Monkeys of the blue god - Amit Ambalal Show

Happiness is undeniable!! Any viewer in front of Amit Ambalal‘s work responds with a sense of happiness and sheer, sensual pleasure. Maybe it has to do with the wittiness of the characters he chooses to paint.

At his recent exhibition “Monkeys of blue god” he is exhibiting his recent paintings. Large size canvases marvels the viewers and dominates the gallery walls; these artworks thrives on heightening contrast and rigorous brushworks. Notorious monkeys, pink flowers, captured in the moment of lazing and madness.

“I belong to this earth. I walk on this earth. I eat on this earth, and I don’t think of anything but this earth. Things here are my kind of library; I’m not interested in anything else. As such, I don’t create dream paintings. Whatever I have experienced in this world I paint. Other things are not important to me.”

I was recalling these lines of N.S Bendre while viewing life-size canvases in crowded gallery and wondering how ironically it appears true for Ambalal as well. Ambalal, creates paintings out of his surrounding, on his personal experiences and things around him. He personifies characters of everyday life, devises a visual language that is rich in unusual details, unexpected scale and emotions, blended with humour and irony.

Exhibiting 14 life size canvases rich with colours, his colours “speak” without an obtrusive emphasis on their physical properties. What makes his works exciting to the viewer and critic is that despite addressing technical problems rigorously, his paintings are from sterile exercises: they exude an emotion and sensuality that is powerfully alluring.

Ambalal, took up painting at the age of 36, giving up his family business – in 1979.  He was home schooled by the artist Chaganlal Jhadav and his mother, a sculptor, provided him discipline and understanding of art at very young age.

The works from this very exhibition will be travelling to London later on by the end of the may, exhibition which is themed on contemporaries of Bhupen Khakkar by Grosvenor Gallery.

These works are being displayed at “The Gallery” at Amdavad ni Gufa. I congratulate Anil Relia to exhibit these works even only for two days amidst the rush of sending these to London.

Exhibition was opened on 25^th of april. It was witnessed by connoisseurs and fraternity and saw presence of Varun Maira, Bimal Patel, Sanjay Lalbhai, Vivek Desai and several others. Exhibition will be on till today, and timings of the exhibition are 4 to 8 pm.

Photographs: Ravi Panchal