Bhubaneswar: A solo art exhibition titled ‘Neo-Urban Avatar: A Mythopoesis of the Contemporary Times-II’ by contemporary visual artist Birendra Pani at the India International Centre (IIC) Art Gallery has enthralled art lovers of New Delhi. The exhibition, organised by IIC and Purushottam Public Trust, will conclude on July 14.
The show highlights Birendra’s 35 years of artistic journey in a condensed expression. It contains the Neo-Urban Avatar Series acrylic based paintings, the Handmade Memory Series, Sanguine story Series water colour based paintings; the 365 Days Series of drawings; the Day Dreaming in Vadodara Series of prints, and other works.
The exhibition was inaugurated on June 30 by distinguished luminaries from diverse disciplines. Among them were art historian Prof. Parul Dave Mukherji, Dean, School of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi, art historian and curator Dr. Rajashree Biswal, artist and Padma Bhushan awardee Jatin Das, art consultant Sushma Bahl, Odissi dancer Sharon Lowen, former Secretary and Diplomat, MEA Amarendra Khatua, historian Nibedita Mohanty, and former IPS officer Sanjeeb Patjoshi. The program was facilitated by Radhika Dhumal, Trustee of Purushottam Public Trust.
On Saturday, a discussion on the exhibition was organised where Sushma, art historian Dr. Seema Bawa, Art Critic & Curator Georgina Maddox, and Radhika participated.
“Deriving from everyday life experiences in a globalized and technologized visual culture yet rooted in Indian aesthetic traditions, the colourful and drawing-based art works focus on unwarranted urbanism, consumerism, and negligence of the local culture in the present time. My constant relocation to different places propelled me to experiment with the iconographic elements of the Patta Chitra and palm leaf drawings, the monumental architectural and sculptural tradition, folk and performance tradition, and popular art of my native state of Odisha and thus, to reinvent my ‘self’ in a globalizing world,” said Birendra.
These narrative and drawing-based art works situated at the interface of mythology, memory, and satire, address the anxieties of hyper-modernism and consumerism, environmental concerns, and negligence of local history and culture, thus engendering a new ‘mythopoesis’ through visual language.
It invites viewers to engage with the present human conditions, their struggles, contradictions, and changes in values in the contemporary times. “Neo- Urban Avatar” is the imaginative contemporary conceptual expressions which is “the essence of the positive spirit and hope within us” to survive in this difficult hypermodern time.
These narrative and drawing-based art works situated at the interface of mythology, memory, and satire, address the anxieties of hyper-modernism and consumerism, environmental concerns, and negligence of local history and culture, thus engendering a new ‘mythopoesis’ through visual language.