Colour Kinetics on show at Shridharani

If you love abstract art, visit Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, Tansen Marg, New Delhi any day between Jan 5 and 14, and I promise, you won’t be disappointed. On display are the works of noted artist Manoj Kachangal.
Aptly named Colour Kinetics, the show exhibits a series of abstract landscapes, in bright colours which is Kachangal’s signature style. These works show his sensitivity towards colour and line. He focuses on the depiction of light within his work, as he plays with planar references of colour and dramatic compositional arrangements. Some of his canvasses are grounded in shades of rich velvety black, tinted with shades of scarlet and moss green and burnt umber while others are bold strokes of scarlet, saffron, ochre and mud brown.
An alumni of the Institute of Fine Arts, Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Manoj Kachangal is adept in colour aesthetics, hidden energies and Indian Mythology. He is very particular about shapes, forms and their energies in his art. And in the last two decades, he has specialized in tangled brushstrokes and limpid landscapes. Dense thickets of lines obscure distinctly divisional backgrounds entangling the human eye in webs of wandering tendrils that invite full contemplation of what lies beyond.

Through his works Kachangal explores broad themes of chaos, catharsis and rebirth. His works seems to challenge the unseen boundaries that exist between abstract art and landscape paintings. Most of his works are an interplay of light and shade, albeit in colours.
“I have always maintained that you don’t consciously follow a certain style or genre. I feel it’s not me who does a painting: I start applying paint, and then at some point the painting takes over. It starts demanding its own colours, lines, shapes. It is as if someone else’s will is at work. So I don’t really know whether it’s me who does the painting or they come into being on their own,” says Kachangal.