Kolkata Centre for Creativity is organising a solo-exhibition of eminent artist G Ravinder Reddy's works at their Emami Art Gallery the coming week.
The exhibition called Rasa has been curated by at critic Anupa Mehta and will showcase the works of the G Ravinder Reddy, created between 1989 and 2019. Reddy who is known for creating large sculptures, mostly of women, with wide-staring gazes and exhibiting, a brazen sensuousness- has shifted his ‘gaze’ to the different perceptions surrounding the idealised sense of beauty in his most recent works. "I am very pleased to share my recent artworks with connoisseurs and art lovers of Bengal, ” he says. Surprisingly, G Ravinder Reddy, who has earned wide acclaim for his works, both in Indian and abroad, has never showcased his artwork in his hometown, Vishakapatanam.
Reddy draws inspiration from traditional Indian religious statues as well as pop art, to depict the human form in all its vulnerabilities, but with gazes which are deep, and reflect back the viewer's gaze, making the viewer seem powerless. He uses polyester, resin and fibreglass to create the sculptures and uses gold leaf or spray paint to colour them. His sculptures are mostly the female form, which is depicted in an unabashed manner. 'The female form gives me a lot of scope for self-expression’ he says.
He sculpts larger than life forms of women, or just the heads, which are adorned in bright flowers or colourful headgears, and named after Hindu goddesses. The golden sheen, along with the confident and bold look, only makes the resemblances with temple art of South India, very prominent.
Yet, in some of the more recent works, we see a change of perspective, when he makes a migrant worker his choice of subject. Even the idealised notion of beauty, found in the form of fair porcelain skin, sharp nose and red lips has been replaced by dark, blotchy skin, with wrinkles and a not so perfect nose, as found in the work named Padmini.
“Ravinder Reddy marries tradition with the contemporary, to create works that are at once iconic, as they are rooted in the vernacular. This exhibition allows us to see departures and stylistic shifts in the artist’s work over a period of two decades,” says Anupa Mehta, the curator.
At Emami Art Gallery, KCC, from June 8- August 8