Trees Tell Stories in Ompal Sansanwal’s Historic Solo

NEW DELHI:
Each tree, with its long, intricately intertwining roots and its branches dense with foliage, tells a distinct story in Ompal Sansanwal’s paintings, 60 of which go on display in his first solo exhibition after a hiatus of 15 years.

The exhibition, titled ‘Jiva’, showcases the National Award-winning artist’s works crafted over the past 15 years with acrylic, pen and ink on canvas and paper. Curated by noted art historian and scholar Uma Nair, and hosted by Sanya Malik’s Black Cube Gallery, the week-long exhibition opens on April 27, and goes on till May 3, at Bikaner House in the Main Art Gallery.

The preview of the exhibition will be held from 6-9 PM on April 27.

Ratish Nanda, renowned Indian conservation architect and CEO of Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), will inaugurate the exhibition on April 27. He will also launch Sansanwal’s book ‘Meditations on Trees’ (Black Cube and Aleph Books) authored by curator Uma Nair, at the Ballroom, Bikaner House to a distinguished gathering of India’s famous artists, collectors and friends.

Nanda is India’s most famous restoration, reclamation and renewal architect, responsible for the landscaping of the Sundar Nursery area, spread over 100 acres, a project of AKTC. In 2018, TIME magazine featured Sundar Nursery among the 100 best places in the world.

In a happy coincidence, Ompal’s paintings on trees and nature come as the world celebrates April as Earth Month.

Ompal’s paintings move from solitary studies of the roots and branches of the trees, to collective groups that take on different shapes, telling the story of Krishna holding aloft the Govardhan hill, or Christ’s Last Supper, of Shiva and Parvati’s wedding, or even the Kurukshetra war with the Pandavas and Kauravas facing off. The paintings, done in ochre, sienna or shades of blue, are meditative in nature, and bear the artist’s trademark style where the long, intertwining roots and branches take on a human form and almost seem to speak.

“When I draw the trees, they come out in a meditative form,” says Ompal. His works have been featured in several solo exhibitions previously, including at the Museum Gallery, Mumbai; LTG Gallery, New Delhi, and Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi, as well as in group shows held at the Nehru Center in London, and in Yugoslavia.

Elaborating on his style, Uma Nair says: “As an artist, Ompal is a pilgrim who walks miles to find trees of his sensibility and sensitivity. When you look at his works, you sense a deep spiritual aura that fulfils him. His prowess for branching threaded twigs and leaves and berries and birds all become a rhythm.”

Sanya Malik of Black Cube Gallery says: “Ompal Sansanwal’s captivating oeuvre intricately weaves the profound narrative of humanity’s symbiotic bond with nature, with an emphasis on the primordial significance of trees and roots as the cradle of existence.”

Explaining his long break from the world of solo exhibitions, Ompal says that he was preparing for his ‘Jiva’ show. “I was preparing for the last 15 years,” he says.

Born in 1964, Sansanwal, an alumnus of Delhi College of Art, was the recipient of the National Award in 2002 and the 1991 All India Award, by the Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academy.