Exhibition to celebrate Indo-French art connections

With an aim to promote Indian artists with a French connection, the third exhibition under the 'Back to France' series will see the works of Delhi-based artist Richa Navani.

Organised by the Indo-French cultural centre, Alliance Franaise de Delhi, the exhibition titled "Inhabited Geometries" will be inaugurated by Hindi poet Ashok Vajpeyi at Galerie Romain Rolland here on November 8.

Curated by art theorist Adwait Singh, the exhibition will present to viewers the abstract geometric forms that inhabit Navani's work, meaningfully layered within the worlds of natural, sacred and architectonic.

An enduring leitmotif, throughout her oeuvre across media, is the naturally-geometric beehive.

Her bee series, expressive of the sensuality of a phallus, female torso, and the rawness of a beehive, produces a strong effective response.

Drawing inspiration from the Indian philosophy of five cosmic elements or "panch bhoota", the painter-sculptor also underlines the influence of her French artist residencies through her work.

Navani, who holds a PhD in fine arts from Delhi University, and a master's in fine arts from Jamia Millia Islamia, has been a resident artist at French institutions like Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans, Camac Centre d'Art and Muse-atelier Yvonne Gugan, the organisers said.

"Navani proposes an exhibition made of many tensions: between abstraction and figuration, between indeterminate forms and pure geometry, between evocation of the present and references to past, between Indian tradition and European tradition, and between the visible and invisible," Jean Francois Ramon, director at Alliance Franaise, said.

The exhibition will stay open till November 25.