The urban mob filled by Bhalwal Prasad performed on a demonstration in its single show eccentric lines: Urban avoiding urban through tribal abstraction in Gallery Novya in Delhi. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Bhuwal Prasad living from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh brings a unique mixture for its canvas for the future, which can be folk art in today’s world, challenges the idea.
“I have never planned my pictures,” they say. “Whatever I see becomes a part of the canvas.” Prasad’s exhibition eccentric lines: Urban Refrains Through Tribal Abstraction opens in Gallery Novya on Saturday.
Their artifacts brim with tribal motifs including jewelery, animals, toys, and wall art functions. He gives them a twist with the chaos of the life of the city and also throws unpredictable science in fiction elements. Hidden Aliens, Spaceships, and UFOs filled their canvas unknown and pointing to their charm with a world beyond them. “Technology is moving so fast, sometimes I think there are aliens behind it,” they say. ,
Banaras folk tales by Bhuwal Prasad in their single show eccentric lines: Urban abstraction through tribal abstraction in Gallery Novya in Delhi. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The process of Prasad is complicated as his imagination. Inspired by crumpled papers and urban waste, they started experimenting with jute, fiber and resin, so that we mimic the texture of things left on a daily basis.
One of his works in mixed-media that stands in the exhibition is the title “Urban Crowd Fled”. This converts garbage -like texture into vibrant surfaces to tell the story. “I wanted to paint on things that we usually ignore and show how beauty can emerge from chaos,” they say. Although his work is overwhelmed by folk and tribal influences, Prasad says that he is not a tribal artist in traditional sense. Rather, his art is more of a bridge between the simplicity of tribal life and the layered intensity of urban existence. This duality is reflected in the use of their color – the conflict colors like the opposite rhythm of rural and urban life create a soothing effect that defines their paintings. Some of his paintings are monochromes, also – blue, black or pink, and expresses a silence.
The urban mob filled by Bhalwal Prasad performed on a demonstration in its single show eccentric lines: Urban avoiding urban through tribal abstraction in Gallery Novya in Delhi. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Prasad’s paintings, like their other functions, are layered. Some reflect the peace of nature, others wild energy of human emotions. One of the tasks includes twin children, while the other captures tribal adornments and rituals. Each canvas develops free and separate interpretation.
“People often tell me about their art that I didn’t even realize,” he smiles. Prasad studied fine arts in Varanasi, a city that shaped a sense of beauty as his hometown.
Currently located in Delhi, his journey from rural Uttar Pradesh to the capital is reflected in his developed style. A painting from his college days, still in his possession, reminds him how far he has come. “I’ve changed, and so my art is,” he says and says, “I still paint like a child, just feel, not to uproot.”
The urban mob filled by Bhalwal Prasad performed on a demonstration in its single show eccentric lines: Urban avoiding urban through tribal abstraction in Gallery Novya in Delhi. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
For fellow artist Rohan, Prasad’s work provides endless conspiracy. “I can see their work for hours, there is always something new to find in their pictures,” they say. Perhaps because the art of Prasad is not meaning. It naked people to find out the spontaneity of their artistic experiment. In its cool complexity, their work shows that beauty often emerges very chaos that we try to escape.
The strokes of prasad on the raw texture are bold enough to stop people and understand the dynamic interconnection of tradition and modernity.
Priya Prakash
In Gallery Nava, Square One Designer Arcade, Saket; 24 May to 28 June; 11 am to 7 pm (Sunday closed)
Published – May 22, 2025 05:53 PM IST
