Explaining the unexplained
In his book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer wonders if one’s personality is the difference between the world that lies inside and outside him. However, if he were ever to have a look at Ravi Songirkar’s latest exhibition, Just Plugged In, at Malaka Spice, he would be forced to think differently.
With a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, Ravi has been painting for the last 22 years while working as a creative consultant for numerous advertising agencies. However, he developed his association with art in childhood when he began sketching and painting with oil and watercolours. “It was only after I pursued the professional course at II that I learned the intricacies of art and developed my skills to a whole new level,” he says.
The artist has organised seven exhibitions so far, each of a different kind, depicting something new. “I have had exhibitions showcasing landscapes, cityscapes, and the like, where my motive was to try to capture the day-to-day state of affairs of a given place.”
Interestingly, his recent exhibition differs from his earlier ones, where he has used bright colours to depict complex human emotions and grey shades to portray negative thoughts and actions. One of his paintings illustrates a man’s side profile, with his tongue, which is more significant than its standard size, protruding out of his mouth, attempting to touch the coins that lie far from him. Ask him what it represents, and the artist replies, “This picture depicts the ever-increasing greed of the common man in today’s day and age to amass wealth.”
Ravi’s style being contemporary and expressive, strives to demolish the difference between the unreal and real. Ask him why he named his exhibition Just Plugged In, and he says, “It means to ideate, to think. I want people not just to observe my paintings but to interpret and find what each of my artworks (displayed here) tries to convey.” This exhibition comprises paintings, which are a culmination of the artist’s ideas and thoughts, one that transports you to a magical world and forces you to delve deeper into his creations to understand the unfathomable truth.
The artist’s pieces on display are on sale, and the paintings are mostly 15 x 20 inches in size. They range from Rs10,000 to Rs25,000 and are created using watercolour on paper.
He says about his future plans, “I wish to explore more of this genre (contemporary style) and paint large canvases depicting human beings and their various emotions and expressions. I also wish to hold exhibitions at an international platform too.”