Delhi artist shows wings of imagination have no limits and can stretch as far as imagery will take them

Imagination is like a flying bird with wings, and the desire to give a shape to this imagination is the spirit's wings to great art.

Perhaps that is what drove artist Manu Singh to explore the elemental imaginary landscapes which look like water, earth or sky.

WINGS, SHADOWS & 1000 BIRDS, a solo exhibition of paintings by Manu Singh is being held at the Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi, from 2nd to 12th January. The inauguration was on 2nd January at 5.00  pm.

The Exhibition had a grand opening with many renowned guests from the fashion industry like Pooja Mootwani, Chaand Bakshi, Siddharth Agicha, Muskan Aggarwal, Kaushik Ghosh, Ishreen vadi, Bharat Bhramar and many more.

WINGS, SHADOWS & 1000 BIRDS is full of large canvas paintings that explore imaginary background and landscapes. These works involve more obfuscation of the Imaginary Large Wings, Shadows and 1000 Birds using oil and other elements as mediums.

As the artist says: “I’ve always been drawn to WINGS since I was a child. The wings are symbol of aspiring to the greatest heights of accomplishment. Wings (white in color) stands for clarity of mind, and how clean mental focus combined with stable footing can transform our lives in magical ways. From time immemorial, birds are considered to be signs of eternal life. Many stories and folklore suggest that birds were taken as signs of renewed life, often as a transition between life and death. My works 1000 BIRDS represent joy, harmony, ecstasy, balance, and love. It denotes a sunny outlook in life, spiritual freedom and psychological liberation. It is symbolic of a transition or spiritual awakening also refer to the craving of an individual for the inner child, which would obviously mean innocence - shadow through which I am trying to explain how our shadow side holds the key to our inner self. Each of us has a shadow that whispers stories of our own self-defeating fears to us. My work shows how understanding our own shadow side can lead us to lives of tremendous realization and peace.”

The artist says she wanted to see how far he could can push reality to the other side where the “real” is still recognizable, but start becoming partially surreal. She wanted to see how far he can push both the real and the surreal at the same time into one another, building that tension until they are just one and the same.

Most canvases are black and white paintings with a modern touch, in that the strokes explore movement while the grey field stays constant most of the time. She has experimented with supports as well as with medium. “The possibilities of support/surface fascinate me. Without colour, value is easier to see and to judge. It is easier to understand atmospheric perspective without color. I had to make use of tools other than color to create the illusion of depth, thus I am trying to use more energy and imagination in the paintings that these mediums create.”

In a critique, renowned art critic M L Johny says: “My attempt as an art critic here is to see how the metaphor of wings gives a new edge to the works of Manu Singh though it is apparently clear that the wings are the symbols of hope. According to my view, a pair of wings, even when it is grown in an imaginative plane, is a price that has been exchanged for what one already has, which could be freedom, autonomy, beauty, despair or bondage. Wings as a metaphor itself foregrounds the fact that one has to leave or reject something one already possesses.”

Trained under the guidance of Master Artist Rameshwar Broota at Triveni Kala Sangam, Manu simultaneously joined the University of Geneva (Design & Art Department), Switzerland, as student support.

Manu, who lives and works in New Delhi, had solo shows at Lalit Kala Akademi (2011) & Shridharani Gallery (2014). She has participated in the AIFACS (2009, & 2010), Ravi Jain (2012), Sahitya Kala Parishad (2013 annual shows), and in number of group shows viz Dhoomimal Gallery, Open Garden Gallery, Triveni Gallery & Arpana Kaur Gallery.

She was commissioned to make paintings for All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Center in Delhi India in 2011. Her work is held in collection with AIIMS Trauma Center, The Lalit, Delhi, The Art Mall, Delhi, Private collections, Switzerland Contemporary Design & Art Collection.