Correspondent (Delhi) Artist Abhinav Chowbey is back with his solo exhibition that includes paintings and sculptures. The exhibition will open on 3rd of March, 2018 at Lalit Kala Akademi and stay on view till 9th of March, 2018. The show has been curated by Sushma K Bahl who an author and currently works as an independent arts adviser, writer and curator of cultural projects. The preview saw the presence of Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan-Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr. Sunil Sethi- President, FDCI, Dr. Ashok Chauhan – Founder and Chairman Amity Group.
Coming from a family of art patrons, Abhinav always wanted to make something big in the art world. His work is unique and reflects his inner vision. With opaque forms in variable flourishes, geometric contours, odd-even lines and inexplicit forms appears on Abhinav Chowbey’s multi-layered art-scape. The works in this collection appear in a range of variable modes, matters, and manifestations. Immersed in different colours, it includes some small works as well as large ones, along with a selection of three dimensional experimentations. The spread of paintings and sculptures, open Abhinav’s art-scape inside out, inviting the viewer to look through the work in new ways of seeing.
A talented artist who is also a musician and a ceramicist, besides painting, draws from his roots and upbringing in a family of professionals keenly engaged in making and collecting art. This provided him with a fertile grounding to search within for his experiments in art. Indian masters S. H. Raza, F. N. Souza, J. Swaminathan and K. C. S. Paniker, as well as several contemporary artists’ work has influenced his creative streak. Having completed his graduation from The Goldsmiths and then from Wimbledon London, Abhinav got an in-depth exposure to European art practice during his studies in art. This opportunity to have a face to face encounter with original work by western masters in European museums helped him close in on the abstract genre in its broad thrust for his art track. This is what kept Abhinav hooked and made him decide to pursue art further.
Given the artist’s avid engagement with creativity and his search within was the trigger that led him on to work in multifarious modes. His career has routed and expanded from music, to ceramics to painting, and more recently the repertoire has extended to three-dimensional experiments in figured forms as bronze sculptures too. The collection in this exhibition features nearly fifty fresh works in different media and sizes including paintings and sculptures. All of them come liberated from the rigid confines of a fixed genre, as the abstraction in much of the work can be seen to encompass impressionistic compositions, with a touch of the narrative too.
Particular about his palette, Abhinav’s artistic domain breathes and throbs in colours. Refraining from using the readily available market colours as such, he takes pain to make his own shades, as the mix and match of different colours bring out colours of Anubhav’s choice. His love for colours comes through in joyful paintings where colours blend and juxtapose taking on myriad forms. Intrinsic and spontaneous in parts, the palette is carefully laid out in the rest. There is a clarity of direction in his artistic process that serenades meditatively to emerge in the finished composition. There is also a touch of the metallic and play of textured designs in some of the works. Occasionally, a familiar element is added to an otherwise abstract execution if “the idea comes to my mind and the composition so demands”. There are clear imprints of the artist’s interest and engagement with music in the rhythmic reverberation of the works.
The exhibition will feature artworks created mostly during the last couple of years. It is the artist’s second solo exhibition in India. Most of the paintings here are in acrylic on canvas though there is also a suite in oil on canvas and a few paintings on paper. The rich variety within the genre highlights the young artist’s remarkable ability to play with imagery, palette, composition, size and texture in various media and sizes.
Enriched by a range of textural markings on the surface, the bronze sculptures make an engaging collection. The rough edges and exquisite patina add to their appeal and mark the artist’s ability to handle different forms of art.
