Telangana artist, sculptor Shivarama Chary succumbs to Covid

Telangana has lost a promising young artist, sculpture, Shivarama Chary to Covid 19. Shivarama Chary was first admitted to Apollo Hospital on July 8 and he complained of neck pain. He was tested for Covid and in two days he was declared positive. While he was still undergoing treatment, he suffered a cardiac arrest and was put on a ventilator. On July 18, the doctors informed the family that he had another event of cardiac arrest and stopped responding.

The extremely passionate artist was always enthusiastic and dreamed big, say his friends. Even while he suffered a major setback, healthwise, a few years ago, he did not let that affect him, and had come back with a vengeance, and began to show amazing finesse, and transformation, experimenting, and challenging himself with each of his shows.

He was born in 1979 at Telkapally, and completed his BFA from Pottisriramulu Telugu University and MFA from SN School of Art, University of Hyderabad. Coming from a family of sculptors, he had learned traditional art of sculpture from his father Jagadeeshwara Chary.

Over the years his work though rooted in tradition began to lean towards contemporary, and he began to dabble in a variety of mediums like steel, scrap, even though metal remained his chief medium. His vibrant sculptures, mainly figurative, fluid in their quality, were mostly inspired by Indian philosophy, nature, especially his couple sculptures. His zest for life, hope, expression of freedom within the confines of life, were all there to experience in his creations, whether they were small or large. He had explained on his blog, "My painted sculptures are inspired by various sources such as Bologna's classical art or the Lord Krishna in Indian mythology, whereas the couple comes from the concept of Prakruti and Purusha in Indian philosophy. Through multifarious assemblages of contexts and concepts, my quest is to re-find the form in its most unique manifestation."

In addition to a number of solo and group shows, his works made their way into many private collections and he was commissioned by many prestigious organisations.

Recently he contributed his work to raise funds for Coronavirus pandemic related charity work for an online auction 'Art in Isolation' organised by Kalakriti Art Gallery.

The loss of this young and promising artist is irreplaceable, moans the Telangana art fraternity.