Jalandhar, August 10

To promote budding artists in the state, the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi had organised an exhibition to showcase exquisite paintings and handcrafts during its Annual Art Exhibition 2018 at the Satya Paul Art Gallery located in Virsa -Vihar.Students as well as the professional artists belonging to the art community displayed various art forms in the gallery. Visual and plastic arts such as painting, sculpture, drawing, print making, photography, multi-media, installation and mix-media arts enticed the audience.A young artist from Amritsar Gurneet Kaur who is in her early 20’s displayed a painting on a carrom board. She said she depicted the beautiful relationship between a mother and a daughter through her art,”Similarly, Gurjeet Singh from Amritsar depicted an award winning handicraft that he titled as ‘Lady with Pink Lips’. He said this sculpture was based on traditional art forms like stones, bronze and other heavy materials. Through contemporary techniques, he had made the sculptures into a confident, independent woman and a soft hearted mother who was looking forward to her married daughter’s arrival.Another award-winning craft exhibited was a landscape by Manjot Kaur. She named it as “Growing smaller” in which she had pasted all memories and tickets of various places and museums she had visited throughout her life. They were carved out in the form of a landscape.Meanwhile, akademi president Diwan Manna said although young artists were taking interest in art and sculpture, due to lack of sufficient number of institutions to produce more talented artists with intellectual skills, the essence of art and craft was diminishing.He said the state didn’t even have the required number of art galleries to provide a platform to artists showcase their talent. Hence, through this exhibition and cash prizes for the artists, we tried to encourage artists to think and work freely.”