PRINTMAKING
Abhishek Narayan Verma has investigated many techniques of printmaking. Printmaking allows the artist to experiment in many ways through inking, burnishing, erasing and layering depth. Sometimes he plays with over-wiping and under-wiping the ink on the plates during etching or aquatinting to achieve a certain effect. It allows him to see the various moods of a single image or a composition, helps build his curiosity and allows him to find multiple ways to see a single thing.
But the way the print comes, the unexpected quality is what fascinates Abhishek. It shows him the level of control he has in his understanding of the medium, at the same time, it throws a challenge at him in the way he cannot predict certain results. The artist wishes that his perseverance in this practice will lead him towards a kind of creation that will resonate with its historical value and mode.
Eyes need an adequate amount of light for visibility, too much light can make us blind and less light can make us blind too. For Abhishek Narayan Verma, darkness is a mystery which engulfs all shades of our life. He has always been attracted to the play of light and shadow as they complement each other, the brighter the light, the more darkness we see, or as we can say light gives birth to darkness.
Abhishek Narayan Verma creates large dark areas in his drypoints that allow the viewer to be intrigued, drawing them in to explore the less visible. This darkness creates a jarring contrast to and pushes the characters out and highlights them.
In Abhishek Narayan’s etchings, there is satirisation, of situations and of characters, sometimes displaying common idioms in a performative, theatrical setting. When he satirises the situations in his etchings, the relationship of the key visuals to the personal then becomes detached, capturing a monumentary moment, as serious as it may be, but through humour.
Lithography is a layered drawing process. Using this artform, the artist aims at drawing everyday conditions of his own world which make up the existence of the characters he depicts. It becomes their hope and anxiety, their escape and frustration.
