dhruvi acharya

TWO PLUS TWO EQUALS
Recent paintings and works on paper
8 Sept - 4 Oct, 2006

Dhruvi's paintings are richly patterned, mixed media works layered with graphic style, narrative imagery in which she explores the complexities of motherhood, cross cultural communication, and the ambivalence in shifting locations. She paints, through allegory, on the poetic moments in one's emotional and intellectual quarrel with oneself. She explores the concepts of speech and communication, solitude and loneliness, and their effects on one's psyche. Her works are not autobiographical though, and looking for specific meanings to the stories in the imagery would take away from the universality of the human experience that she is interested in investigating. The works are based on her drawings in her book, which she treats like a daily journal, "chronicling the changing landscapes of my emotions, and the various portraits of my experiences. These drawings are "stream of consciousness", and inspire my paintings," says the artist.

Her process in these current works involves applying layer upon layer of opaque and translucent paint, matt and gloss medium to create a uniform surface where the images and patterns visually recede to various levels. Applying personal, ancient and pop-culture symbols and metaphors, Dhruvi creates narratives that draw the viewer into a world where thoughts are as visible as the "reality" that they inhabit. Dhruvi has been drawing influences from Indian miniature painting, the visual humour and graphics of comic books and the irreverent quality found in the work of contemporary Californian and Japanese artists. She is interested in creating balance by contrasting details and patterns with uniform color fields to create visually and psychologically layered paintings.