The student of fine arts from the Visva Bharti University in Santiniketan, West Bengal, Ramu Das recently put up his latest collection of works, An Idyllic World: The Real and the Imagined at Hyderabad’s Kalakriti Art Gallery. The ongoing exhibition consists of 14 paintings, all acrylic on canvas.
“He is known for his bright and quirky mix of fantasy and nature. A deeply perceptive artist with a highly developed sense of colour, Ramu with his oversized lotuses, bees, and butterflies creates fantastically complex but humorous compositions,” shares Rekha Lahoti, founder, Kalakriti Art Gallery.
Of bees and flowers
Ramu’s artworks delve into the fantasy world by taking satirical inspiration from real-life stories around him. In his artwork titled Pitamaha, he has shown Bhishma Pitamaha from the tales of Mahabharata lying down with his signature lotus flower and roots going through him, replicating the death scenario as told in the epic. Not only that, his other works symbolically depict the beauty as well as the vulnerability of the world we live in. A pond that resembles a regular flowerpot has lotuses of monstrous proportions growing out of it, and in another work titled Butterfly in the Lotus Pond, a large butterfly hovers over a strange assortment of white lotuses. “This series of artworks by Ramu highlights the problems faced by mother nature. His take on oversized details in the painting is a reference to show nature under a microscopic lens. Through his works, he melds imagination with reality into a seamless narrative — be it good, bad, ugly or dramatic,” concludes Rekha.
The exhibition is on till November 30, Kalakriti Art Gallery, Road No 4, Banjara Hills (11 am to 7 pm).
- reshmichakravorthy@newindianexpress.com
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