Kochi: “Deep Within”, an intriguing painting exhibition by Delhi-based artist Roy Thomas addresses the growing concerns over climate change using the power of re-imagination. The exhibition at Durbar Hall Art Gallery here features 25 oil paintings reflecting a common theme dealing with the environmental threats awaiting the world. The show ends on Friday. Show time is from 11 am to 7 pm.
In “Deep Within”, Roy re-imagines classic sculptures from the Renaissance to the modern times through the disturbing shades of climate change. In his works on display, Michelangelo’s La Pieta and Moses, Rodin’s The Thinker, Statue of Liberty and India’s iconic Pillars of Ashoka are seen as submerged under the water – in a powerful representation of the alarming days ahead. Sights of Gandhi, the Buddha and Lenin under water add thick layers of politics and philosophy to the series of works.
Roy Thomas believes that his anxieties about politics, history, nature and society have gone into all the works. He said he chose timeless sculptures as the subjects of the series because he believed it is sculptures, not paintings, that survive the centuries.
Roy, a native of Pala who has been teaching and practising art in Delhi for the past 34 years, is conducting a solo show in Kerala after a gap of 25 years. He has conducted several solo shows and participated in a number of expos in different cities in India and other parts of the world including Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Munich, Singapore, and Austria.
Commenting on the show, academic and art critic Krishnan Unni P wrote that the thoughts of environmental disaster is powerfully set as a backdrop of each painting. “The logic of perception in the works exposes the horrors of our times and unburden our fixities of unicentred vision of art works,” he said.