Green canvas: A must-visit exhibition for enviromentalists and art lovers

Keen to use the occasion to save the environment, The Loft’s eighth anniversary show, A Thing of Beauty is a must-visit for the environmental and art enthusiast

  With a space less than most I BHK apartments in the city, at 450 sq ft, The Loft is an unlikely space for an art gallery. But in the last eight years since its inception the gallery has not only survived a tumultuous period that saw art galleries shutting shop and buyers drying up, it impressed art lovers on a regular basis. Be it the residencies of national or international artists, solo shows or curatorial concepts featuring contemporary works. The Lower Parel gallery continues the tradition with its eight-anniversary show, A Thing of Beauty, featuring out of the box works of seven young and mid-career artists.

Made of feathers, Sarika Bajaj’s Nothing Lasts Forever highlights the plight of dying bird species

“The attempt always has been to introduce new vocabularies, and offer young and emerging artists a platform to showcase their works,” says Anupa Mehta, the gallery director, and curator of the show. Drawing from John Keats poem, A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy Forever, the show explores imbalance in nature.

Ratna Gupta’s Caste Me in Metal calls for urgency in effort to save the environment

So, there’s Sumakshi Singh’s work, View, with a black laceflower juxtaposed against a black sunflower offering a stark image of how nature adapts to change and take a hybrid form over time. “It’s frightening,” says Mehta.

Valay Gada’s sculptures in bell jars like this one titled, Aspirations, highlight how our ambition for urbanisation is destroying the nature

There’s also Sarika Bajaj, a young artist, whose work, Nothing Lasts Forever, tell the plight of birds. Made of feathers that Bajaj collected over months, and shaped like an eyeball, her work draws an analogy to the dangers that we pose to certain species. “Just look around, we hardly see any house sparrows in the city. All we see is crows,” sighs Mehta.

Sumakshi Singh’s View captures the horror of adaptation in nature by juxtaposing a laceflower with a sunflower

A similar sentiment echo in the works of New York-based artist Nandini Bagla Chirimar’s Diary of A Modern Leaf, where she tries to garner our attention towards our shrinking interest in simple beauties of nature like leaves, trees and flowers. Sculptor Valay Gada, whose works have featured at the Loft in the past, takes on our lust for precious metals and urbanisation with his sculptures in bell jars — Fools Gold, Aspirations, Red List and others.

Anupa Mehta, gallery director, The Loft

In Ratna Gupta’s works, namely, Cast Me in Metal, everything is melting calling for a sense of urgency in our effort to save the planet. “There’s a sense of underlying tension, that makes you aware that time is running out,” she explains.

Mehta informs that the show has a social message in it, and the artists were chosen as part of the show because their their works highlight the urgency that’s required to save mother nature. “All these art works are evocative and speak strongly about the natural disasters we are headed to.”

ON From August 5 to September 30, 10 am to 6 pm (Sunday by appointment)
AT The Loft, New Mahalaxmi Silk Mills, Mathuradas Mill Compound, Tulsi Pipe Road, Lower Parel.
CALL 9769457917
ENTRY Free

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