Sanchit Art has unveiled Nandan Purkayastha’s solo exhibition titled ‘Genesis’ at the Bikaner House curated by art historian and scholar Uma Nair. The exhibition whose preview took place on 17th January 2024, will be up for the audience till 23rd January 2024. The exhibition boasts of an epic series of drawings and painted-coloured works on paper as well as a monumental wall mural-esque drawing with thousands of hand-drawn figures in animated conversations.
On both floors of CCA at Bikaner House, the drawings will belong to a series that transcends time and space. The monochrome, sepia and crimson-tinted series look like lacquered elements from an album of time past and time present. With more than 80 drawings including two large canvases titled As Time Goes By I & II, that capture the beauty of Indian history and antiquity, this show promises to create an inclusive and immersive experience for art lovers in the city.
Curator Uma Nair notes, “Nandan’s figures move from antiquity to present poise, his carefully orchestrated angles and scales meet the human gaze gently, permeating the walls, with a dynamism and an invisible force that radiates from the beginning towards the end of the works on paper.”
The most monumental work in the exhibition- Time and Being, spans 17 ft x 7 ft and becomes a drawing that takes on the mirror image of a mural that has been created like a cinematic continuum. At best the show ‘Genesis’ will reveal the interdependence between humans and our surrounding worlds, as it recreates animated tableaus of feminine and human fables all wrapped up in the contours and colours of Purkayastha’s memories and experiences.
Deeply influenced by the Bengali alphabet’s curled contours and the Durga puja pandal preparations in Assam where he grew up Nandan’s album of drawings springs from his observations as well as fantasia. Spread over two floors of CCA, Bikaner House’s best space to showcase art, the show promises to continually inspire us to further our ecological consciousness in the canvas of our lives in the eternal connections between man and nature and time and tide.
Purkayastha is a self-taught artist trained in fashion design. A series of curatorial talks will be held for college students and art lovers during the week. One can enjoy Purkayastha’s live drawing exercise each day, which he does with a circular canvas shaped like a mandala. These works will create a synergy between the evocative essence of the past and the present and the beauty of human figures in art.
About Sanchit Art
Sanchit Art, one of India’s finest art galleries, deals mostly with Indian Masters, have recently finished brilliant shows in Singapore as well as Hong Kong along with a historic retrospective by Manoj Datta in Kolkata. The gallery offers a panoramic review of modern & contemporary Indian art, focusing on providing a holistic experience of art from an intellectual and spiritual perspective. Their curatorial focus has continuously been to sustain the essential thread of the cultural foundation of the past while nurturing the dynamics of the contemporary.
Image Courtesy – Sanchit Art
