Surendra Patel's Not-For-Profit Exhibition Explores How 'Beauty' Is More Than Skin Deep

Surendra Patel, owner and designer of Vishalla restaurant, brings out a charitable solo exhibition of abstract art at Amdavad Ni Gufa, exploring the qualities of inner beauty. 

According to the Oxford Dictionary, ‘beauty’ is “a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.” These words aptly capture the discretion with which we all perceive beauty in our lives. And seeming to portray these words in visual form is interior designer, artist and civil engineer Surendra Patel, who speaks volumes about inner beauty through his amorphous artworks at the Herwitz Art Gallery of Amdavad Ni Gufa.

Inaugurated in the evening hours of March 13, the show welcomes its viewers with a poem written by author Amar Gargesh. The poem explains, in an uncomplicated way, Patel’s profound reasons behind making such abstract amoeba shapes on black canvases. Titled Truth-Inside Out, the poem could well serve as an apt title for the exhibition as well. Surendra Patel, the spiritual artist behind these works, added, “We love the skin – the physical aspect of the body – and consider it to be beautiful. And if we remove the outer layer of the skin, it is nothing but flesh, blood, urine and everything else that we consider an unpleasant sight. In my exhibition, amorphous forms are juxtaposed against black backgrounds, portraying the skin of the human body. They speak about how the inside of a person defines his/her beauty, instead of the outer skin. Nature, emotions, feelings and thoughts are the things that make or break a body!”

Patel is also making two live portraits over the course of the exhibition, one of which he promises to conclude before the show’s end on March 18. The sales for the show have been fantastically arranged. If you love a painting and would like to own it, you can make a donation at the Blind People’s Association. On showing your donation receipt at the gallery, you can then collect your art piece. Over the past 15 years, the artist has executed six such charitable art shows.

An inspiring personality in the city, Surendra Patel is the founder as well as designer of the iconic Vishalla Restaurant in Ahmedabad. He has also bestowed the city with a museum of utensils, known as VECHAAR (Vishalla Environmental Centre for Heritage of Art, Architecture and Research) and is preparing for his upcoming chair museum at Vishalla.

Drop by Amdavad ni Gufa by March 18, between 4PM to 8PM, to witness Patel’s imaginative art.