The New Sunday Times Magazine, 14 March 2008
Contemporary Indian works
by Vimala Seneviratne

Untitled piece, acrylic on canvas by Bhaskar Goswami

Untitled piece, acrylic on canvas by Bhaskar Goswami

FOURTEEN contemporary artists from the Indian subcontinent offer a glimpse into their world — through their paintings on display at the Wei-Ling Gallery at Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur.

This congregation of painters, drawn from diverse geographical regions of the subcontinent, each project their unique personalities on their pictorial landscapes in the exhibition, Mellifluous Metaphors.

Indian contemporary art, explains curator Elizabeth Rogers, embraces a wide range of subjects and perspectives. “Distinct elements of mythological and iconic representations unfold within the paintings of S.N. Jha and the tapestries of Seema Kohli. Others like Durga Kainthola and Pratul Dash deal with surreal allusions, bending forms abstract and concrete,” says Rogers, who is also a New York/New Delhi based art historian. Throughout civilisation, the human body has fuelled the passion of painters. Shruti Gupta Chandra is known for capturing the male figure in all its grace and splendour while Amiya Bhattacharya envisions women in dreamy, lyric spaces. This is the first time the works of these artists are seen in Malaysia.

The exhibition is a collaboration between Nitanjali Art Gallery in New Delhi and Wei-Ling Gallery. Later this year, We-Ling Gallery will take a cross-over exhibition of contemporary Malaysian art to New Delhi.

Mellifluous Metaphors, at Wei-Ling Gallery (7, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, KL) ends March 26. Viewing Hours: noon-7pm (Mon-Fri), 10am-5pm (Sat). Closed on Sunday and public holidays. Free admission.