2nd September – 30th September, 2019 | Gallery Veda, 4/22, Rutland Gate 5th Street, Nungambakkam, Chennai
Gallery Veda presents ANTHESIS – a group show curated by Girish Shahane. ‘Anthesis’ features seven artists who explore aspects of plant life, whether it’s visual impact, physical structure, nourishing properties or metaphorical associations. The work of these artists is rooted in intense observation without being illustrative in the manner of botanical art or flower painting. They have in common a profound concern with form, but employ diverse mediums and adopt a wide variety of approaches ranging from painterly to conceptual. Aditi Singh extends lines drawn with a loaded pen into rich abstract compositions inspired by floral forms. Manisha Gera Baswani’s paintings invoke the elements and engage in a play of scale, containing vast landscapes in their miniature scope. Narendran Karuppiah creates interactive works in which QR codes made from seeds can be scanned to access texts related to nature. Parvathi Nayar uses the journey of the tamarind tree to spark a meditation on migration and identity. Ratna Gupta’s delicate sculptures speak to the fragility as well as resilience of botanical life and ecosystems. Shruthi Kumar is preoccupied with fungus, depicting its colonisation of space and playing on the contrast between beauty and repulsion. Sonia Mehra Chawla images sections of plants through a powerful microscope to evoke associations ranging from the human anatomy to the cosmos itself.
