Maneka Gandhi opens art exhibition celebrating life

Union Cabinet Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi on Thursday inaugurated an art exhibition at the Triveni Kala Sangam here.

Titled "Meandering journeys: Traversing life", the group exhibition showcases artworks by painter-sculptor Renuka Sondhi-Gulati and architect-photographer Kaushik Amruthur.

On view are Gulati's canvases and sculptures, which are often hailed as a celebration of the living spirit embodied in the one who creates life -- the woman, who endures pain and suffering, yet becomes the bridge to a liberating future, she said.

"Her canvases are explorations of the new-age woman in a new-age world netted or nestled in the discourses of her gender and human form," a note on the exhibition said.

Falling in line with the same spirit of life that one finds throughout the exhibition, are Amruthur's black and white photographs, captured in nine shades of grey.

"A glimpse at a Kaushik Amruthur photograph is an entry into his two-toned world. Be it people, places, or things, in Kaushik's lens the subject is simplified visually, closeted and defined through viewpoints that imbued a dramatization to the picture.

"Architecture features as a prominent subject in Kaushik's oeuvre, so do landscapes and portraits," the note said.

The photographer has captured indigenous tribes living in the red-sand desert region on the Arizona-Utah border.

Many of them depict trees in a desolate space, in an attempt to highlight the landscape and the survival instincts they have developed in the region.

The exhibition is open for public viewing till December 23.

--IANS

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