These blue 'fabrics' aren't woven, they're painted by former textile designer Hansika Sharma

25-year-old self-taught artist Hansika Sharma exhibits her abstract minimalistic paintings, all in shades of blue, at her third solo exhibition ‘A Cacophony’. Drop by at the Gufa until July 29.

Visitors familiar with the pristine white gallery space next to Amdavad Ni Gufa will be surprised to see it absolutely transformed by tones of blue this week. 25-year-old self-taught artist Hansika Sharma has displayed 33 of her artworks, all painted in three tones of blue –  Prussian, cobalt and ultramarine. Hansika sees these works as ‘self-portraits’, as expressions of herself, saying,

“The colour of my soul is blue. I even hear my chatterbox mind speaking in multiple shades of blues. So at my solo exhibition, A Cacophony, everything that you witness has multiple tones of a single colour.”

Trained as a textile designer, Hansika left her corporate job as a visual merchandiser in Bangalore to become an artist in her hometown of Ahmedabad. Her background as a textile designer is evident in her works – thin weaves of thread seem to come together in patterns, forming what appear to be blue pieces of fabric. Tiny white dots and lines are laid out both symmetrically and non-symmetrically, in a “complex language of patterns”, onto the densely layered blue tones painted onto canvas or handmade paper.

The young artist’s third solo exhibition opened on July 24, without a formal inaugural ceremony. Hansika’s surreal ‘self-portraits’ are priced between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 30,000. She took around four months to prepare these 33 works using acrylic and oil colours. Hansika has also made a few striking works using only pen on paper.

Hansika, who is a graduate of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, takes her inspiration from American abstract expressionist Agnes Martin, who created similar patterns in the mid 20th century. People define Martin’s work as being an “essay in discretion on in-wardness and silence”, and Hansika’s minimalist approach certainly draws a lot from this sense of aesthetics.

Hansika’s paintings frequently depict tranquility and ease, even though the show’s name ‘A Cacophony’ contradicts this feeling. Made without using a ruler, the shapes, lines and dots are hand-drawn with a lot of confidence, seeming to express the artist’s own balanced perspective and clarity of thought towards her subject.

Hansika’s previous exhibition held at Satya Art Gallery, in March of this year, witnessed a few sales and was also visited by Padma Shri Manu Parekh. Her third solo show will remain open for all until July 29 at the Herwitz Art Gallery next to Amdavad Ni Gufa, every day from 04:00 PM to 08:00 PM.