One of India’s leading contemporary artists Manav Gupta has beautified the Rasulgarh flyover under NHAI project ‘An Ode to Bhubaneswar’
BHUBANESWAR: Manav Gupta, one of India’s top ten contemporary artists, has bedecked the Rasulgarh flyover area with glimpses of Odia culture and tradition under the public art museum project titled ‘An Ode to Bhubaneswar’.
Gupta, who is recognised as a true visionary and thinker, has taken art beyond its charted realms. In a career spanning over two decades, he has established himself as a unique cultural ambassador, building bridges beyond borders for world peace, harmony and sustainable living. His latest attempt is a museum of Water and Sustainable development.
The artist was in city for the last one and a half month creating the masterpiece in the flyover area. The concept is ‘creating a city within a city’ by the use of scrap products such as used metals and pressure testing blocks. The whole project is aimed to showcase the importance of sustainable development. This apart, he also showcased culture of the state Odisha and paid rich tributes to its art and history.
Public Art is an endeavour which is planned and executed with the intention of being staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all. It is significant within the art world, amongst curators, commissioning bodies and practitioners of public art, to whom it signifies a working practice of site specificity, community involvement and collaboration.
Gupta said, “Shree Jagannath Expressway Pvt Ltd had entrusted me to create a piece of public art. I believe that art is one of the prime ways of displaying an important message. In Odisha, many artistes had used the medium to showcase the state’s culture.”
“In recent times, mural art works have been created in the city to showcase and promote events such as Hockey World Cup. I wanted to showcase the concept of sustainable development. Apart from this, I wanted to pay respect and tribute to the rich cultural heritage of the state,” he added.
Acknowledged as a ‘pioneer of reinventing pottery as global Public Art for sustainable development and taking local craft to the level of avant garde art, he has been regularly quoted by critics, leading expertsa and luminaries from various walks of life as ‘one of India’s most erudite and versatile contemporary artists’, the ‘maverick genius’ of ‘pioneering innovations’, ‘piped to be the next big thing in international art’ and ‘a master of light and colour’.
In the state’s first open-air waste museum which was inaugurated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, 21 sculptures and installations made out of waste by national and international artistes were displayed. The latest masterpiece by Manav Gupta will go a long way in the beautification drive of the temple city.