Art Scene India: Gallery Art & Soul

23 Sept 2019

Art News: Of Life and Landscape

Of Life and Landscape by Shivani Dugar

Shivani Dugar’s recent suite of works, which developed in her city of residence New York, extends her abstract vocabulary, painting expansive vistas of life and its moments.

The immersive landscapes are derivatives from nature, as well as expanses of emotional and psychological terrains, expressed through color contrasts, translucent zones and vivid textures. Scale plays a pivotal role in Shivani’s works, an expression of the extent of the stream of consciousness and the immensity of the cosmic universe. The vertical format emphasizes the distance between the earth and sky, while multi-panels build the narrative employing time as a motif, its fluency, inevitability, and the range of emotions and events it encapsulates with its passage. Size also contributes towards accentuating the disparity in scale between man and nature and natural forces.

Using ‘gestural’ lines, demarcating space and summarizing the elemental feeling of the subject, and allowing the painting to evolve organically, lie at the core of Shivani’s art practice. Fluidity of space and tonal gradations, along with abundant use of ‘light’ as a predominant motif play a vital role in creating the mood and atmosphere.

Shivani’s abstract expressionist discourse, relies on amorphous shapes and contours, while a gentle, subtle energy permeates her works. The unhurried calm reflected on her canvas, emanates from her working style - applying paint in layers, reducing the excess and reapplying - a process of building the essence and stripping the redundant. In her creative practice, the process occupies central posit and the end result is often accidental.

Excerpt from the catalogue text by Nalini Malaviya

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