Cut-and-paste art

Art exhibition

City-based artist Vikram Paranjpe is showcasing his latest collage paintings. On display are 21 paintings made from torn pieces of colourful papers from magazines.

It's not often that collage paintings are the focus of an exhibition and neither are they learned professionally. But with this exhibition, the alumni of Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya, who is now based in Konkan, is keen on popularising the art.

Describing this form of art, Paranjpe says, "Whatever objects we see generally, they have a direct identity and way of conveyance (to the audience). But collage painting is a format where you change the format of the way an object or a picture appears and twist it in an interesting way.

Collage is created with no outline in mind. For example, to depict the bangles of a woman in a painting, I have used a red-coloured lid of a bottle which is a paper cutting from a magazine itself. This has given a curiously interesting approach to the picture. Collage paintings allow you to experiment."

But the art is not as simple as it sounds. It needs a certain level of understanding and sense of colour schemes.

The artist admits there are several challenges: "As you have to use readymade colours from the papers to make your painting, you cannot plan a particular look and expect it to end up looking exactly the same.

You have to be fluctuating with your imagination accordingly. Sometimes you may have to go through 10-12 magazines to make a painting while at other times you might end up making it in two paper cuttings."

Getting perfectly fitting paper-cuts for the outlines is also a hurdle at times, he admits. "This again limits you. Usually, the basic colours like red, blue and yellow dominate the collage painting."

Till April 12, 9 am to 6 pm
At Bliss Art Gallery, Koregaon Park
Call 26151718