OUTDOOR SCULPTURES BY VIKASH KALRA
Undertaking apparitions in steel, the artist brings forth out of the industrial grid, an aesthetic expression that evokes humanity.
Large stainless steel sculptures that capture the angular, almost cubist expression of his paintings, artist Vikash Kalra presents his most recent body of work. Historically defined as an artistic form in which hard or plastic materials are worked into three-dimensional art objects, Vikash's sculptures bring the industrial-urban and the artistic-aesthetic together fused through an iridescent surface that reflects natural light as it invites viewers to engage with its welded surfaces and acute angles that dramatically come together to essay human forms.
What is most notable about these sculptures is that they are not 'decorative' in any aspect; instead they draw on the raw and sometimes dark energy that is characteristic of Vikah's painting. It provides a comment on our urban existence and employs a highly modern language. Vikash brings to these works his understanding of humanity, with which he deals with in all his artistic expression, he underlines the toured figures of the past, and hopeful angels of the present; with women and men locked in embrace, of love and of deceit, and of those left to fend for themselves in a competitive world.
His introduction to a sculptural discipline began with modeling forms in clay. In fact Kalra still loves working with the plasticity and pliability of the material. He expresses himself in Terracotta. In his past explorations, he rendered a family of a husband wife and child, since
he was drawing upon his own personal experiences and plugging into the good energy generated by familial love and togetherness. He moved on from expressing himself in fiber-glass but he found the medium did not withstand the trials of time or was strong enough
to endure his artistic vigor. He needed something stronger and more structured to expresses himself sculpturally to capture the emotions that Ram Kinker Baij transferred to his sculptural works.
The journey from 2010 to 2024 has been one of 14 years that has culminated in this larger-than-life expression in steel. Kalra's work definitely has the potential for a landmark status in the history of monumental sculpture. Where 'steel towers call for steel sculpture', and the
age of modernity brings engineering and art together.
(excerpts from curatorial essay by Georgina Maddox)
