Artists bring early memories of the pandemic and more to fore

Two ongoing exhibitions at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad, showcase visual experimentation of contemporary artists who reflect on the pandemic, nature and unhurried lifestyles

Artist Raka Panda’s paintings, titled Landscape, are not an artistic impression of a breathtaking landscape. Instead, depicted are a nameless and faceless sea of people seated together or standing by, not knowing when or how they will reach home. The memories of India’s first lockdown in March 2020 come rushing back as one views Panda’s artworks at Hyderabad’s Kalakriti Art Gallery’s ongoing exhibition titled Myth, Memory & Marvellous Realities.

With artists Amit Lodh, Balaji Ponna, Biplab Sarkar, Kiyomi Talaulicar, Laxmipriya Panigrahi, Muktinath Mondal and Vijay Kumar, Panda focuses on the fluidity of memory and how it morphs to create new narratives.

The memories of the first stage of the pandemic apart, artists draw from the unhurried lifestyles in their hometowns, kitschy and comic book colours of day-to-day life, nature in its pristine beauty and transform them into figurative and abstract artworks.