Life as they see it

Manpriya Singh

A tree is what inspired freelance artist SC Ahuja to capture it from every perspective. Dissecting it threadbare and down to its individual branches, stem, leaves, twigs. “Metaphorically each and every part of a tree stands for something much higher, bigger. I have connected it with God, with a woman, with human spirit,” shares the artist of his black and white sketches done in pen and ink. 

It’s a similar story behind the rest of the 120 odd works by 32 artists in the 8th annual show brought together by Group 21. 

Hailing from Punjab and based out of Delhi, freelance artist Bhupinder Dhutti is acquainted with and in love with hills, enough to capture them in all their simplistic glory. His works in water colours bring out the beauty of hills that we may remember from an era gone by, when hills were not commercialised and the hillscapes not corrupted with contemporary structures. Streams, pebbles, temple dome and only little hamlets in the name of civilization find a place of pride in his canvas. 

Moving on, there’s artist Aman Arora whose subjects instantly connect, obviating the need for captions. A man and a monkey, or a girl and a boy sharing space in a canvas each and bringing out the simplistic beauty of a bond, the joy of companionship. From among the Chandigarh-based artists, there are works by Bheem Malhotra and Archana, whose old lady pouring cups of morning tea will make you want to have one.

There are also the regular Buddha canvases as also the landscapes and portraits and a few interesting works in still life, for instance, Delhi-based artists Bhumika Singh’s lantern or Laishram Jenny’s locked door. However, not all of the works come with a caption and while the sculptures are significantly fewer in comparison to the canvases, there are city-based artist Narinder JS Maloya’s famous ants crawling their way up.  Much like the ones in real life. 

On till February 16 at Museum of Fine Arts, Panjab University