By V.N. Balakrishna, IANS
Ahmedabad, Dec. 15, 2008
Akash Choyal, who has made a name for himself for 3D illusion art and fibre glass sculptures, revisits memories of his childhood for inspiration. He claims to be the first Indian artist to have used triographics in contemporary art.
“Triographics are art works in 3D illusion paintings that can be viewed without any special spectacles,” he says.
“Everyone is unique and so too are his feelings. And when I do my work I bring out my feelings, specially the feelings of my childhood,” Choyal, 34, who has just concluded a three-day exhibition, “My Arena” here, told IANS in an interview.
His sculptures in fibre glass, fibre glass murals superimposed with acrylic black and white drawings and video installations demonstrate his range as an artist.
Choyal earned his bachelor of fine arts degree in painting from Vadodara’s famous MS University’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 1997 followed by his post graduation from the Delhi College of Arts in 1999.
Choyal’s art pieces have been exhibited at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, and at the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.
Born to a renowned family of artists from Udaipur, Akash Choyal has carved a niche for himself in the country’s art scene. His father Shail Choyal, mother Surjeet Kaur and grandfather P.N. Choyal are reputed senior dons of art. His father and grandfather were students of Slade College of Art in London.
Did his father play a major role in bringing out the artistic genius in him? “Art is an exhibition of one’s own unique feeling,” he says, but his father has provided him all the technical support he needed for his art.
“I have been doing everything on my own. Whatever I do is from my own imagination,” Choyal says.
Explaining the motivation behind his art, he says: “There is confusion between religion, art and culture” referring to the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan by the Taliban .
“I am only interested in sculpting and painting as I understand life,” he adds.
At his exhibition “My Arena” last week, there were 26 fibre glass art works along with two astonishing 3D illusion paintings where images of snakes, fish, aeroplanes, boats, elephants, autos, cars, ladder, man and human hands are dexterously executed.
“It was a sheer delight to watch the exquisite paintings in an unusual medium like fibre glass and see sensitive, intuitive and imaginative works of art,” said Bhaskar Dave, an art lover and a well-known builder based here.
The artist started with three-dimensional art before moving to sculpture. “Three-D is my base and I get all these ideas from there. I later forayed into triographics,” Akash Choyal says.
He will next have a show in Vadodara from Dec 17 to 24.
“My exhibition is a travelling show. I had begun in Udaipur and then went on to Delhi. From there I went to Jaipur and then to Ahmedabad. I hope when my exhibition begins in Vadodara on Dec 17, I would have given something to the city that was once my alma mater,” Choyal says.
After the exhibition ends, Choyal will be back to where he belongs, his native Udaipur.
V.N. BALAKRISHNA 