Architect Shyam Karri’s exhibition of watercolours in Chennai explores the idea of limitless, liberating art

Kaivalya, as Shyam’s exhibition is titled, encompasses close to 40 paintings, and they all depict animals in various poses set against the blankness of the canvas
Shyam Karri’s exhibition of watercolours
Shyam Karri’s exhibition of watercolours

As an artist, how is one to get to the essence of a subject and disregard everything that is superfluous? Shyam Karri’s exhibition of watercolours at Vennba Gallery, T Nagar, could be one way of doing it. To the Hyderabad-based architect who taught himself to paint at “YouTube University” as he jokingly calls it, art making is a kind of surrender to the process, where things take shape on their own, and it is in this zen-like mode that he claims his work was made.

Kaivalya, as Shyam’s exhibition is titled, encompasses close to 40 paintings, and they all depict animals in various poses set against the blankness of the canvas, the artist’s own way of negating elements that are inessential to the painting. Oftentimes, the animals don’t exist in their entirety; just about enough to let the viewer get to the essence of the emotion the artist tries to communicate, which in this case is unadulterated joy.

“Animals display emotion in a way that is direct and easier to connect to than humans. As I like to speak directly to the heart, I chose to depict the simpler moments featuring animals,” he says.

Guiding the flow

To an audience that had gathered at Vennba on Saturday, Shyam demonstrated the method he’s perfected over several years of practice and several hundred experiments to achieve his form of expression on canvas. On a blank canvas, he started right away with a brush and a mixture of colours. He kept guiding the watercolours as they flowed and settled into the shape he was looking for, that of a flamingo on a pond. No pencils were used throughout the demonstration.

As Shyam explained, “Water basically wants to flow, you see, and I did not want to restrict water within the boundaries. My process was to let the water flow and work with it and let it develop its own shape. It is something that takes practice and over a period of time, you begin to realise subconsciously how water behaves.”

Much-needed breather

A noticeable element in the works here is the predominance of white space. As Shyam put it, in an age where one is bombarded with information of all sorts, the white space in the canvas is intended to give the viewer enough breathing space to be able to take in the full essence of the painting.

Incidentally, painting was Shyam’s first love, a hobby he admits he took to as a child, but like a lot of Indian families, he too had to brush it aside for something more lucrative, which led him to choose architecture. In his profession as an architect, Shyam has to work on larger canvases and multitudes of complex, layered information. In his parallel vocation as a painter, he manages to find joy in the smaller things of life. “My practice has been in accepting whatever the moment has offered and working with it,” he added.

Kaivalya is on display till November 30 at Vennba Gallery, T Nagar. For details, contact: +919884636750.

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