Burst of neon colours: Rolled canvas technique take centre stage in Vinita Dasgupta’s works

.Vinita Dasgupta's show celebrates the spirit of colours, forms and dimensions. Her show A Spirit of Chromatic Metaphors consisting of 40 large works is currently on in Hyderabad.

Eikowa Art Gallery comes alive with a riot of neon colours as contemporary artist Vinita Dasgupta’s show A Spirit of Chromatic Metaphors gets underway in Hyderabad. A showcase of 40 large works (5x5, 4x4 and 3x3 feet) celebrates the spirit of colours, forms and dimensions with an immersive visual experience. Besides Nature, the canvases thrive on pop imagery and portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Marylin Monroe, and Priyanka Chopra mounted on the wall. With a focus on global warming, the artist presents Nature in a colourful, vibrant way urging us to stop activities that affect it.

Look closer and you realise each exhibit is a roll of canvas containing icons or scenes. This innovative rolled canvas technique is a signature style of Delhi-based Vinita. She first paints or prints a canvas cloth, then cuts them into individual rolls, draws an image on a board and pastes these individual rolls on them which in turn creates a new image. The process is laborious, with each work taking around six months.

The artist has worked in different mediums and mainly does figurative works; known for her pop art, she has been working with The Art Lounge in Lisbon for the past ten years. A visual storyteller, Vinita has a penchant for unique works and exploring different media for their numerous possibilities. “I like to mix, explore and play with multi-media in my works. If I were to paint I may be restricted to just colours,” says the artist, who has done sculptures in fiberglass too.

Vinita celebrates the spirit of colours, forms and dimensions in this display of 40 works that took around three years. This unique art began with two Coke cans and a pair of earrings! “I bought two Coke cans and earrings when I was in Lisbon. I wondered why I should always paint the canvas and not roll it?” A set of four such works exhibited in India Art Fair in 2013 was bought by a collector for a museum in Geneva and got her more orders; eventually that became her signature work.

The 40-year-old artist is also vehement about people not being aware of the effort that goes into the technique. “They say a younger artist like me does few works, so I should not charge the way senior artists do. Other artists might be doing 50 works but I do niche works wherein each work takes around six months. Why should I compare my work with others?”

Vinita Dasgupta’s solo show A Spirit of Chromatic Metaphors is on at Eikowa Art Gallery, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, till October 31