When patterns dance

You have to peer closely to find the ballerinas in Pragya Jain's geometric paintings

Matte and mettalic maze: Pragya Jain with her collection Silhouettes Wind of Spirit

This is artist Pragya Jain's first solo show titled, 'Silhouettes Wind of Spirit.' Ballerinas are a presence in most of them. The first series called Matte and Metallic have ballerinas made of metal. Pragya says, "I camouflaged the ballerinas with the matte and only with the play of light can you see them."u00a0

Pragya also uses acrylic in titles such as the Ferris wheels and Continuous recital, where she covers the entire canvas with lines. Then there is the Dance of Life, a painting with squares that begins with a core yellow, which she calls happiness. The grey in it signifies sadness.

Pragya says, "Right from birth to death, we all dance through life, with bits of happiness and sadness all throughout. But being a happy person, my core is happiness. I want to bring cheer to the world and not add to its sorrow."

Pragya started painting in college. She held her first art show in 2005 in Delhi, where she was displayed with senior artists like Niren Sengupta and Jatin Das. She did her studies at the Delhi College of Art in graphic designing. "It was graphics and art side by side," she says. Finally art won her over.

Pragya is in love with ballerinas and this is evident in her art. Their postures always attracted her. "It's almost like magic," she says. "Their perfection inspired me to do this collection."
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Art of stability

In the series titled Black and white, a painting titled Stabilize shows a ballerina standing on her toes. This can only be achieved "when the ballerina has a stable mind".

Pragya has been lucky to have a family that encouraged her to do everything that she wanted to do. "Painting excited me, made me happy, and over time I was drawn to it more and more," she says. But, in spite of geometry running across all her paintings, she did not like mathematics at school.

In this art show, the most intriguing paintings are the ones classified under Name place animal and thing. She says, "You choose what you want to see and this lets you be more creative with yourself."

She has used everyday stuff like combs and jars to make Opposite, which shows the graphic artist in her.

Pragya now paints full time. In her childhood, she used to sing for AIR and also lent her voice for a few soap operas. But today, she says, "Singing is a hobby."

We like: The pictures titled Peace over War, Name Place Animal Thing and Stabilize.

What: Silhouettes Wind of Spirit
Where: The Collection, UB City, Vittal Mallya Road
On till: November 28
Wallet factor: Canvas sizes of 24x30, 42x54 and 4ftx4ft are priced between Rs 25,000 to Rs 85,000

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