Artist and architect Vasant Dora’s solo exhibition, Aaveg: Between the Finite and the Infinite, opened at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The exhibition was curated by Jyoti A. Kathpalia.The opening ceremony featured the ceremonial lighting of the lamp by Manish Tiwari, Ashok Vajpeyi, Sunit Tandon, Biman Bihari Das and Niren Sengupta.
Niren Sengupta with Biman Das and Manish Tiwari
The exhibition brought together two significant series—Habitat Scapes and Samsara—through which Dora explored the relationship between the physical world and the deeper emotional and spiritual forces that shape human life. Habitat Scapes examined urban structures, buildings and spaces created by people, while Samsara reflected on the eternal cycle of existence, drawing on concepts of Shiva and Shakti, Purusha and Prakriti.
Vasant Dora andJyoti A Kathpalia
Dora’s background as an architect was evident in the grids, forms and structures of his paintings, while his artistic practice infused colour, movement and emotion into these spaces. “I present two works in dialogue with each other. How can one separate the lived from the spiritual, or the habitat from the samsara. I have attempted to express the human condition both as matter and also as a surge of energies, emotions and forces,” Dora said.Curator Jyoti A. Kathpalia noted, “This exhibition brings together traces of Dora the architect, thinker, poet and spiritualist through soft grids, strong colours and poetic energy. His art carries the influence of urban forms, poetry and the many layers of human civilisation.”
