Anju Dodiya
18 January to 20 February, Vadehra Art Gallery

Vadehra Art Gallery of Delhi is hosting the painting exhibition of Anju Dodiya from 18th January till 20th February, 2010.

The works of Dodiya portray facets of suffering. It's more of autobiographical revealations of feelings where we find two basic concepts playing the pivotal role. She showcases the aspects of wounded self and the measures to curb the pain. But the paintings just do not show her self portrayal, it also depicts the subjectivity of the artist's mind.

The most prominent motif in all her works is the necklace. The necklace has been used in different ways with respectively different meanings. Sometimes it shows greed, humiliation and also it is used as a symbol of death. In the work 'Promise', she brings in a fine balance between the notion of pain and creativity. In 'Falling Grass', the artist has shown signs of restraining oneself.

The most striking of all the works is the one named 'Finger Necklace'. This work has been done and named after the victim of tragedy of the Buddhist fable of Angulimala, where an aristocrat's son was said that he would taste divinity if he kills thousand people. According to Dodiya, this work also shows the compromises made in sending one's creation to the world in order to acquire fame. Or the artist can be a present day terrorist who is endowed with the task of taking the lives of innocent people in order to embark on heaven.