SRV Media
New Delhi [India], August 18: Niyamat Mehta, labelled by Firenze Yes Please as the ‘Emerging Artist to Invest In’ in 2023,is set to enthral all with her solo exhibition Meraki, held at Bikaner House. Mehta was the youngest artist on display at the Pallazo Albrizzi in the 2022 Venice Biennale, amongst the world’s most prestigious art fairs featuring the likes of Anish Kapoor, Simone Leigh and Célestin Faustin.
Meraki translates into an essence of ourselves, and surrendering a part of yourself in your craft. The exhibition will feature the interplay of consumerism and artistic expression that Mehta witnessed in Florence, London and New Delhi, where she has exhibited her works and lectured. Among the most striking masterpieces featured in Meraki are the iconic depictions of the ‘Polo Bear’ fashioned in Indian sartorial elegance. This will be countered by a set of life size depictions in bronze encompassing the spectrum of human emotion, finally fading into the surreal.
True to the title, the works illuminate Mehta’s own artistic journey as she conducted master classes and exhibited in London, Paris, Florence, Rome, Delhi and more, encompassing a tapestry of stories, that led famed sculptor Greenville Davey to hail her as a potential artistic power that could be a generational bridge of artistic cultures. Notably, Mehta’s works are interwoven with a profound connection to her Indian heritage. As often being the only Indian Artist in galleries across Europe, Mehta noted in an interview with ArtScape the importance to her personally of preserving the Indianness in her work.
Inspired by her time spent in some of the most creative cities of the world like Rome, Paris, London, Florence, and Delhi, for her solo exhibit Meraki Mehta spent almost 5 years to craft a range of masterpieces in clay, POP, and bronze. Depicting the fine nuances of human anatomy in her sculptors, the artist takes a special interest in highlighting the details through her meticulous portrayal of expressions and wavering features. Inspired by the artworks of masters like Salvador Dalí, Leonora Carrington, Man Ray, Leonardo da Vinci and M.F. Husain, Mehta’s art is heavily inspired by surrealism.
On speaking to artist Niyamat Mehta, she explained that this exhibition is in many ways an essence of herself as the word Meraki implies, through the evolution of her style over the years. From the days of her as a student to a lecturer and teacher, from always striving for perfection to appealing to the subconscious through more surreal implications, the exhibition seeks to encapsulate an essence of the artist’s experience. Meraki invites us to contemplate our own journeys – the undying desire to grow, embrace and sometimes, battle with change. Hence, the works seek to encapsulate our two-step dance with change and adaptation, where each work is a reflection of the journey taken and challenges overcome, rather unforgivingly set in stone.
The exhibition will be held at Bikaner House from 18th August to 22nd August 2023.
Niyamat Mehta (b. 1999) is a rising artist whose artistic vision has garnered significant attention within the art world.
From being the youngest artist on display at the Pallazo Albrizzi in the 2022 Venice Biennale, to showcasing her work at the Kensington Town Hall in London,Artesfera di Valmadrerain Rome and more, Mehta is cementing her reputation in the art world. In an interview with Firenze Yes Please, she cited theever contemporary form of Beethoven’s final String Quartets as inspirations for her work, which despite being written almost two centuries ago, baffle the most avante garde artists to this date. Immersed in the thriving galleries of London, Mehta draws from the interplay between consumerism and artistic expression, channelling elements of surrealism influenced by Leonora Carrington and Man Ray.
While many of her most celebrated works are commentaries on the prevailing zeitgeist, Mehta received hertraining in theadvanced pedagogical methodof Robert Bodem called ‘drawing in space’. At sixteen, she was selected as a protégé to Master Sculptor Jason Arkles in Florence, Italy. Expanding her technique under Arkles, she made portraits from life using the sight size method of the Old Masters and went on to study as the youngest student at the prestigious Florence Academy of Art.
Today, Mehta regularly lectures and conducts masterclasses at institutions including the London Fine Art Studio, Firenze Geko Art Studio and has her own private studio ‘Atelier Della Firenze’ in New Delhi.
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