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This collection takes an inward journey into a mindscape of emotions and thoughts.
It explores the consequences of social, economic and political happenings on the urban individual.
Nikhileswar’s paintings are physical manifestations of those innermost moments of an ordinary individual.
Artists are known to make contemplative journeys in their artistic process.
Nikhileswar’s interpretation is clear, direct and there’s a sophisticated ease in the idiom developed over time.
The result is an immediate empathetic connection that one makes with the imagery.
His paintings bring about a sense of familiarity to the scenes without resorting to hyper-real visual
language or reproduction of photographed images.
This quality of building a world on canvas that one can connect with has been seen in his work since
his post graduate years. In 1992 the compositions were heavy with the bright, archetypal Baroda School colours
of greens, pinks, crimsons and yellows. The emphasis on representing location and the narrative bent was all there.
But the protagonists were such that one could identify with them at first glance. Through the mid 90s to early 2000
the colour tones changed and the space in the compositions opened up. In this time he worked primarily in
translucent watercolours using a lot of blue hues. This period was marked with an open discussion on issues of
violence, political agendas that cause disruptions in development and pettiness that’s part of human nature.
The episodes of violence in Gujarat brought back memories of his childhood days in home state Assam where was
lived until he shifted base to Baroda for graduate and post graduate studies. The falling, burning man figure and
daggers were part of his idiom. Again the happenings were projected as experiences of the individual caught in the
crossfire of other’s agendas. It was during this time that the urban man that we see in Nikhileswar’s current work
seems to have emerged as a solitary entity in the crowd of many..
Through the late 90s up until now there has been a gradual reduction in peripheral painterly elements used as
symbols. Human figures and portraits of imaginary men presented as if staring from hoardings have become integral
to his works. Hoardings are part of the city dweller’s experience and Nikhileswar has found an ironic metaphor in
them. The quality of pretense that a competitive urbanite must have to survive in the race of life is likened to
the images of perfect looking models on hoardings. The job of models is to show the happy, shiny side regardless
of what truly might be going on within. It also seems to suggest how life goes on regardless of strife and turmoil
just as people in hoardings continue smiling even after witnessing an episode of carnage.
In City-Zens the human figure is propped against a backdrop of an urbanscape with tall buildings and sea of mill
chimneys emitting grey smoke. He has created a sense of vast space in which the idea of alienation in a crowd of
many is evoked. This is seen in paintings such as Orbit and 3000 Miles Away. The human figure, his pose, gait and
attire are symbols of expression. Behind the apparent relaxing pose of the ‘acrobat’ who is smoking could there be
a mind at unrest? Industrious is yet another painting that evokes a city dweller’s everyday experience.
Nikhileswar draws parallel between mills and efforts of an individual to keep up with demands in the
competitive world. The painting seems to suggest how one is willing to take up unfeasible tasks.
In Walkover a map-like pattern is superimposed on a vast scenic spot that has hills and trees.
A man’s design to concretise and posses the beautiful natural landscape into an urbanscape reflects the
shortsightedness that greed to possess brings on.
A series of close-up portraits of chiseled face men have neutral expressions akin to faces of glamorous models.
He leaves these facial expressions to interpretation – they could be expressions of equanimity or apathy.
In this collection, as also in seen in the 2006 series Departure, Nikhileswar’s iconography has made a shift.
Studied calm and tranquility has taken over the incensed approach of previous years. The artist’s protagonists
seem to be arriving at a Zen-like state of mind, realising the true nature of things that are.
Jasmine Shah Varma, independant curator and writer
April 2007
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