A master often guides a student. But, when the master lets the student develop his identity, unique styles emerge. This can be witnessed in the canvases on display at the Individual Palettes. The works show how artists have found their styles, and how the masters have let the students play with their creativity. Solo art exhibition ‘Marked Terrain’ was recently showcased by Satish Sharma at Triveni and Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam.
Painting, for Satish Sharma, is a visual feast one that evokes emotions and establishes connections. The act of seeing is very important to him. He agrees with Johan Lubbock when he says that art trains the mind through the eye and the eye through the mind. Born in Garhwali, Uttarakhand, artist Sharma left his engineering degree as he was passionate about painting with strokes on canvas. He obtained a Diploma in Art and Craft from Bharti Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi.
Art has become his life and he pursued the same throughout his life and still doing the same. After exhibiting almost 50 group exhibitions, and 4 solo exhibitions, artist Satish Sharma showcased his 5th solo exhibition “Marked Terrain”. Satish Sharma says, “The simple, ordinary, mundane, almost neglected surfaces around my environment appeal to one’s soul. The withered walls, cracks on walls, the barks of trees, the texture of earth and stones, the pattern of leaves, animal skin, the shapes of clouds, and other natural elements fascinate me.” His painting process oscillates between action painting and ritualistic tribal or aboriginal art. When he makes marks on surfaces, he almost evokes a process that was endemic to the primal caveman of the stone-age who used to evoke a higher spirit through this process.
In a one-shot conversation, he added, “Though my art is retinal, visuals don’t exist in isolation. There is a back story of every visual which has a social or political context, being part of a society cannot be avoided by me or any artist for that matter”. Art is a purely visual expression channeling reaction to the existing socio-political systems and scenarios. It is a way of dealing and coping with it and while not claimed to offer any kind of solution, it helps in function.