Ajay Sharma
An artist's dreams on display at Sans Tache
 Ajay
Sharma is a Baroda-based artist, who was born in Kharagpur,
West Bengal. Sharma came to Baroda in 1991 to study painting. He
completed his BFA and MFA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU, Baroda.
Ajay Sharma's exhibition titled 'Cradle Dreams & Songs of
Departure' is currently on at the Sans Tache Art Gallery
in Worli, Mumbai. Besides attending various workshops and camps,
such as the workshop on paper making by John Babcock in 1995
and the Camp at NCPA, Mumbai, conducted by Bhupen Khakhar and Nalini
Malani in 1994, Sharma has also won the Lalit Kala Scholarship in
Painting, Human Resource Ministry, New Delhi in 2000 and the Academy
of Fine Arts Award, Calcutta in 1996.
 'Cradle
Dreams & Songs of Departure' comprises oils on canvas, water
colour and mixed media works. They include the abstract and intriguing
'Fragments from an Unfinished Letter (to Mother)', which
has a dismembered limb hanging down the centre of the painting.
It looks as though the limb is left hanging in mid air, just as
the letter has been left incomplete. The shocking red paint and
the images, seemingly unconnected and deliberately distorted, stand
as a testament to the protagonist's state of mind.
 Such
works as 'Tragedy of a House Builder / The Allegory of Expulsion
from Paradise' and 'Prelude / The Nakedness of true love'
use Biblical themes to convey the artist's ideas. These paintings
are dark, gloomy and brooding, and reveal the working of the mind.
'Verses from a Love Lyric' juxtaposes differing, yet interlinked
images together. These include the image of the fallen angel, a
burning lamp and moths or butterflies in nature.
Ajay Sharma gives us a clue to understanding some of his work,
when he says, "Within those who search, insecurity builds its
permanent nest. Through my paintings I record phases of the journey
with its uncertainties and the sense of wonder that it can also
bring."
The exhibition will be on till February 7th, 2001.
Cradle Dreams & Songs of Departure, Paintings by Ajay
Sharma, 12th January, 2001 to 7th February, 2001
Sans Tache Art Gallery, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Road, Worli,
Mumbai - 400 018
Phone: 493 5050 / 492 4341
By : Patrick Coelho
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