Priya Pariyani's Twentyfirst Solo Show truly an Exercise in 'Elation'

Priya Anand Pariyani’s calendar of art activity has continued to tick with an amazing regularity. From group shows with Gujarat Visual Women Artists Association and other organizers within Gujarat and Ahmedabad to group show organisers outside of Gujarat to her own impressive line up of solo shows, she has done it all to fulfill and fructify a long career and bolster a reputation and goodwill as an artist, getting several accolades from the arts fraternity in between.

Her regularity on the scene can be vouched by the sheer number of solo shows and the number of years that she has been displaying her work which has to be in the vicinity of the silver jubilee figure of twenty-five years since her first solo show was held in 1998! So the silver jubilee year has been ushered in.

From a very interesting lineup of the names of her recent shows viz Ecstatic in 2016, Ehsaas in 2017 to her show of Tribal Forms and her very brilliant installation about Knowledge & Books at a Litfest in 2019 at GU campus, to Elation, her latest and auspiciously numbered Twenty-first solo show that opened at the Ravishankar Rawal Kala Bhawan (RRKB)on Monday, Priya has obviously come a long way in her journey of expression through paint, brush and canvas; occasionally with a camera also.

Priya also did a successful show with larger works titled ‘It’s Me’ in March 2020 just before the Pandemic Lockdown closed all activity across the board.

Mentored by veteran painter Ramesh Halari – who also recently held a show of his own works on the Mahatma, and who was present at the inaugural – in her early formative years, Priya works from a shared studio in the old city when required and is known to be a prolific painter of stylized feminine forms, birds and flowers as her consistent passion and preference.

These forms are well known as her signature style depicting individuality and independence of women at the foremost level – something that she lives by example in real life; motherhood, man-woman relationships in dignity and self esteem. There also is the grand aura of nature, flora-fauna and birds in a lot of variety and variations from one show to another, their expressive range thus never seems to exhaust.

Her current show Elation meaning an expression and state of infectious joy and happiness strikes a beautiful titular chord with her recent earlier shows named Ecstatic and Ehsaas. This show has been sponsored by the Gujarat Lalit Kala Academy under the scheme and was thus hosted and opened at Somabhai Shah Art Gallery at the RR Kala Bhawan by Artist and academic Manhar Kapadia, eminent Architect Hiren Patel, art enthusiast Shujat Mirza and others.

About forty plus of Priya’s works on display as part of Elation are beautiful renditions of elegant women in various moods and manifestations. Juxtaposed with equally beautiful flowers of various colours to enhance the delicate elegance of the subjects, or in a few instances with birds that cajole the prime subjects, Priya uses for these creations a dominant white colour with soft and pleasing hues of pink, orange, red and blue which lends a calm and cool effect while spring tends to blossom all around in the nature.

Priya’s other works are on and about floral studies also created in white. Explaining the characteristics of the white colour, she avers that “white is a colour of protection and encouragement, which also offers a sense of peace and clam, comfort and hope.”

You surely tend to agree as you go through this segment of floral works so nicely worked upon and as nicely and evocatively arranged in clusters of five and sixes with real flowers also offered on pedestals kept in front of these works.

A nice show to watch that creates a peaceful calm and soothing aura on the beholder, this one is available only till Wednesday March 09.