May 29 2022 to Jun 30 2022 11 a.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Vasantha Art Gallery

Grand Mercure Bengaluru, Gopalan Mall, Opposite RMZ Infinity Techpark, Swamy Vivekananda Road (Old Madras Road), Bengaluru 560036

Event Description

To experience is to journey, to journey is to experience. Like water, it is always in a perpetual motion. It journeys from high mountains and flow through serene caves, towards forest of thick vegetation or barren lands, of dynamic waterfalls, or ragging flood, to calm and clear streams to large river and into the lapping waves of the great ocean around this world.

A long and great cycle.

It is in a similar way that one will have to journey, explore, experience and be in motion to gain great knowledge as well as great experience. A perpetual cycle.  – BodhiSelvam

Presenting a curated selection of works by artists Bodhi Selvam and A Mathew Raj with a central theme of Kalpa - a duration of time covering a complete cosmic cycle from the creation to the dissolution of a world system.

About Bodhi Selvam

“Zen is not something that can be understood at the surface level; it’s something that needs to be experienced and that has become a part of me.’’ – Bodhi Selvam

The 52-year-old artist, with shrubby beard glistening in black and eyes radiating undying dreams, speaks in a voice that has echoes of Zen sages. He says, “I have been greatly influenced to a great extent by Zen ideology and I have incorporated it into my life. It has greatly guided my work and is largely visible in my style of work.’’

While there are several schools of thought in painting such as expressionism, impressionism, post-modernism etc., he has belonged to none of them; rather he has plumbed for the esoteric and awesome Zen school of spiritualism; a seemingly unlikely plain for painting. Maybe, from the very beginning, he has been a spiritualist and later, chose palette to give expression to his thoughts mellowed in meditations. He says, “Zen is not something that can be understood at the surface level; it’s something that needs to be experienced and that has become a part of me.’’

His childhood spent among the still winds, swaying leaves and blossoms, meditating mountain ranges and whirring and chirping birds in his native village, Vadapathi, (near Mamandur Kanchipuram.) has had a great impact on his art. He admits that he has been bringing his lonely teen life teeming with thoughts to bear on his paintings that have a melancholy streak. The existential ‘being and nothingness’ amply suffused all through his works stand a testimony to his inner personality that keeps the commercially conscious.

“Way back in 1994, I attained clarity through deep meditation and from then on, it has helped me gain greater clarity and inner happiness. For the past three decades, I have been following the path of Zen and it’s that guiding force that is reflective in all my endeavours. My life is filled with art and meditation’’, he says. Bodhi Selvam has constantly been working on various series that have a strong underlying tone of Buddha and Zen throughout. A painter with no formal education, Bodhi Selvam calls ‘Sambodhi’ the fruit of his most recent journey into the Zen way of life. There were times when I went on journey to find answers to the mysterious philosophical questions. He had been searching for answers to certain troubling questions about life and universe. He got an answer from the inspiring Nature. The name of the answer is Zen Buddha painting.

Bodhi Selvam has constantly been working on various series that have a strong underlying tone of Buddha and Zen throughout. For the artist Buddha and Lao Tzu have been a strong influence. In several ways their sutras have guided his journey of exploration and self-realization. It’s the sutras of the Buddha and Lao Tzu that are reflective in his work and have in all ways channelled his thought process.

The artist finds it difficult to express in words his thoughts and its only through his artwork that he communicates his deep thought process and inner self. All these art forms are an outcome of his calmness and his deep sense of inner peace. In fact, most of these are done during the night.

Being an artist is just one of form of expression. He is a mentor to many and a keen listener. His quest for knowledge also makes him an unassuming explorer who travels several places within India.

He regularly conducts meditation camps and engages in motivational classes for young and old. He has a unique camp and several activities that condition the mind and helps to restore the balance that we tend to lose in this constantly changing world. The unique feature about his sessions is the strong emphasis on silence and the process of self-exploration. He offers specialized workshops for several industrialists and many from the corporate world to overcome the stress.

To many he is fondly called the “Master” …

About A Mathew Raj

A Mathew Raj is an artist and a print maker from Gokarna, western Karnataka. He is a Bachelor of Fine Arts Print Making (Graphic Arts) 1999 - 2003 from Government College of Fine Arts Chennai. The beautiful coastal town at Arabian Sea amidst Western Ghats, with river Gangavali to the north, and Aganasani river in the south is where the artist has found his expression. He is currently working on a collection called ‘Life’ which has two elements - Lines and Dots.

Dots by itself is a primitive beginner for any form of Art. The artist uses pendulum with hole to produce millions of dots, in the artist’s words the “Painting Paint the Painting, I as an artist guide the dots, the colours to create the painting”.  This collection is completely made with lines, and each line consumes one full breath. One inhaling and one exhaling, in a way the whole artwork becomes meditative. The preferable medium for this collection is Pen and Pencil. Forming circular lines circles or mandalas on the thought of intervals of life I use a wide variety of medium Acrylics, Charcoals and Pencils.

He has participated in group and solo shows including “Pathivugal”, 2009 and “Fishes and Arches” Group Show, Watercolour painting exhibition in 2016 and “Indian Landscapes” held at Greenwich, London, United Kingdom which was organized by Miss Nicola White from Tideline Art. The artist also conducts workshops on innovation and meditative art, “everyone deserves to be an Artist".  Mathew conducts meditative art sessions to kindle the inner artistic spirit and assist them to remove their obstacles towards art, to Rebuild themselves as an Artist. This freedom helps ordinary people to start with the same spirit to create an artwork as how the Great Masters did.

The exhibition is curated by ArtenBlu, bringing artworks of extremely talented artists to the art patrons. The show is on May 13th, 2022 from 4 PM onwards at Vasantha Art Gallery (VAG) at the Grand Mercure Bengaluru Hotel, Gopalan Signature Mall. The artworks will be on display till 30th of June 2022.

Price range: INR 25,000 to INR 200,000

Venue: Vasantha Art Gallery (VAG), Grand Mercure Bengaluru at Gopalan Mall, Opposite RMZ Infinity Techpark, Swamy Vivekananda Road, Bengaluru – 93

Event Date: Upto  June 30th, 2022

Time: 11 AM – 7 PM

For info contact: Sadhna – ArtenBlu –