Abstract art that showcases ecstasy emerging from fluid emotions

Rajkumari Sharma Tankha

Deveshi Goswami grew up watching her father, the noted artist Neeraj Goswami, paint. “She started pretty early. As a baby she loved to draw on the house walls and would sometimes crawl over my finished paintings, playing with rollers with paint on them,” says the proud father.
“I think that’s why he sent me away to study arts,” she laughs. “But jokes apart, after I finished my school (DPS Noida), dad sent me to Singapore so that I don’t get influenced by his work/style and develop my own individual style as an artist,” she says.
The daughter didn’t disappoint her father. For she did develop a unique style of her own. Her art, a form of self-expression above all, is motivated by her own life experiences. All her conscious decisions made in a particular moment get translated into an amalgamation of colours on the canvas, producing what you call an abstract piece of art. But it is not that it doesn’t carry a meaning. In fact, different viewers draw out different meanings from her art.

As the artist says, “My work pushes you to find meaning in the irregular shapes and lines that appear in front of you. None of these shapes or forms has one meaning to it. They’re like clouds. Always metamorphosing.”
Currently having her first solo show, Fluid Emotions: Distilled Ecstasy, at Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi. Deveshi is all elated. The show has around 60 works on display that she created from 2016 after she graduated from Singapore’s Lasalle College of the Arts, till now.
“I have done group shows in past in Singapore and Hong Kong. Then, during the pandemic, I was a part of a few online shows. The art scene, especially for the young artists, looked so bleak during the pandemic and exhibiting online was the only way to get your art out. But, this is my maiden solo show, and nothing compares to viewing a work physically,” she reasons.
Delhi is the place to be for showcasing art works, besides Singapore and Hong Kong for this artist. “Delhi is a great space for emerging young artists in Asia,” she says.
Talking about the show, she says, “Fluid emotions are like flowing emotions, which are experienced through worldly states. Even our own physical state has various emotions – some positive and others negative. I express those emotions that I feel in the ‘now’, I transcend and express them through my art and while doing so I feel immense joy, distilled form of joy – it is the purest form of joy which comes through the act of creation which is based on my emotional state.” Deeply immersed in art, there are times when she is so involved in her practice that she even forgets what day or month it is.

Fave medium
Though she likes working with oil paints, Goswami enjoys working with acrylics for the sole reason that these dry up fast and one can keep building to it.
“Acrylic doesn’t slow you down. Sometimes, I work with emulsion paint, which is an unconventional medium. Actually, I like to play with paints on my canvases and emulsion paint can be used in abundance without caring about its wastage. I like its consistency, and the way it flows over a canvas,” she says.

Fave genre
Abstract art is what she does the most. “But I also do sculptures and installations. I have made some in the past and will continue exploring more in that area. I really enjoy making them, I like their tactile impact,” she says.

Fave artist
Besides, her father she looks up to Indian artists Vasudeo S Gaitonde, Ganesh Pyne and Ram Kumar, and Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee among foreign ones. “Also, I really enjoy watching Performance Artists Marina Abromivich, Yoko Ono and Joseph Bueys. I love how they can make you feel so strong within! It’s transcendental, she remarks.

Other interests
Music and travelling. “I especially enjoy mountain treks. I love being with Nature. You’ll find me in the mountains away from the city life after this show gets over,” she signs off.

The show is on till October 09 at Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kla Sangam, New Delhi
after which it will move to Sanchit Art Gallery at DLF South Square Mall, New Delhi