T V Venkatesh to exhibit work on war and degradation

Mumbai, Jan 8 (UNI) City-based artist T V Venkatesh, a product of Shantiniketan and part of the Vanguard artists that emerged in the late 90s' seems to have a pessimistic view of life and the world.

The soft-spoken artist's works have often depicted war, terror, abuse of knowledge and power by man. His upcoming exhibition to be held at Nature Morte, Delhi from January 24- February 16 titled ''Countdown'' seems to follow that line of thought with degradation of our planet and society due to ecological disasters, price of technological advancement and the ceaseless warfare being the underlying theme.

''Social progress is always accompanied by economic and technological advancement, but that comes with a price. We can see the price with the depletion of ozone layer, deforestation and global warming,'' said the artist.

In his works on warfare and terrorism to be exhibited, Venkatesh wants to highlight the surrealism of real acts of violence and those seen in movies- how impact of the movies seem to be happening in real life and visa-versa.

''I also wanted to portray the paradox that war is, and raise questions like 'who's the real enemy?' And both the state and terrorists seem to employ the same methods,'' he stated.

His Countdown exhibition will have a collection of oil on canvas and sculptures and a preview will be held at Bombay from January 9-11 at ''The Guild'' before moving to Delhi.

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