"I wanted to extend the ongoing Kala Ghoda Festival, beyond the Kala Ghoda area," Praveena, the owner of the Jamaat Art Gallery, where works of Ankit Patel and Suryakant Lokhande are on exhibition. The exhibition titled Beyond Kala Ghoda will be on till March 1, 2001.

This show is an extension of the Kala Ghoda festival. In order to add to the art festivities in the city, Jamaat presents a show of paintings and sculptures in metal. They chose metal as the theme, taking cue from the mettle and the metal of the Black Horse, more famous as the Kala Ghoda. The metal statue of the Black Horse, which once used to be the beauty of the area has been knocked off.

The works of Ankit and Suryakant form an appropriate theme for the Kala Ghoda festial. Ankit, a sculptor based in Jaipur, needs no introduction to Mumbai. Since 1982, Ankit's work has been regularly exhibited in Mumbai. Ankit is completely facile in different materials, but the larger body of his works are done in bronze. He is presently doing a few series of metallic sculptures, namely 'Couples', and 'Animals'.

Suryakant is a promising young artist from Mumbai. He generally uses unusual metal surfaces for his paintings and automobile paints of high quality. A Graduate of Fine Arts from the Sir J J Institute of Applied Arts, Suryakant, at the age of 31, has gained a name for himself in the art scenario. "Through my paintings, I aim to get close to familiar objects and project them in different situations to guide them away from their established images and to allow them to be recognised with new meanings. The technique of using automobile paints on metal canvas was solely self-developed. I generally depict the materiatistic world in my paintings. I prefer to use bright and shiny colours, like metallic grey and shiny golden. By showing not just one image but several images in my paintings, I attempt to create an effect of 'association' among the visual images which a single picture cound not achieve. In this series on Beyond Kala Ghoda, I have presented Bombay in Metal - streets, concrete structures, etc, " says the artist.

The exhibition reveals the bold and gripping style of both artists.

Address:
Jamaat Art Galllery,
National House, Tulloch Road,
Apollo Bunder, Mumbai - 400 039.
Phone: 202 0028, 285 2950
Fax: 202 0028
Email: p_jamaat@hotmail.com

Gallery Hours: 11 am to 7 pm (Sunday Holiday)