With the second wave wreaking havoc in our lives, it’s g reat to find relief in art. Galerie Sara Arakkal’s online show An Expression In Art 2021 Part II goes live at the most apt time. The virtual show features paintings, mixed media work and sculptures by 13 artists. These artworks were created by the featured artists during the lockdown last year, and have finally found a platform to be showcased.

Gallerist Sara Arakkal says, “When we were hosting offline shows at the gallery, we would usually exhibit work by up to 60 artists in a year. The pandemic put our plans on hold, and we chose to go online. Part two of this show features new work created by artists during these testing times. There is no theme because we feel a theme will restrict an artist’s creativity.” The featured artists include names such as Anirban Sheth, Azis TM, Bharati Sagar, Humera Ali, Kalidas B Sonar, Mani M Mani, Prakash Nayak, Ramu Maredu, Rani Rekha, Sandhya K Sirsi, Saravana, Sheelvanth Yadgiri and Sultana Hasan.

Their work explores subjects of extinction of certain animals, rapid urbanisation, nature, still life and abstracts. Anirban’s work is quite interesting. He has used chrome-tanned leather with mixed media to create Salute to Corona Warriors, and for Love with Roses, he has experimented with leather dyes and acrylic on leather. “His attempt at using leather is quite new and was reason enough to include in our group show. We always look for such experiments, but that said, all our artists’ have interesting work, so I cannot choose one over the other,” says Arakkal. Another artist to watch out is Ramu Maredu. His acrylic on canvas artworks are bright and vibrant, and explore the idea of dynamic urbanisation.

Until May 10 

ayeshatabassum@ newindianexpress.com @aishatax