Preview | Nature Morte group show

A new show at the Nature Morte gallery in Delhi is displaying the work of four artists: Nidhi Agarwal, C. Bhagyanath, M. Pravat and Vir Kotak. It’s the gallery’s first group show after almost two years.

Agarwal, who usually employs thick impasto and a vivid colour palette, is displaying a work quite unlike her oeuvre. A mixed-media canvas covering a wall, Agarwal’s only work on display is also the largest in the exhibition. Titled The Black Territory, it is zany in its appeal, with shreds of black cloth spread across the canvas in a seemingly haphazard manner. Step back, however, and a feline silhouette emerges in the foreground.

This explosion of black finds its counterpoint in the restrained and sublime drawings of Bhagyanath. Each work is made of multiple layers of vellum paper, with a charcoal drawing on each one. Stacked on top of each other, the translucent nature of the paper, with its mainly human figures, gives his work a hologrammatic effect.

Kotak, an entrepreneur by day, is displaying black and white abstract photographs of what looks like a steel grid.

In its ferocity, Pravat’s work stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the exhibits. Inspired by architecture, they sometimes offer a bleak display of ruined spaces.

Gallery director Peter Nagy says: “The four artists share a reductive palette as well as a limitation of means. Each approaches their craft with precision, resulting in images which are bold, confident and succinct. All four artists use drawing in an elastic way, letting it guide them to the making of the image."

New Works is being held at Nature Morte, New Delhi, till 2 September. For more information, visit naturemorte.com.