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Anand Manchiraju
What Is Hanukkah?
An International Art Exhibition
(December 10 through January 31, 2021)
BIO
I was born in Eluru, AP, India. Since childhood, I used to observe my father Sri M.S.
Murthy, while he was painting and when he finished his work, I used to clean his brushes.
Often, I used same brushes to come up with my own art. I followed my passion for art and
developed my unique style. In a career spanning more than 50 plus years as a professional artist
and have done over 3000 artwork on various subject matter such as landscapes, portraits, still
life, nudes, animals, travel, and botanicals, on different media such as oils on canvas, acrylic
on canvas, water colors on paper, etc.
I studied photography in the JNTU Government College of Fine Arts and Architecture,
Hyderabad and furthering my education by taking Color Photo Technology at the Indian
Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun. Upon graduation, I joined Indian Drugs and
Pharmaceuticals Limited, Rishikesh Uttaranchal, as Artist and Photographer. I have also been
serving as the President of Andhra Academy of Arts, Vijayawada for three decades for the
cause and propagation of art.
Living close to Himalayan mountains I got inspired by the splendours of nature and
Ganga river. As a result, nature is often the centerpiece of my work. My sense of the personal,
cultural and world view can be seen in my painting on Indian Tribes and Tribal Dances, Gods
such as Siva, Krishna, Ganesha, Buddha, Saints, etc. Using photography skills and my innate
innovativeness, I have extensively experimented using photo chemicals on bromide and
painting on used X-ray film after treating them. I am one of the very few in the world to do
artwork in this medium. In recent past, I have travelled around the world visiting my children.
Hence city abstracts have also become a recurrent theme.
My work has been exhibited in many prestigious galleries in India. My first exhibition
was in the Raj Bhawan, Hyderabad in the year 1968. Since then, I have exhibited my work at
Jehangir Art Gallery (Mumbai), Nehru Centre (Mumbai), Bajaj Art Gallery (Mumbai), Lalit
Kala Academy (New Delhi), India International Center (New Delhi), Triveni Art Gallery (New
Delhi), Academy of Fine Art (Kolkatta), Lalit Kala Academy (Chennai), Muse Art gallery
(Hyderabad), State Gallery of Fine Arts (Hyderabad). I have received several state and national
level awards. These exhibitions received critical applause from the press & T.V media as well
as enthusiastic response from the art lovers. My artwork is in private collections and galleries
around the world.
More recently, I have also participated and exhibited in several international juried
exhibitions both online and offline such as Studio Montclair NJ; Fusion Art, Palm Springs, CA;
Art impact International; Awesome Art Inc; Youth for Human Rights, Washington DC;
Artivita Online Art; Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery; The Contemporary Art Gallery
Online; Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Carmichael, CA ; Chico Art Center, Chico, CA, and many others.
When I reflect upon my long association with art, I find that the creative process is just
as intriguing and rewarding as the final outcome of my projects. This desire to create has always
been strong even when others have tried to dissuade me. The internal push to create has given
me an appreciation for the process of exploration, patience and the beauty of art. I believe this
creative and explorative journey has become about freedom to create and the freedom to
express myself.
STATEMENT
"Cities tell me stories, I listen to them with my eyes and express them with my hands"
I am an artist and an experimentalist at heart. I love to experiment with art style, medium and the tools I use. I have worked on traditional oils on canvas, acrylics on canvas to my own unique mediums- photographic chemicals on bromides (which I call photo-paintings) and oil and acrylic on x-ray films. My work includes hundreds of painting in different mediums and styles with themes ranging from nature to different art forms to ancient Hindu Gods and Goddesses.
Having lived in rustic Himalayan regions for forty years, one of my most recurring painting themes is Himalayan landscapes and nature in both impressionistic and abstract styles. However, now I proposing to exhibit my more recent love towards cities, through my city scapes. In the last decade or so, I have been travelling around the world, living substantial times in cities in US and India with my children, and that's when my companionship with cities started. Cities make me feel awed with the tall buildings, colorful billboards, traffic and busy people. To me, both Himalayas and buildings are trying to reach the skies, while one does it in the cool solitude, the other are vibrant societies. Cities show me stories in every person's face and every building's skin- sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometime funny, sometimes silly, but none of them stop or stare. Looking at them, I keep thinking if cities are places to make life or if they are places that are missing LIFE.
I try and find answers for such thoughts through my paintings. Integrating nature- rain, birds into places with no space for nature, and adding warm colors to the otherwise neutral tones of the buildings, are some of my favorite ways of bringing life and character to my city paintings.
The style of my paintings is a mixture of both traditional and modern approaches. I used many types of tools and techniques that I have developed over the years to give expressiveness to my paintings. Most of these are oil on canvas that are made using traditional tools like palette knife and some of my own unique tools such as coconut leaves, single edge blades, hair combs, broom sticks etc. This use of different tools give an explosive texture to these impasto paintings. I feel, my cityscapes are fusions of my experiences with Himalayas and expectations of cities. All these cityscapes are my personal
Anand Manchiraju
India