Etched to save art

Printmaking camp by Meraki Art Gallery that is underway at Banyan Heart Studio at Kismathpur is a unique one, aimed at saving the dying technique Awani and Aditya Vikram Saraogi, brothers, who are running Meraki Art Gallery since 2002 are dedicated to promoting art. The special printmaking camp that the gallery is organising is being attended by senior artists, who share their concern for the fading technique.

“Printmaking is the technique of making artworks by printing meticulously on a paper. This was first started in India, but over time it became a rage outside India, and back home it is diminishing,” share Awani and Aditya. Ten artists drawn from Goa, Kolkata, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are participating in the week-long camp.

“People do not know the hard work the artist has to put in for printmaking. The art form is much more manual. The image has to be etched on a zinc sheet, and reworked for perfection before getting a print,” shares Aditya. “From the camp, we intend to sell customised boxes; on the top of the box there will be an art line drawing work of each artist, laser etched with the signature of the artist and his/her work in the box,” shared Awani.

Artist Surya Prakash relates his experience, “I am working on my series ‘Full of Life’, but this time I am printing my work. I transformed my work on plate and this takes a lot of time. I took five to six days to do one plate. But the result is worth the wait”
Chippa Sudhakar, who runs Banyan Heart Studio, is working on his Migration series.

Senior artist Laxma Goud who is renowned for etching, is also participating in this camp. His daughter Nandini Goud says, “I am working on my own subject, which is landscape. I am giving one sheet to make them into ten.”

Goa is well-known for printmaking, but not many other places in India, and artist Manguirish Rajadhyax says, “This needs team work and we need big space and costly equipments to work on printmaking, which people don’t want to afford. This economic sense can be attributed to the gradual decline of the magnificent art form.”

Sripad Gurav printed his work reflecting human relations. Veera Reddy’s work extols that physical similarity does not need to reflect same mental state of mind. Viraj Naik’s work is on Greek Mythology. Yet another impressive piece of work is of the rickshaw and rickshaw wala that shows what a man can do if he had four hands.

The work belongs to Kolkata-based Sumanto Choudhury. Earlier Meraki Art Gallery did an art exhibition at Park Hyatt themed ‘A Retrospective Carnival’ showcasing the complete series of works done by Surya Prakash. Going forward, by the end of July, they will be doing yet another exhibition of works by Sumanto Choudhury.

By:Askari Jaffer