Inside the Road

‘Inside the Road’ an exhibition of monotype prints, prints on textiles and acrylic paintings is on show at the Kanoria Centre for Arts till the 14^th of February. The exhibition is a show of the works of Meghan Shah an artist and teacher from New Haven, Connecticut. She has a degree in Studio Art in Printmaking from the Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Connecticut.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Ahmedabad’s well-loved artist Amit Ambalal on the 12^th of April. The artist had also done a demonstration explaining the process behind her water based monotypes on the 11^th of April.

During the inauguration, the artist could be seen interacting with the visitors and her fellow artists and explaining her work as well as her inspirations and techniques. One could see that the artist was passionate about her work.

The demonstration was an interesting experience for the artist. There was a lot of interest in her work and process and a lot of interesting questions were asked. Monotypes are one of a kind prints, each one is unique, which is expressed by the name as well.

The works in the exhibition were composed during a one-month residency she did at the Chhaap Foundation in Baroda. She used Akua ink for the prints, this kind of water based ink made in the United States and its transparent layers give her room to experiment. Being at Chhaap was an interesting experience for the artist as she got the opportunity to work in the country of her origin and interact with students and artists from here.

She is a spontaneous artist and does not plan out her work. It is the process that is involved in making monotypes that attracts her to this particular medium. During her residency at Chhaap she also started working with acrylics to create paintings which mimicked her paintings.

Her work is process based and as she was working on it the underlying theme of the road emerged.

As the artists tell us her upbringing as an Indian American has been a major source of inspiration for her. This has influenced her work in a big way and these influences can also be seen in her current exhibition. The exhibition has been inspired by her visits to India over the years and the way she has seen it change.

Since she has been able to visit the country every couple of years to visit her family, she has many memories and she infuses this into her artwork.  She has also been able to observe the changes that take place on each of her visits. She can see the tremendous jump in the growth of the country.

This has been most drastic in the roads and traffic in the recent past. In fact when she was creating her prints it was the roads and semi- organised chaos which was often in her mind and had a major influence on her work.

The road could also represent a series of fortunate circumstances which brought her back to India and the residency and exhibition. These paths and roads and her thoughts about them have been visually represented here in this exhibition of these bewitching prints and paintings

She uses a lovely colour palette with unpretentious shades and compositions. These are pleasing to the eye and also makes one ruminate. Around 20 of her prints and paintings are on display. The exhibition is open for everyone and the exhibits are also available for sale to collectors.

Photographs: Shailja Parashar