BHUBANESWAR: M Pravat, a Delhi-based artiste, has held several exhibitions, including the ones at Nature Morte, New Delhi and Aicon Gallery, New York. Pravat’s drawings, paintings, sculptures and collages are based on installations that combine imaginary urban plans and architectural blueprints with construction materials such as brick and slate. His work in the recent Bhubaneswar Art Trail 2018 was titled Malleability of All Things Solid.
His artworks examine the fluidity of our seemingly solid built environment as our cities continue to grow and existing structures are torn down and replaced by new ones. Pravat completed his Bachelor’s degree in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at M.S. University, Baroda, in 2002. In 2004, he completed his Master’s degree at the same institution. He has received the Arts award and grant by Pro Helvetia, Switzerland.
The talented artiste has participated in art camps in India, Indonesia, Kenya, Egypt and Turkey, and in several group shows in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Baroda, London and Paris. He has held solo shows of his works in New Delhi and Mumbai. His chief interest lies in exploring the architecture of space, time and memory. For over a decade, his work has been about gradually deconstructing architectural forms and spaces in his immediate surroundings in the city of New Delhi.
Pravat has participated in several solo and group exhibitions. Few of his recent works include – From Today, I Have No Future, Aicon Gallery, New York, USA, Greenwich Village 2017, Hyperreal, Aicon Gallery, New York, USA, Greenwich Village 2018, Group Exhibition, Nature Morte, New Delhi, India, New Delhi ‘In-Depth’, New Delhi, in 2007 and ‘Team Unteamed-11’, New Delhi, in 2007 among others.
Pravat said, “I don’t know much about the mathematics of architecture. I even don’t know about anything about urban planning. However, I always create what my soul demands. Delhi has been an interesting base for this exploration because of the many ancient monuments spread across the city and the massive urban development that has taken place in recent years.”
His artwork in Bhubaneswar Art Trail 2018 was based on the Malleability of All Things Solid. Regarding this he said, “Our lives are unquestionably shaped by the built environments that we inhabit. And as much as we occupy architectural spaces, architecture itself too occupies a unique place in our sensibilities. My practice is deeply embedded in manifestations as well as imaginations of environments.”
“It offers increasingly newer possibilities to imagine space in the contemporary moment, especially when different utopias are at a collision by an excess of images and virtual spaces. What constitutes the notion of the real and the concrete is in drastic flux. Through my practice as a painter, I explore what this phenomena of excess does to our imagination of concrete spaces as I try to shed off representational familiarity associated with our built environment. In doing so, I find myself appropriating, redistributing and reconfiguring the relationship between images and materials that are central to our idea of space and forms,” he said.
