Nature Morte presents The Heart of the Matter, a solo show of new works by Srishti Rana Menon. The works on view are both paintings on canvas and watercolors on paper. Menon studied textile design at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad and worked in the field for many years, collaborating with some of India’s best known fashion designers. Her road to the Fine Arts was intuitive and methodical, allowing the materials and their properties to guide her towards a style and imagery. Her works are rigorously abstract, defiant in their limited parameters, uncorrupted by fashions or politics.
The paintings start with a central focus from which layered forms breathe out of. Classical and controlled, they juxtapose simple shapes in precise colors on white fields which become energized, straining to contain pigments which seem to pulsate. The watercolors on paper allow the artist additional freedom, spontaneity and serendipity being integral to their creation. With all of the works, delicacy and a stoic rigidity are juxtaposed, discipline allows for laxity. The artist’s vocabulary is closely connected to the seasonal fluctuations of temperature and humidity, as her pigments behave differently under various conditions, enabling a wider range of expressions.
Find out more about the show here.