Some of Rajib Chowdhury's images in Malhar were actually prints, transferred onto canvas and painted over. For a first solo, he could well be the next name to look out for in the ever-growing list of cutting edge contemporary artists.

A recreation of the magic of the monsoons, a mix of line drawings and etchings, an interpretation of fears associated with darkness….Deepali Nandwani takes a look at some of the exhibitions of the last quarter

Monsoon Madness Rajib Chowdhury, the newest find of RPG chief and art collector, Harsh Goenka, brought monsoon magic to Mumbai, through his first solo exhibition, evocatively titled Malhar, held at the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai. The paintings, all acrylic on canvas, depicted the madness of the monsoons as seen from the windshield of a vehicle racing down a highway, or on rainswept city roads as lightning strikes, or through a sea of black umbrellas on a wet, wet evening. The grey, dark pictures were edged by bright, solid colours, like a sunshiny yellow, a soothing moss green and a vivid orange. Some of the images were actually prints, transferred onto canvas and painted over. For a first solo, Chowdhury could well be the next name to look out for in the ever-growing list of cutting edge, contemporary artists.

[Rajib Chowdhury]

Art Democratised

The Tile Project, initiated by Transcultural Exchange, a Boston-based foundation, invites artists from countries as varied as China, India, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Finland, Israel, Vietnam and Wales, to create painted tiles that are then put up at different venues in their countries, which include restaurants, museums, cultural centres and parks. In India, the venue is the Khyber Restaurant in Mumbai, and the artist who coordinated the project is Bharati Kapadia. The idea is to democratise and demystify art, so that more and more people can be part of the process. Carved in clay, each tile is one of a kind and no image is repeated. Most of the tile images refer to the Indian, archetypal image of the chakravyuha, a maze-like formation, which has also been discovered in other ancient civilizations. The Tile Project at the Khyber Restaurant is on for a few months.

	The Many Moods Of A Woman Artist, Shubha Gokhale, when asked why artists painted women so often said, "Because they are always on our mind." The way men paint women tends to be different from the way women paint themselves. Four artists, two women and two men, exhibited their work revolving around the female gender, at Jamaat in Mumbai. Gogi Saroj Pal's creations were voluptuous, some of them pregnant, each of them with a wistful expression on their faces, as if remembering a contented childhood. Senaka Senanayake, an artist from Sri Lanka, showed his women at their languorous best. Long-haired, dark-eyed and dusky, you saw them in lush tropical locales. Raja Segar, again from Sri Lanka, had his women engaged in different activities, like picking tea leaves, strumming the guitar or just chatting. The works, all mixed media, have a certain rawness to them, which makes them very striking. Shubha Gokhale used puppets to tell you about women whose destiny is not quite of their making. The works, reverse paintings on several layers of glass, had a collage of fabrics as the background.
[Gogi Saroj Pal]
	Mixed Media Offerings Interesting, though a bit unpredictable, were the works on Shiva shown by artist, Arun Kalwankar at the Museum Art Gallery, Mumbai. While some of the works, like the ones that showed Shiva in a trance, or Shiva meditating, were sublime, others like the dancing Shiva were ambivalent. Kalwankar had used mixed media, including digital art, to portray the God in his various moods and avatars.
[Arun Kalwankar]

Wait Until Dark

Curated by Delhi-based art collector and critic, Gayatri Sinha, After Dark, which showed at the Sakshi Art Gallery in Mumbai, had interpretations of myths, fantasies, fears and traditions attached to the coming of evening or the dawn of darkness. Artists, Vivan Sundaram, Nalini Malini, Jogen Chowdhury and Anita Dube portrayed how history, culture and politics define and interpret darkness.

[Jayashree Burman]

Line drawings and etchings are probably the most unappreciated form of art, or the least exhibited at least. Which is why the Art Musings recent show, a mix of line drawings and etchings by painters, Laxma Goud, M. F. Husain, F. N. Souza, Jogen Chowdhury, Ganesh Pyne, Anjolie Ela Menon, Paresh Maity and Satish Gujral were such a delight. Female forms dominated the canvases, from Goud's voluptuous Andhra women, working in the fields, to Menon's evocative faces and Jayashree Burman's detailed drawings.

The Rural Idyll

Art Quest, the quaint little gallery in Colaba, Mumbai, had an assortment of paintings by young artists like Yashwant Sonawane, Sanjay Raut and Vijay Gile up for show and sale. While Sonawane is well known in art circles, Raut and Gile rarely show here. Their canvases were filled with images from rural India - village women, the ubiquitous chaiwallah on the station platform and the camel rider. Here, art was a replica of real life experiences that represent a rural idyll. The medium used by the artists to create their works ranged from sleeper wood to canvas.

Fantastic Interpretations

Like father like daughter? Equally creative though in a different medium, Radhika Simoes showcased her first solo exhibition comprising a variety of creations like etchings, relief prints, ceramics and children's benches at the Hacienda Art Gallery, earlier this month. Undoubtedly an artist with a creative muse, Simoes' works were an expression of fantasy in different forms. Her father, the late Frank Simoes' 'Underwood Typewriter' found varied interpretations in her works. Her emotional depth kept you riveted.