Works of 126 printmakers on display at art expo in Kozhikode

Kozhikode is hosting a grand exhibition of artworks by printmakers from different parts of the world. The show titled ‘The Road Less Travelled’, curated by artist and printmaker Sunil Lal T R, features 126 printmakers from the country and abroad. The show, which started on November 5, will be on at two venues – Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery near town hall and SK Pottekkat Cultural Centre at Puthiyara – till December 5.

The artists featured at the show include Raja Ravi Varma, Bhupen Khakhar, K G Subramanyan, Somnath Hore, Laxma Goud and Surendran Nair.

“The Road Less Travelled is one of the biggest exhibitions in the history of Kozhikode as well as the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi. While printmaking is a process driven medium that interacts with artistic possibilities in multiple ways, it is also one that requires physical support systems often beyond the individual capacities of artists leading to a lesser number of practitioners who choose to follow this less trodden path. In India, not many artists have chosen this medium. Hence the show is titled The Road Less Travelled. In such a scenario, 'The Road Less Travelled' brings together printmakers from across various global locations as well as from India,” Akademi Chairman Murali Cheeroth said.

Akademi Secretary Balamuralikrishnan said the institution has opened a wide canvas of aesthetics with the exhibition featuring printmakers from different parts of the world. He said that the show will be a landmark in the art history of the country.

A talk by renowned artist and printmaker K K Muhamed was recently held as part of the event. In his presentation titled ‘The Desire Machines’, Muhamed explained the process of the creation and interpretation of his art with focus on some of his recent works.
“My recent works are an attempt to construct a site on a flat surface, to bring forth an event that is imagined, but not private, alienated but not isolated, in dim light but definitely not out of the sun. A site with multiplicity of forms which reaffirm and problematise the open-endedness of them. So the work as a process is moving towards the creation of an vigorous language, a constant state of formation/solution,” he said.