Past Exhibitions

The Arctic stronghold of the world’s seeds flooded after the permafrost melted in 2017 . Designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world’s most precious seeds from global calamities to ensure humanity’s food supply the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, was breached after extraordinary temperatures over the winter, sending melted ice gushing into the entrance tunnel. The vault is on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen and contains almost a million packets of seeds, each a variety of an important food crop. No seeds were lost but the ability of the rock vault to provide failsafe protection against all disasters is now threatened by climate change.

As the world continues to struggle to find a cure, a vaccine or any other means to control the tiny Corona virus we realize that we really aren’t all that advanced; weare vulnerable and have a very long way to go, if we want humanity to survive through the eons and past the sun burning out. It is not going to be easy but we have to start,by taking science seriously and acting on those principals, with understanding the reasonsand logic of it all, it is not just discoveries and inventions it is also love, kindness and compassion for each other and for all life.

In the current situation, with a worldwide pandemic we have learned to live differently, not an easy task, our new normal is widely dissimilar to what it was in the beginning of the year.The world has been struggling to deal with the loss of lives that have been sustained over the last few months across the world. Daily wagers to large industries, all have suffered. Being tossed into situations that may have sounded like complete fiction only till last year. Yet, we have adapted, fought on and never lost hope.

The art world too felt the brunt and rebounded with innovative ways of coping, mainly via technology, creating an online presence.Sustainability became a challenge as the pandemic escalated, the entire system suffered a huge setback. The need arose to find new ways to display creativity and to reach out to people over other avenues that could be possible without physical contact. We are witnessing a surge of online shows,curations, webinars, art fairsand talks in response as efforts into staying relevant.

This exhibition weaves together some sensitive works of art and brings them forth to invoke thought and contemplation. The artists showing have a quality of strengthin their work, a certain perseverance during the epoch. While some of them take a direct approach and put their thoughts and concerns onto their work quite literally, others approach their work with a spiritual,meditative quality that transmits into their visual language, invoking peace and calmness.The common thread is the determination to carry on, persevere and hope for a better tomorrow…
(Source: www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/19/arctic-stronghold-of-worlds-seeds-flooded-after-permafrost-melts)

Patterns, objects are magnificently spaced. His art uses a visual language of shape, form, color and line to create composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Viewing his paintings, one feels as if someone is constantly throwing pebbles of different sizes resulting into a formation of ripples. These ripples are bound by no physical laws and constantly find new directions.

– Anwar

Yashvant Singh is a contemporary abstract artist heavily influenced by Indian folk and tribal art forms, lines and colors, he has always sought inspiration in Indian traditional and indigenous arts.

“I am doing abstract work that has come out of the figurative. When I was in college used to visit Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal. Which are in permanently displayed and exhibited Indian folk and tribal arts.After completing my MFA, I worked in the studio of bharat bhavan for a year. Where senior abstract artist also work in the studio, I have worked under their direction, whenever I found time to visit nearby villages and watched the working style of folk and tribal artists. During meeting and interaction with tribal’s and their art I had learning so many things and I realized my calling.”

Yashwant says that he sees and understand this disposition in colors to create a composition;in his work he depicts the lust he feels from within, writing in a language which is his very own, a script of the mind, spontaneous with his deepest feelings. Indian tribal and folk art has always been the subject of discussion among us, and yet been neglected in comparison to “modern” art. It has slowly been making its place in the art scene again now, which may be attributed to several talented artists coming forth with a new zest, be it with traditional imagery or contemporary adaptations.He worked with elements from tribal community rituals he witnessed, telling of stories of the ancestors and tales of deities narrated in gatherings, he instinctively began to incorporate them into his visual language.

“Through the path of traditional art, in addition to portraying traditional art shapes and icons in the modern medium, the images outlined by dazzling colors in the background of the script created by them create a mixed style, the script engraved in the background of the painting envelopes many secrets, the artist’s ideas and thoughts projected onto his works.Regardless of the combination of effective colors, the relevance of the script is retained. Both script and shape do not appear to dominate each other, due to the effective use of colors; a balanced and layered idea is given form.”

The artist’s feeling have been evoked by situations &experiences throughout life. From his daily life, traveling experience, current local and world events and then his personal inner thoughts and feelings that work as fuel for his creations. Yashvant’s work comprises non-terrestrial script, geometrical forms, meditational third eyes, nature elements and colors used layer by layer overlapping and mingling, play a major part in his painting. Drawing and layering become a way of expressing an emotion visually.

“I really enjoy the meditative process. Coats of colour, repetition of motifs, I gradually started moving towards classical music and spirituality and the definitive figures started to disappear off the paintings.”