Uday Raj’s exhibition at the Alliance Francaise resembles an art space straight out of Paris or Venice. Such is the contemporary prowess and maturity of the work. It’s hard to believe that Uday is such a multi-faceted and versatile artist. He has experimented in print making, photography, conceptual art and performing arts apart from conventional paintings. Uday Raj grew up in Kolar Gold Fields, and as a child, his mother saw the artist in him when he played around with clay at home.
After high school, his teachers persuaded him to pursue a career in art, rather than science. Armed with a Bachelor’s degree in visual art from the Ken School of Art, and later a masters in printmaking from Shantiniketan in 2014.
Uday’s passion for art covers diverse facets — realistic drawing and painting, printmaking, photography, installation, performing arts and conceptual art, besides being involved in art- related social and environmental projects.
Man Made ‘made or caused by human beings as opposed to occurring or being made naturally,’ is Uday’s pertinent showing. The artist is surprised by the fact that Man through the ages has been innovative and inventive in expressing creativity to produce objects of everyday use, yet the motive has always been selfish — Man only creates objects that benefit him and is subsumed by the very objects that surround him. This is the theme that runs through, highlighting Uday’s prowess at printmaking, picked up at Shantiniketan. His works do have a lot of similarity to well known artist Manjunath Kamath, yet are unique in their own way. His art wallpaper installation of 80 large prints lino cut/rubber cut are juxtaposed with meaningful spaces, 3D objects and sculptures thrown in for relief.
The work is interesting not only because of its intricacy and it’s contemporary richness, but the way all figures are amalgamated to form an exquisite narrative which fits in correctly with today’s mundane life. The aeroplanes, laptops, cycles are very symbolic to the culture today.
Uday explains, “I graduated from Ken School and my stint at Shantiniketan helped me a lot. In my work, especially the wallpapers, I have juxtaposed various things created by man for our own comfort, but unfortunately they are taking over us and our creative senses are dwindling”. Uday’s art show is a breath of fresh with prints and other mediums, delivering a good dose of contemporary aesthetics for art lovers.
The Art show is on at Alliance Francaise till November 29.
— The writer is an art curator and art expert.
