Art Alive’s latest exhibition ‘Fluid Realities’ investigates the ever-changing life and  acknowledges the presence of alternative worlds and human truths

Bringing together works of Jogen Chowdhury, Anjolie Ela Menon, Surendran Nair, Arpana Caur, Vivek Vilasini, Rekha Rodwittiya, Paresh Maity and Chandra Bhattacharjee, Art Alive Gallery presents ‘Fluid Realities’. 

“Reality is a constantly shifting and debatable concept subject to multifarious definitions at different points of time. For the artist, an engagement with the fluid space of reality and its various contexts, is organic and perpetual. The artworks reflect a cross-section of responses and articulations: from depictions of the physical world, its constructions and its layers, to meditative, spiritually oriented arrangements,” says Lina Vincent, Curatorial Advisor. 

This group show represents investigations into this ever-changing and dynamic space of life with its myriad physical and transcendental cycles. The artists, each of them iconic in the discussion of contemporary Indian art, showcase deeply individualistic approaches, both formally and conceptually. 

For Vivek Vilasini, there is constant intersection between observed and imagined reality; he creates intrinsic visual commentaries that revolve around the physical world and human social behaviour, often using humour and irony as narrative devices. 

Paresh Maity, in his characteristic style, translates and reinterprets the memory and experience of place, drawing from existing architectonic arrangements to present newer configurations of space and time.  

Anjolie Ela Menon responds to the world in all its beauty and ugliness, finding meaning in a visceral engagement with people and objects. On the other hand, Jogen Chowdhury articulates aspects of his personal history, local and cultural ethos through intuitive responses that seek to present the innermost core of things. 

Surendran Nair produces modern myths that acknowledge the presence of alternative worlds and human truths; a kind of magical realism pervades his picture planes. 

Arpana Caur builds poetic narratives of her everyday experiences, sensitively balancing the past with the present, and the personal with the universal. Celebrating love and desire, vulnerability and strength, Rekha Rodwittiya is another artist who resolutely embodies a woman’s world – its realities and fictions.

Chandra Bhattacharjee in his series of atmospheric works, includes expressions of transitory, subtle engagements with the state of being, in time and space.

“Each work in the exhibition is an imprint on time – a non-linear, transforming space that invites the viewer to contemplate our current times, as we face a rupture in our existence and pause to reflect on new realities,” adds Vincent. 

The exhibition is on display at Center for Contemporary Art, Bikaner House till October 10

(Cover: Paresh Maity Breath of Life)