Nikhil Chaganlal

1961

3 Artworks

NIKHIL CHAGANLAL was born in 1961, is a self taught artist. Has had a solo show at Gallery Art Resource Trust in 1999 & 2003 at Ashish Balram Nagpal's gallery, Mumbai. He has participated in a group show at Art Point Gallery in 1999. He lives and works in Alibaug, near Mumbai. STATEMENT Nikhil Chaganlal makes his debut at the Gallery Art Resource Trust with a series of paintings entitled "Mystics of India". This series focuses on the community of Sadhus in this country and explores the variety of holy men which the artist found in Alibaug where he lives. For a young artist it is admirable to commune with a tribe which so exotic and different from normal devotees of God. Nikhil has style cut out for a dynamic and colourful depiction of his theme. Even the spiritual element that governs the Sadhus is not the common one we know. The differentness starts from the fact that they abhor clothing. In their worship of the supernatural, they project an attitude that is outsize, primitive and surreal. Nikhil captures this with a power amazing for a man of his age. It is easy to call his approach expressionist, but actually, although his paintings are full of figures, the artist's intent matches the aura of the tantric. It is a Holy Kingdom that Nikhil creates and it throbs with life, with magic, with weird gesture. He is a painter to be watched. He claims both depth of imagery and a play of colour that is full of unique and almost divine power.