Feb 05 2024 to Feb 18 2024 11 a.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Reves Art Gallery

#32, 4th floor ,8th Block Jayanagar, 100 feet ring road. 560041

Event Description

Bangalore photographer Vivek Mathew will be having his 8th solo exhibition, Gaze of Silence, at Reves Gallery.

His use of windows describes the dilapidation and evolution of the city. He describes this as the most organic work he has compiled in his 18 year career. 

‘There is always magic in the tragic,’ says Vivek Mathew as he sits ensconced in thought, some trepidation, and a pile of wisdom at his beloved Coffee House. He has seen the old-school Bengaluru establishment remain a totem pole for what-was when the what-is and what-will-be grow around and beyond it. That’s why there is a poignancy to his use of windows in describing the state of dilapidation and evolution. He reckons his latest piece of work - ‘Gaze of Silence’ - is one of the most organic he has compiled during his illustrious career. 

But it isn’t just Coffee House he uses as inspiration. It’s rained-on bus stops, other cafes and restaurants, churches, sunroofs, congealing mirrors, commandeering reds and bland blues, stark reds, and magnetic oranges, but all with just enough of a blur to make it all seem more painting and less picture. 

Then again, having viewed the world through the lens of a curious child since he was one, Vivek has rarely, if ever, shied away from showcasing what he wants. He has rarely relied on alternative voices to make sense of the world around him. Instead, he used his camaraderie with the lens to attenuate the effects of progress.  

In fact, Vivek becomes the medium through which one can touch a dimension that was once thought to be lost.  It’s a theme that remains true to his identity in the seven other exhibitions he has done thus far, but this, by his admission, conveys all his decades as a photographer, an artist, a chronicler of time and a window into what we often ignore, best. As his friend says: ‘… life isn’t interested in posing for portraits’, and that’s why Vivek’s work, as some call it ‘poetry in the prosaic’, is a quintessential take on the times we live in. 

Vivek’s current work isn’t too dissimilar to the work by the late, great Saul Leiter because the Americans inspired his work. Only, this is the Bengalurean school of photography, not just a version emanating out of New York. 

ON THE ARTIST: From holding aloft pencil boxes in school as a camera to actually owning one at the age of 11, Vivek Mathew knew that photography was his only outlet from the time he started dabbling in the art form.  Having completed his education at Asia’s top-notch institution - The Light and Life Academy, Ooty - Vivek has gone on to bring life into Fine Art, Architecture, Travel,  Nature, People, Industrial and Interiors, through his photography.  He has been featured in several prestigious publications for the last decade, but his vim and vigour remain as unwavering as they have all these years. This explains the desire and the simplicity he showcases in his eighth exhibition - The Gaze of Silence’.