Digital art exhibition begins

Fine artists of `Art Underground’ said in a press conference on Thursday that the aim of holding the exhibition here was to make the art form — which they claimed would be the folk form of the next millenium — more popular among children in particular and art-lovers in general of the city.

Providing information, Amit Gandhi, a fine artist and teacher at the gallery said that since its inception, more than 300 students had so far created more than 3000 digital paintings, whose exhibitions were held at 13 places in the country.

Keta Patel, a 12-year-old student of the first digital art gallery in the country was conferred the Balshree Award by the President of India for 1998. Keta, who had in January exhibited her digital paintings in a solo exhibition `The Colours of Freedom’ in Vadodara, will hold a live exhibition of digital paintings for those curious about digital art on Saturday and Sunday as part of the exhibition, Ramesh Patel, another teacher at the gallery said.

“An art studio of digital paintings here in Surat is our final aim and we are looking forward to those who can help us out in popularising this art,” Gandhi said during the conference.

Ketan Patel, Keta’s father, who was present said that while the use of computers had become essential, he was surprised at the the way in which his daughter had managed to pick up the finer aspects of digital painting in such a short time. Selected paintings created at the studio will be on display.

Providing details on the art form, the organisers said that while children had a computer, printer and a mouse to operate with, the creativity part depended on the children, who had 16.7 million colours at their disposal. While exhibitions of digital paintings have already been held at Vadodara, Bangalore, Madras, Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta in the past, the gallery is planning to hold three more exhibitions during the summer in different cities.