Hope Kosmos, an art project by Hyderabad-based artist Manohar Chiluveru, is a series of large-scale artworks of
acrylic on canvas, which pay a tribute to all those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The project aims to engage with the community and use art as a medium to heal, to express and bring people together and promote hope in this time of uncertainty. Artist Manohar Chiluveru is known for his large-scale live painting events, sculptures, and public installations. His work addresses questions of individual and collective identities, global connectivity, and relational aesthetics. His solo, group, and collective work have been exhibited at Pune Biennial (2017); Macro Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (2017); and MAAM Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove (Rome, 2017); Kochi-Muziris Biennial (2015) and Venice Biennial (2015) amongst others.
The proceeds from this art series will be used to build a support system for art initiatives for other artists including shows, workshops, awards, and grants over the next three years, explains Manohar. “I was travelling to New York before Covid-19 happened, when I returned to Hyderabad I began thinking about what to do as an individual for the art community. I have been doing the series of large-scale artworks for a decade under the project called Manohar Collective, so I made this Hope Kosmos series a part of the project. I invited people who are not from an art background to paint with me over a three-week period. The whole thing is about the entire creative experience and to inspire people to take up the painting brush,” concludes Manohar.
Give me hopeTalking about the unique project, Lakshmi Nambiar, Founder, Shrishti Art Gallery, says, “We placed large canvases from wall to wall in our gallery, and we invited people from different walks of life to interact and paint along with the artist over the course of the last three weeks.
Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Lakshmi Manchu, Akash Puri, Neha Shetty, Allu Bobby, Allu Aravind, Shilpa Reddy, Miheeka Bajaj, Sushmita Konidela, Sreeja Konidela, Shobhu Yarlagadda, Prakash Kovelamudi, Dr Manjula Anagani, Sudha Reddy and many more joined us for this art experience. We hope this initiative will inspire the community and challenge them to give creativity a try.”