and finding the girl raising a rubber gun at the viewer.

Some of the other interesting work included the artwork ‘Train’ by Sandeep Suneriya which though simple in form was conceptually unusual in depicting two narratives within the 6 frame structure and the abstract work of Arpit Biloria ‘Intersectional void’ which celebrated the abstract beauty and raw juxtaposition of forms, leaving the work open for interpretation by viewers.

-Gayatri Menon

(Photo Courtesy - Namit Kadia)

DNA News Paper - 19 October 2013

List of Participating Artists

Anil Majmudar, Arpit Biloria, Alpesh Dave, Sandeep Suneriya, Sunil Darji, Hindol Brahmbhatt, Tushar Kamble, Manish Modi, Purvi Parmar, Debasish Dutta, Vijay Bagodi, Sonal Verma, Susmita, Kajal Shah, Bhavin Vaishnav, Pulkit Prajapati, Indrapramit Roy, Vijay Roy, Mitali Shah, Deviba Wala, Shaam Pahapalkar, Nemaram Jangid, Pankaj Vishwakarma, Possi Prasad, Rahul Mukherjee, David, Shaik Azghar Ali, Rakesh Patel, Roma Patel, Nilesh Suthar, Vishala Patel, Mehul Rathod, Kumar Chauhan, Jitu Oghani, Ramgopal Kumavat, Uday Mondal, Vipul Prajapati, Tapsi Nath, Govind Bishvas, Manish Doshi, Dilip Chobesia, Jayanti Rabadia, Devraj Goswami.

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Warli Workshop at A.P.I.E.D, Vidyanagar

Warli Workshop 

Arvindbhai Patel Institute of Environmental Design.

V.V Nagar (Anand)

The College Festival was held on 7, 8 & 9th of February.  Studioverve was invited to conduct a workshop for the Architecture students.

The Festival was called 'Antiquity' this year 

the term means :An object, building or work of art from the ancient past.  Hence the focus was on learning an older form of traditional art.

Mukund Dewani giving a demonstration on preparing the work surface. 

A paste is applied to untreated coarse cloth and left to dry. 

patterns are then added.

Anastasia Alexandrin and Deviba Wala, who gave the lecture and presentation on Warli. 

Students were told about the origin, significance, techniques as well as modern day variants and use of this ancient art. 

Warli paintings are an adivasi or tribal art form belonging to the Gujarat and Maharashtra region.

These paintings are simple yet unique and were used to adorn walls with images of everyday life. 

they are done with 'geru' and rice paste. 

 Below : a few images from the beautiful campus. . .