Nature becomes muse in these online exhibitions

This show explores the versatility of trees both as form and as muse for artists across time and space.

New Delhi: Beginning February 2021, The Art Platform (TAP) India is hosting new exhibitions by six galleries, along with selected works under a new section on the website called TAP Showcase. The section is now featuring an exhibition titled ‘Trees: Nature and Imagination’ curated by Mitch Crites and Minhazz Mazumdar. The show explores the versatility of trees both as form and as muse for artists across time and space.

This show explores the versatility of trees both as form and as muse for artists across time and space. Artists’ reactions to trees, their understanding of the profoundly symbiotic and yet also, the deeply conflicted relationship between humans and trees has made for some wonderful art.

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Another exhibition on TAP, ‘Nature Unbound’ features artists Samir Mohanty; Laxmipriya Panigrahi and Suchender P, and captures the miraculous beauty of the natural world that finds itself under a constant threat. With nature as a muse, the artists celebrate its rare insights while addressing the environmental crises we continue to face with the advent of industrialization, urbanisation and over-consumption. The exhibition re-evaluates humans as a small part of the nature while delving into its grandeur and evoking sublimity.

Khovar and Sohrai paintings by Tribal Art Forms, a collaboration between two Contemporary galleries Exhibit 320 and Blueprint12, are also on view on TAP India. Khovar is the marriage art of the tribals and scheduled castes of Hazaribagh living in hill villages and agricultural valleys. Khovar or the comb-cut art is done during the marriage season (May-June). Sohrai is the harvest art celebrated during the winter season (Oct-Nov) by almost all tribes in Jharkhand.

The online exhibition by Emami Art, titled ‘The Feel of Nature’ features artist Kalpana Viswas, Ghana Shyam Latua, David Malaker, and Prarthana Hazra. According to the gallery, the works of these four young artists from Bengal are concerned with nature, exploring their subtle, sensuous and even critical relationships with it. Each of them looks at nature differently. It appears as intimate worlds of feminine senses and sensibilities in the works of Kalpana Biswas and Prarthana Hazra, and also as a contested site of contradictions in Ghana Shyam Latua’s works. On the other hand, David Malakar’s works are charged with the sublime presence of nature and its phenomenal beauty and grandeur.