Works by Manish Nai, Yashwant Deshmukh and Sheetal Gattani at Gallery Espace

New Delhi-based Gallery Espace is hosting a three-person show, entitled ‘Abstract Articulations’, featuring the recent works of artists Manish Nai, Yashwant Deshmukh and Sheetal Gattani.

Yashwant Desmukh’s work embodies his search for space beyond forms with impeccable minimalism of expressions. The elements, such as volume, shade, light and movement play minimal role in his canvases wherein each line, angle and curve is to be viewed in its entirety. It’s an iconic representation of an individual’s self-contained universe.

Sheetal Gattani has established herself as an abstractionist of repute, who has mastered the medium of watercolor. Born in Mumbai in 1968, she obtained a diploma in Art Education from J.J, School of Art in 1990 and completed her Master’s degree in painting there. Her solo shows include those at Gallery Espace, New Delhi (2007); Bodhi gallery, Singapore (2007); Galarie 88, Kolkata (2006); Apparao Gallery, Chennai (2004), and Gallery Chemould (2007, 2001, 1998).

In 2001, when she had a solo show at Chemould, eminent artist-abstractionist Mehli Gobhai commented he was first apprehensive about her work, but was pleasantly surprised to see her work. Her paintings seem to be throbbing with new life-forms from another world. Her earthy, roughly textured paintings, with their highly reduced visual vocabulary, are built with several layers of watercolors, which in some places erupt on the surface and cause the paintings to resemble flaking, damp walls.

The exploration of space is not in physical sense alone. It’s the space that appeals through one’s perception akin to the deep silence of nothingness that beckons him at a deeper level. He explains: “I look to explore space – seen or unseen; empty or filled. I try to establish, interpret, feel and experience it."

On the other hand, Manish Nai’s preoccupation with unusual textures began in the year 2000, when his father owned a small wholesale business selling jute cloth. Pushing his practice further, Nai utilized the jute threads left over from these ‘paintings’ to create his very first sculptures.