Touch of Colour With Art

 Transform your home with an exclusive work of art - hand painted furniture adds a splash of vibrant colours in interiors

Everybody looks for that special and unique element in our surroundings, which can stand out and create a statement and define their style. Art has an intrinsic ability to transform the dynamics of the space and create an instant impression about the owner’s personality and taste. Paintings and sculptures are commonly used in home décor and are traditional forms of art; there are several other innovative and unconventional options.

One can opt for unusual and fun objects that are personalized, for instance hand painted furniture or other functional objects. Hand painted furniture such as tables and chairs have been popular for a long time, and limited edition and exclusive pieces painted by artists are also coveted for their distinctive style and individuality.

The idea is to display an original piece of artwork which completely fits into the space, yet reflects your personality faithfully. Therefore, a piece of furniture painted by an artist into a colourful work of art can easily become a centerpiece - these can be fun and quirky, have a vintage feel or have a folk art influence!

One can obtain these objects of furniture from art exhibitions which are built around such concepts or have
an artist create it according to your specifications. The latter allows greater freedom and helps in personalizing the artwork completely, and in the process helps in creating something totally unique.

Functional and utilitarian objects are rarely seen as objects of décor and adding a dash of colour and personality to them can be immensely satisfying. Art need not always be serious and contemplative, but can also be whimsical. On the other hand, artist designed and painted furniture need not be only about portraits, figures and bright colours, but these can also have a monochrome palette, use abstract motifs and be minimal, depending on your choice.

This article was published in The Times of India-The Address recently. 
Images courtesy artists Mahirwan Mamtani and Yusuf Arakkal.

If you enjoyed reading this article, do share it using the social media widgets at the top and subscribe to receive regular updates from Art Scene India

Related Posts,

• Displaying Art in Home Interiors
• Hyperreal Art Makes An Impact
• Art in Interiors: Murals Bring Art to Interiors
• Chromatic Frames to Display Art
• A Tradition of Textile Art
• Art Installations to Complement Home Decor
• Festive Home Decor : A tradition of lighting the lamp
• Art In Home Decor
• Integrate Art With Architecture
• Style Statement With Art
• Antiques in Home Decor

Artist Profile: Anil Kumar Simhadri

This week we profile Anil Kumar Simhadri, an artist based in Vadodara. Anil studied Printmaking (MFA) in 2011 from Khairagarh and BFA in 2009 from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. He is a recipient of HRD national scholarship for young artists, New Delhi and Arnawaz Vasudev scholarship, Bangalore.

Anil explains, "The lingering thought of not having freedom to choose what I want and what I do not want seems to be haunting me. In fact this is what makes me create images, live and move on. I am trying to depict life’s conflicts and struggles on people’s faces. Perhaps it is the lack of freedom or not having enough courage to face the reality around me that becomes a source and force to construct my images."

You can view more of his works here

Art Scene India now features artists on a regular basis. If you wish to be profiled on artsceneindia.com, please send in your submissions according to the UPDATED guidelines listed under Submit.

Related posts,

Artist Profile: Devajyoti Ray

Artist Profile: Kalabhakesari

Artist Profile: Manisha Vedpathak

Artist Profile: Spoorthy Murali

Artist Profile: Barbara Ash

Artist Profile: Asha Sudhaker Shenoy

Artist Profile: Promod Gaikwad
Artist Profile: Shruti Vij

Artist Profile: Aniqa Fatima

Artist Profile: Mini Arora

Artist Profile: Saurabh Turakhia

Consider sharing this post if you like it.

Art Park Bengaluru: Meet the Artists on July 6, 2014

Art Park Bengaluru: Meet the Artists on July 6, 2014/11 am to 5 pm/ Ravindra Kalakshetra

Art Park is an 'initiative by contemporary Bengaluru artists that takes place in the Sculpture Park (between Town Hall & Ravindra Kalakshetra) on the first Sunday of every month - to bring art closer to the Bengaluru public & take it out of the confines of the gallery'.

 

"The day-long event enables artists and the public to engage in critical conversations that can help lay people to develop a deeper understanding of art and artists across time, location and culture. In the process members of the public will be able to develop an awareness and appreciation of visual art, which can lead to recognition of the power of creativity in constructing, defining and shaping knowledge. An important purpose of the Art Park Bengaluru initiative is to bridge the gap between visual art and the general public by providing a stimulating environment that provides the necessary exposure to contemporary visual art, fosters the creative spirit that exists in every individual, and challenges people to question themselves and find answers for themselves in contemporary art."

Artist SG Vasudev at Art Park, Bangalore

Artist Jasu Rawal at Art Park, Bangalore

I feel it's a wonderful initiative and a fabulous opportunity to meet artists in an informal setting, outside their studio space. You can watch them work and interact with them. You could even buy sketches and paintings at unbelievable prices! In fact, the artists will price their first five drawings (drawn on acid free paper and with the ArtPark Bengaluru seal behind it) at Rs 500/=(Rupees five hundred only) for each drawing, while the prices of paintings will vary.

Let me know if you visit ArtPark this Sunday  (July 6, 2014) and if you would like to write a note (approx 250 words) on your experience, go ahead and send it to me {nalini(dot)indianart@gmail(dot)com}. If it reads well I will publish it on my blog (don't forget to send 2-3 images as well)!

 All photographs of the Art Park courtesy Ravi Cavale

Review: Sleeping through the Museum by Waswo X. Waswo

A Thing is a Thing is a Thing

Yasra Daud Khoker views Waswo X. Waswo’s exhibition ‘Sleeping through the Museum’ at Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai and is reminded of Astrid Lindgren’s popular character Pippi Longstocking, the thing-finder. Read on to see the interesting parallels she draws between the work of fiction and the exhibits.

"What did you say you are?” asked Annika.
“What’s that?” asked Tommy.
“Somebody who hunts for things, naturally. What else could it be?” said Pippi as she
swept all the flour left on the floor into a little pile.
“The whole world is full of things, and somebody has to look for them. And that’s just that a Thing-Finder does,” she finished.
“What kind of things?” asked Annika.
“Oh, all kinds,” said Pippi. “Lumps of gold, ostrich feathers, dead rats, candy
snapcrackers, little tiny screws, and things like that."

From humanity’s first and most successful adaptation - hunting and gathering, to its most popular adaptation- thing collecting, we have come a long way. As a mode of subsistence, just as our ancestors foraged for things to eat, scouring anything edible, we rake our fingers through vapors of postmodern life and a variety of things materialize like fungal growth in a forgotten jar of pickle. We feed on these by-products and remnants of memory. These things keep us going.

Thing. Things. A whole lot of things. Not just things, but things. That is what we are surrounded by. As I look around, I see a variety of things collected by me- some impulsively, some after much planning and some gifted by family and friends. Each of these things is unique and has a story that reminds me of the person I used to be and the one I am today.

Things are mute signifiers of our lives and existence, speaking much through their surface, sometimes worn-out, at other times well-kept. People generally scan items ejected from a Packers and Movers truck, attempting to paint a picture of the new neighbors. Their financial stability, family planning, pets and the dominant person in their marriage- everything about them is discussed roughly based on the things unloaded from the truck, over a routine gathering at the vegetable cart.

I am reminded of these as I flip through a booklet titled ‘Your Handy Museum Guide Book’ which accompanies Waswo X. Waswo’s exhibition ‘Sleeping through the Museum’ at Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai. Modeled after the generic spatial and visual configurations of museums with their rectilinear circulation paths, controlled movement and informatory notices, the space becomes an intended thing-asylum displaying painted photographs, labeled diagrams, terracotta artifacts and specimens in jars. Thirty glass jars arranged in a grid sit atop a surface, containing various things in paraffin and beeswax that replay memories. Remnants of a meal, a burned hat, a sliced book, crumpled piece of art etc bring Astrid Lindgren’s character Pippi Longstocking, the thing-collector to mind.

Preservation stuns time, extending the present. Nature never intended for anything to remain pristine, untouched by time -including our memory. That perhaps, is why we forget. The glass jars have imprisoned memories of things that the museum forces us to remember. One thinks a number of thoughts reading the often unnecessary, hence museum-like labels on the jars - why have these particular things been chosen for display and not others? Why do/should they form a part of history? What scattered history are these things alluding? More importantly, why is this piece of history relevant today?

The objects in the jars play on individual imagination as one is sure to find something in his/her clutter of memories that resonates with the visual language of the exhibit (Requiem for an Other). We look at museums as preservers of history and never once question anything on display- the veracity of its claims or the authenticity of the objects. History taught at schools in different parts of the world varies. The British exploited, plundered and looted India according to Indian history but British history speaks of the ‘white man’s burden’ of civilizing the rest of the world. History is ‘his story’, a one-person perspective of events, in some cases propaganda. Museums are a part of it. In placing rather mundane objects in sparkling jars on pedestals, Waswo questions the relevance and authenticity of what we understand as history. Does our past limit itself to rugs once used by royalty and nail-clippers or clothes used by someone well-known? How about those who were always present in the faded backgrounds and sidelined in history?

The ‘Evil Orientalist’ peeks from beneath terracotta masks crafted by village potter Shyam Lal Kumhar in such labeling as ‘a mask for our people not yours’, ‘a mask of open-mindedness’, ‘a mask demanded to be worn’ etc. The fixed, startled expressions of the masks along with hand-colored photographs from the Gauri Dancers series bring attention to the blurry lines between reality and folklore. Quite like the dancers in their heavily made-up and elaborately costumed avatar, people play a variety of characters daily. We seek to fabricate a version of the self that mimics the exaggerations of a stage play. The real and the unreal are all the same. Happiness, anger, open-mindedness, fear, ownership, authority etc are all reduced to a mask, a thing. Each of us carries many such masks everyday along with invisible jars of old sights, smells and words, clinking, making much noise. We are museums in ourselves, our faces bearing old scars and the etchings of harsh times.

Masks are societal expectations and most other such manufactured rules of social conduct that we live by, are as necessary and functional as curios and baubles. In ‘Exhibit One: Migration of Desire’, a set of ten identical walking canes rest before us. Without glancing at the labels, as a creature of habit, one thinks a cane is a cane is a cane. Apparently not. Each of the ten canes has a label informing us of its utility and character. From beating a snake to beating a dog to beating a wife. From instructing a child to walking upright to shifting homes. In the end, just a physical sign of someone’s existence. A mark that he, too, was once there. In his absence, his things speak for him, revealing much, allowing us a peek in to what he did, what he did not and hence, who he really was. How then, dear reader, is a thing, just a thing?

['Sleeping Through the Museum' at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai by Waswo X. Waswo with Rajesh Soni, Subrat Behera and Shyam Lal Kumhar]

About the Writer: Yasra Daud Khoker is a writer of Art & Architecture, currently writing for Art & Deal and Architect Weekly. A graduate from the College of Architecture and Design of the American University of Sharjah, she writes with a special interest in Art & Architecture Theory, History and Criticism. She can be reached at yasrakhoker@yahoo.com

Review: ‘Crosstalk’ at Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore

Art Review: ‘Crosstalk’ at Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore, a group show by four artists Lokesh BH, Naveen Kumar A, Aishwaryan K and Mohan Kumar T

Yesterday, I visited ‘Crosstalk’ at Gallery Sumukha, which is a group show by four artists Lokesh BH, Naveen Kumar A, Aishwaryan K and Mohan Kumar T. For me, Lokesh was the unknown entity here as I had not seen his works earlier. The other three artists have shown their works in Bangalore, whereas Mohan Kumar was part of a show that I had conceptualized a while ago (it was later shelved). 

 

Crosstalk is intended to be “about the four artists’ personal attempts to grapple with contemporary living, and find their place in the larger scheme of things. Binding the body of works together are several common concepts, noticeable in the multiplicity of urban motifs, objects and attributes. However, each artist sees and underlines distinct elements in this constantly changing life-scape."

As an exploration of the self and survival, and the artist’s individual take on contemporary living, the works are diverse and present interesting perspectives. Mohan Kumar’s works are filled with satire and dry wit as they comment on social situations, which are commonly accepted and have become the norm, but can be comical and at times farcical. He is particularly adept at story telling through his drawings.
Aishwaryan transforms familiar materials and media into works which offer multiple possibilities of interpretation. These may represent objects of desire and aspiration, yet are fraught with artifice and may eventually be inconsequential. On a personal level, I could relate better to the two mixed media drawings.

 Lokesh’s works are autobiographical in nature and explore the consumerist culture and also human relationships, the former with a wry humour, while the latter is laced with sadness and confusion. About ‘Black Cycle’, he explains, “it represents my journey and life experiences during the period of my ‘Art education’. It was a phase fraught with confusion, in which the self underwent struggles that have been symbolized in this work.” Lokesh seems to present two distinct bodies of work here, perhaps from two different time periods. As a skilled and able artist embarking on his career, he could focus and elaborate on a single concept and allow it to grow organically – build layers into the narrative to make it more meaningful and coherent.

Naveen Kumar surprised me with his large work composed of miniature vignettes, a montage of mixed media drawings on pages of an art book. Compiling stories – tales from childhood, personal experiences and even popular expressions, the result is a delightful installation weaved out of ‘magical stories’ as the title suggests. The drawings have been rendered in minute detail and form a whimsical collection.

It's a good effort by this group of young artists and if you are in Bangalore, drop in at the show and let me know which of the works you liked.

Consider sharing the article using the social media widgets at the top.