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Shakti Maira’s sculpture series: ª Intimations of Transcendence
Shakti Maira’s art series: ª Beej ª Daan ª Bodhi ª Within
Click on links to view the series. |
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An exhibition of Shakti Maira’s work at Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi |
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Gallery |
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It is thirty years since my first one-person exhibition. Back in the 1970’s, I formed an intention about my art making: it must operate for me and the viewers at the four levels at which I seemed to experience — sensory, emotional, thought, and spirit or consciousness. It would be a positive engagement bringing pleasure to the senses, it would generate positive feelings and thoughts, and deepen and uplift the spirit. Only recently I have realized that this is also the heart of the philosophy and purpose of art in the great Indian tradition. I have been making art since childhood. I am, what the art trade calls a ‘self-taught’ artist. My work has been regarded as being of the spiritual, though it has never been about religious subjects and I have remained wary of all forms of self-conscious spirituality, traditional and new age, and the art that is associated with them. Though I have studied and delighted in Buddhist psychology and philosophy, contemplation and meditation, my impulse to make art has flowed freely and has not derived or based itself in any theory, history, group or movement. Perhaps, this quality of being real, honest and free of art and religious dogma is the quality that my art has, which is also what we probably seek and experience in true spirituality. Perhaps it is this that causes people to see my work as ‘spiritual’. I tend to work in series that gravitate around my current concerns and ideas. These change and evolve. Style, material and format are secondary to the ideas I am stirred by. So far, I have had 24 one-person shows and have participated in many group shows in India, US and Europe. My work is in public and private collections around the world. I paint in a wide variety of mediums, sculpt and make art prints. The major series have been: 1974 Monsoon Skies; 1976 Waves of Sea, Waves of Mind; 1978 Mountain Ways and Mist of Mind; 1979 Mountains Breathing, Whispering Mandalas; 1985 Meditation in Landscape; 1989 Fallen God; 1990 Chikai Bardo; 1991-2 Intimations of Transcendence; 1995 Ganga as Grace; 1996 Silent Witnesses; 1997 Insight/Absorption; 1999 Bodhi; 2001 Pilgrims’ Path; 2003 Beej; 2006-7 The Seekers. — Shakti Maira |
