'Milon Mukherjee's new solo

'Milon Mukherjee's colors claim a bright intrepidity. They organize themselves in a dramatic way. Milon creates a colorful world made up of throbbing lines, persuasive textures and ever changing colours. Milon creates a world of forms and colours which are larger than life. In a way it is a world of magic, as modern as it is ancient.' - Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni

'He is no dispassionate observer. His is an art that emphases the values of compassion : following after the goodness whose presence he invokes in his paintings, Milon Mukherjee has learned to accept the violence of the universe without permitting it to corrode his emotional capacities for nurturing and love.' - Ranjit Hoskote

This is how two renowned critics from India have summed up the artist’s practice and processes. Like himself, his work remains very much in-your-face: encasing bright colors, bold strokes, and the ever-present sun or moon just somewhere in the background. Music has always been in his blood and even today, it reigns on his captivating canvases full of elegant strokes, the the bold figures; the ‘bansuri’, the ‘dhol’ and the ‘tabla player, all blurring in rhythm….

The embryo, his latest show of works at Mumbai based Jehangir Art Galley to be followed by that at Cymroza Art Galley, originated at the spur of a moment while awaiting a local train in 1993 just after the communal riots and bombings in the city; there was fear and suspicious around.

The artist recalls in an interview to Jayeeta Mazumder of The DNA India, “I still remember how a group of people from the slums around gathered on the railway platform, each one carrying a musical instrument like harmonium, flute and dholak. They all of a sudden began playing them together.”

And that’s when he actually thought of collating all the memories on his vivid canvases that form part of his new exhibition that resemble the cacophony.