Art has the power to redeem. This was the tenor of the day as the Annual Art Exhibition 2022 opened on Thursday.
People from different walks of life thronged Punjab Kala Bhawan, Sector 16. The auditorium was chock-a-block as seven stars of the day walked up to the stage to receive the awards.
The award in the professional category went to Gurjeet Singh and Rahul Dhiman. The awards in the student category were given to Jashandeep Kaur, Neeraj, Piyush Gupta, Sakshi Sharma and Suyash Goyal. The award winning works were among the 81 paintings, sculptures, mix media and photographs that are on display at the Annual Art Exhibition 2022 at the gallery of Punjab Kala Bhawan. The Akademi received 351 artworks in both professional and student categories. The jury for this year had renowned names like Atul Bhalla and Veer Munshi.
The chief guest on the occasion was National Award-winning filmmaker Gurvinder Singh. Engaging the art students in his journey, he opened up on how it started with a painting in his school. Rather than born an artiste, art was somehow thrust on him and he made the most of different mediums – painting, literature and cinema before becoming a filmmaker.
“Rather than being opinionated about what is good art or bad art, one needs to be accepting to make the world a richer place,” said Singh. Diwan Manna, president PLKA, hailed the power of art, and resilience of artists to help pass through the tough times that one had to go through. Gurvinder Singh’s two films – Chauthi Koot and Adh Chanani Raat will be screened. There will also be a conversation between the filmmaker and film historian Ashish Rajadhyaksha at Dr MS Randhawa Auditorium at 5.30pm on September 22 and 23. — TNS
