Mitun, Cactus in IVC Pot No. 5, 20″x16″, Acrylic on Canvas, 2019.

I started showing at the Gallery House this July, an art gallery in Palo Alto. The first series that I have worked on for that is the Cactus series. One of the crucial aspects of the subject matter here is the thorns which I have struggled to find a way to depict and have profusely enjoyed the journey, ultimately coming up with the final form – a cluster of spidery lines – that I am satisfied with.

The cactus series (Pasacana Cactus in Indus Valley Civilization[IVC] Pot) explores juxtaposition of opposites. It seeks to investigate the visual and subconscious effect of combining the ancient and the contemporary, ordinary and the surreal, illusory and the real, minimal and the maximal within the same visual window. This necessitates the manipulation of the focal point – within the entire peripheral field of vision – which keeps moving. To achieve this effect, for this series I used a combination of Minimalism, Op Art, Surrealism, Color Field, Ancient art and Block-printmaking. The resultant antipodes – chaos and order, or solid forms beside busy lines – are part and parcel of the composition.