Dhruva Mistry’s Works in Steel Produce a Sensation of Pleasurable Surprise
The exhibition will be on display till December 31, 2019 at the Akara Art Gallery, Mumbai, India.
Akara Art is presenting a solo show of works in steel by one of India’s leading sculptors, Dhruva Mistry. The sculptures invariably produce a sensation of pleasurable surprise as viewers walk around them, revealing unexpected facets and forms from each new angle. A number of Mistry’s well-known series are represented in the exhibition. Among these, ALoC carries forward a form that has interested the artist for two decades. The works, which look at first sight like frameworks or complex cages, play with the shapes of grand chairs, and also have architectural qualities. Seasons explores positive and negative space through two plates intersecting at right angles, one consisting of a figure and the second of an absent figure. Also featured are sculptures of birds, of seated and reclining women, and of a woman sowing a field.
ALoC: The Object – I, 1997-2008
Dhruva Mistry was a prodigy who made a name for himself in England in the early 1980s following a stint at London’s Royal Academy of Art. He created a number of important public commissions in the United Kingdom and received a CBE before returning to India, intent on fostering local talent.
Six Seasons, A set of six sculptures, 2014-15
A debilitating stroke a decade ago slowed him down, but he found a novel method of working that allowed him to keep creating three-dimensional forms. Working on the programme AutoCAD, he makes detailed diagrams of potential sculptures, breaking the form down into a series of steel planes. These are then fabricated to his precise specifications, before being painted, either by spray gun or by hand.
