Barbil - A Benefit exhibition for UTSHA [EXHIBITION]

August 30, 2013 I The Oberoi, Gurgaon, 443 Udyog Vihar, Phase-V, Gurgaon-122016

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Artists: Aishwaryan K,  Arbind Singh, Haraprasad Tripathy, Jagannath Panda, Josh P.S. Nityananda Ojha, P. Bujinga Rao, Ramakanta Samantaray, Satyabhama Majhi, Shweta P. Bhattad, Sujit Mallik and Surya Singh

 

Gallery Nature Morte at - The Oberoi, Gurgaon, played host to an exhibition titled “Barbil: A Benefit Exhibition for Utsha”, a collection of ethereal watercolours, thought-provoking oils and works in mixed media. The show was put together by Utsha, a Bhubaneswar-based charitable trust, which aims to nurture the culture of Odisha. The run-up to the exhibition saw 12 upcoming artists camp in Barbil, a tribal area in north Odisha, where they interacted with local artists for a month to create work that went public at the show. The exhibition was well attended by several leading lights of the art world, gallerists and corporate houses, besides other art lovers.

 

Some of the works that grabbed attention included Ramakanta Samantaray’s, “I Want to Say Everything but Could Not..”, which featured two collages placed side-by- side. Each depicted the myriad problems that have beset the country - pollution and corruption. Nityananda Ojha's untitled work depicted the conflicts of past and present in Odisha. His installation was made up of 10 different fibreglass elements like tribal weapons, a gun, antlers and swords. Ojha said, "On one hand, the gun represents how the war is being waged in tribal areas by Naxals today, while the tribal arms depict how it was being fought in the past."