Building Blocks on Canvas

His upcoming solo at Peter Nagy’s Nature Morte in Niti Baug is also titled Blue Print and we can see why. “It is very tempting to read a sociopolitical commentary into my work. While I’m not averse to that reading,it is not my sole intention to make a statement about the social impact of buildings. It is more of a personal journey,a kind of internal monologue,” says the 38-year-old artist. “These buildings represent the theatricality and staging of our everyday lives,” he says. The concept of staging in Pravat’s work is the embracing of the idea that we all live in a continual state of process.

Born in Kolkata,Pravat moved to Baroda to study painting. He has been living and working in Delhi since 2006. “I began this body of work in 2010,during a residency in Switzerland,sponsored by Pro Helvetia. I began with small drawings on paper and then moved to a larger scale once I returned to Delhi,” says Pravat,who has had shows at Bose Pacia in New York,and an exhibition in 2008 at Nature Morte,which was the turning point for him.

“Before that,I used to work as a photorealist,painting the interiors of middle class and upper class homes,” says Pravat,of his earlier canvases. In those works,the human presence was always implied and never literal,where the interiors stood in as metaphors for the kind of people that inhabited those homes. “In Blue Print ,I have moved to a more abstract level of flat lines and colours,” he concludes.

The show will continue till November 5. Contact: 41740215