Art Affair - 2013

An art exhibition named “Art affair’ is being held at The Gallery – Amdavad ni Gufa from 31st Dec to 5th Jan 2014. The exhibition showcases the work of 60 contemporary artists including the work of senior artists such as Amit Ambalal, Vrindavan Solanki and Haku Shah. One of the key features of the exhibition is the portrayal of the artwork in black and white in a uniform space of one square foot canvas.

The limitations of space and the absence of colour seems to have induced interesting explorations in texture, form, tonality and meaning. Harshil Patel has interpreted the colour black as lord shani and has used mix media to create  the feel of the same through the symbolic use of various elements including lamp and nava grahas. Childhood memories of crossing the bridge near his village near Mathura and the stories of his ancestors having migrated to the green spaces of lonawada have inspired Jamil Ahmed Khan to create his artwork, which stands out for both its symmetry and innocence.

The abstract depiction of the organic spiral form by Arpit Biloria is seen to have depth, delicacy and dynamism in the way the black form fluidly grows in white space and vice versa, striking in its use of space and the way the form seems to flow beyond the boundaries of the one square foot canvas.

Ronal Sopariwala has made interesting use of charcoal and charcoal dust to create tonalities in abstract forms of cotton wool to depict the world of black and white through the language of materials. The creative use of thread and textile to create texture and form is seen in some of the works including that of Radhika Dave who has a humorous take on black dogs climbing and falling on spaces created by embroidered threads in her artwork

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Although many of the artworks have taken an illustrative approach and converted colour imagery to black and white some of the work stands out such as Ravin Godhani who has depicted old city spaces in rounded contours of highly contrasting black and white, intermingling the feeling of narrowness and cozy environment of the spaces and Kailash Desai whose landscapes reminds us of nights and the mystery surrounding the same. Rakesh Patel seems to interpret the absence of colour with sorrow and depicts crying children in his artwork.

Amit Ambalal’s work depicting the deer jumping over the tiger is striking: the tiger a horizontal blob of greys, minimal in its depiction and strong in its imagery somewhat like the paintings of old Chinese masters. In essence it is this minimalist approach of using only black and white which seems to have provoked a majority of artists to go beyond their own conventions  to come up with interesting work exploring multiple dimensions!

-Gayatri Menon

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