“Direct perception is both sensory and extrasensory, provides man with the knowledge of phenomena.”
– K.N. Jayatilleke: “The Message of the Buddha,” 1974
MONA RAI
Nature Morte is proud to present a group of new works on paper by the artist Mona Rai, produced during the pandemic of 2020-21, a period of isolation and introspection. During these months, Rai relished the concentration this isolation afforded her, remarking that the process of creating these works was a meditational exercise.
“There was so much peace and silence reigning around me, inside me… colors floating in and out, surprising me at every corner and settling in the white space before me,” noted the artist.
IN THE STUDIO
with
Mona Rai
ABOUT MONA RAI
Mona Rai was born in 1947, New Delhi, the city where she continues to live and work. She received a Master’s in Psychology at Delhi University and studied art at Triveni Kala Sangam. Rai is an abstractionist who explores the expressive potential of different materials such as metallic leaves, fabrics, glitter, sand, gravel, dirt and ash in her paintings. Her process is rooted in risk-taking. Many of her works, both on canvas and paper, resemble battlegrounds: scorched, trampled, slit, wounded, scratched, scarred, bleeding and weeping to rend objects into emotional states and aesthetic consciousness. At other times, she creates shimmering fields of color that dazzle and oscillate in the light, with imagery informed by craft production and ritual art forms. Rai takes inspiration from her environment, responding to nature and its manifestations in the animal, vegetable and mineral realms; and science, language, and their proliferation through technological means.
