With trees as his theme, artist Ompal Sansanwal returns with a solo show in Delhi after 15 years

Artist Ompal Sansanwal's captivating exhibition Jiva at Bikaner House showcases 60 paintings capturing the magic and majesty of trees.

Artist Ompal Sansanwal can’t wait for his exhibition Jiva to open at Bikaner House on Saturday evening. For the last 15 years, he has been building a body of work comprising 60 paintings that capture the magic and majesty of trees.

“I grew up in the verdant gardens of Katwaria Sarai in Delhi in the seventies; I have vivid memories of my mother taking me out for walks daily; we would sit under a large Banyan tree and she would narrate to me the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata,” says Ompal, who little realised then that the timeless allure of Nature was silently shaping the artist in him.

After graduating from the Delhi College of Art, he held several solo shows at the Museum Gallery, Mumbai; LTG Gallery and Shridharani Gallery, Delhi, besides group shows at the Nehru Center in London, and Yugoslavia. Yet the recipient of the 2022 National Award says Jiva is going to be one of his most captivating exhibitions ever since he took a break from solos in 2009.

At 60, the contemporary artist has returned with 60 exquisite paintings in acrylic, pen and ink detailing the cross-hatching technique, used by many Renaissance painters to create a unique texture and collection of artworks blending classical Asian methods and themes and Western modern techniques

“Ompal’s artworks stir you and every visitor will go back with different levels of experiences,” says curator Uma Nair, who has also come out with an enchanting coffee table book Meditations on Trees that features the paintings to be showcased at the exhibition. The book published by Aleph, in association with the Black Cube Art Gallery and the Namtech Art Foundation, will be launched by Ratish Nanda, renowned Indian conservation architect and CEO of Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

“Trees are the lungs of the world and the exhibition has an ecological echo; it is a happy coincidence that the artist is exhibiting his paintings in April when the world is observing Earth month,” says Nair.

“Every time I look at a tree, I search for forms that relate to human figures; there is an interconnectedness between man and Nature,” says Ompal who accentuates the long intertwining roots of trees and its branches dense with foliage with diverse patterns of thread-like filaments in his signature style to tell a distinct story.