A group show, ‘Devotion – Invocation’ in New Delhi

‘Devotion – Invocation’ is the title of the 5th annual show of Delhi based Gallery Art Positive. It’s a large show with more than 75 new works by several contemporary Indian artists. The work on view cuts across genres, and encompasses an intriguing geographical spread.

The exhibit spread across both floors of the re-designed and recently expanded venue also presents itself as an art book cafe plus an artifacts’ store, offering art lovers a holistic overview of the current art practice in India.

The group exhibition features works by more than forty renowned and upcoming artists including Akhilesh, Akkitham Narayan, Arun Kumar HG, Arijoy bhattacharya, Chotulal Sharma, Bratin Khan, Dileep kumar Sharma, Dharmendra Rathore, Gagan Vij, Enas MJ, Jayshri Burman, Gopal Swami Khetanchi, Kazi Nasir, Manish Pushkale, Paramjit Singh, and Prithvi Soni.

Other artists whose work forms part of the show are Manu Parekh, N S Rana, Sanjay bhattacharya, Puja Bahri, Sanatan Dinda, Sekhar Roy, Shail Choyal, Satish Gupta, Seema Kohli, Shobha Broota, Shipra Bhattacharya, Sidharth, Subodh Kerkar, Shuvaprasanna, Suhas Roy, Suman Roy, Subrata Saha, Sudip Roy, Venkat Bothsa, Vinay Sharma, Suresh Kumar Muthukulam, Sakti Burman, Vrindavan solanki and Lalu Prasad Shaw.

Among the participating artists, paintings by Akkitham Narayanan appear as geometric configurations of attention-grabbing abstract forms. Marked by a predisposition towards the purity of painted form, he strives to create a fusion of Indian tantric art laced with the European sensibility.

In the art practice of talented artist Arun Kumar HG, elements of visual documentation deftly interspersed with both still and moving forms around current mindless obsession with production, consumption and disposal of delicate cultural threads are employed to connect and contradict.

In the process, he reinterprets ideas and issues related to desire, fantasy and realities of life. Dharmendra Rathore’s work, marked for its colorful imagery, carries a meditative streak. His canvases are comprised of balanced compositions in abstraction and figuration.