Soliloquy in stone and metals

At the Visual Art Gallery leading up to the Central Atrium at the India Habitat Centre, you will find yourself immersed in a world of sculptural brilliance. This is a rare show with 100 sculptures on display, put together by the Delhi Art Society, Calcutta Sculptors and the Chawla Art Gallery. Each orb reflects a world of its own In the mixed group of trained sculptors, stone carvers and installation artists, is an exception, Narayan Lakshman, artist from Chennai, who explores Zen through abstract expressionism on canvas and has taken the plunge into sculpture as a natural and organic extension of his artistic vision. “It is a big jump,” he says, It is easier and a different orientation to put your thoughts and feelings onto a two-dimensional canvas, but putting the same ideas of stillness and silence, of meditative focus, into three-dimensional stone work is completely different,’ says Narayan, the only participant with two of his paintings also on display. Says Shibani Chawla, director of Chawla Art Gallery, “Our focus was on blending time-honoured techniques and contemporary creativity and we have carefully chosen and curated items that would invigorate the viewers.” “A sculptor’s practice is meditative, explorative, and creative and incorporates carving, sculpting, assimilating, drawing and using one’s full artistic potential to create a work of art that speaks from the depth.