An artist with modernist sense

One of India’s most prominent cinematographers as well as an artist, VS Gnana Shekhar, is back again, with his second solo show at Icon Art Gallery.A master in his field, Gnana has debuted his career with a student film which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival and is ready to distinguish himself in the art world as well, since art has always been his raison d'être.

A world where nurturing relationships is given minimal priority, the artists introspection on this subject is thrust forward through ‘Gaze’, the keynote with which Gnana depicts life, to translate his emotion on to the canvas.

As a fine arts student, he was influenced by great masters like Vincent Van Gogh and Niko Pirosmani which inspired him to create some intense spiritual art works in which he marries a modernist sense of perspective with an authentic form.

Hyderabad-based artist Gnana Shekhar said, “Since childhood, I was interested in drawing and painting. As a fine arts student, I was so much influenced by great masters like Vincent Van Gogh and Niko Pirosmani who inspired me to create some intense spiritual art works. Though my passion was painting, later during the course, I choose cinematography as my career,”

“In 2015, I had a solo show, I was not happy with the series I did. So, I came up with a new series for this generation. The idea behind this series came when I was walking on the footpath; there were few people who were bathing on the path because I was always looking on the phone most of the time. I was not able to look the person who was bathing. There was no human interaction. As per now, the human interaction is getting faded, we hardly look at people these days. My concept is on daily life issues,” shared Gnana Shekhar.

Gnana is fond of acrylic colours. He never uses a paint brush to paint. Where else he always paints with a thumb, it makes him feel more connected. He has also begun using computer generated graphic art, using geometric shapes to create a reflection of life.
He explores, “I felt nobody is interested in paintings anymore, I hardly we see people turning up in the gallery to explore paintings.

People are not interacting with each other. All the characters in my paintings are amazed and think about what is happening to the world. There are total 26 paintings featured in the display; the interesting part is most of my paintings are done with thumb. I used mediums like acrylic on canvas, acrylic on paper,”

“As an artist and cinematographer as well, I always like to capture the expressions in the eyes of people, I have always wanted to know about mode of the theme and try to find the emotion and expression in the eye of people. That is what connects me to my filed.” he concluded.
What: Gaze
When: Until May 1 between 11.30am and 7pm
Where: Iconart Gallery, Banjara Hills

By Heena Mishra