A brush with the best strokes here

IT WILL be a display of raw talent. When Alex Cherian planned an art gallery, he decided it would be a showcase of the best works available - ``to encourage and promote artists.''

That doesn't happen everyday. Not the way this has been planned. The artists don't rent the Cherian Art Gallery. Alex says they might not be able to afford it. The gallery only gets a commission on the sales. Of course, it could still work out to a great deal.

That way, Alex should be able to achieve his mission. As his mission statement goes, the purpose of the gallery is to project them, the little-known but pretty good artists, into the world of art.

So for anyone out there who knows how to paint a stroke, this is the place.

The process started with a screening for the inaugural exhibition of the gallery. Eventually, the works of four artists - K. Jayachandran, C. Krishnaswamy, Dinakara Sundar and V. K. Sathyendran - all from the Government College of Arts and Science, Chennai, were selected.

Most of the first displays will be a variety of abstracts and promises to be among the latest and best works of the four.

The artists are not novices. In fact, Jayachander has had his name on canvas since 1978 and Krishnaswamy since 1992. They definitely have been around awhile, but haven't made it to the hall of fame yet.

The gallery promises quite a variety in the weeks to come. Not necessarily the kind of work Alex is familiar with, because these will be originals. He is a master portrait artist himself, known especially for the Ravi Varma reproductions of his company Cherian Bros.

In fact, Ravi Varma will be the second theme of the gallery, which will be an in-house show. This will be followed by another promotion of outside talent. And so on.

The first exhibition of the Cherian Art Gallery will be on from March 12 to 17 at 31 Sardar Patel Road, Guindy.

By Feroze Ahmed

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