Life seen as a toy shop on the canvas
Art & Deal Correspondent

Shukla looks to tell a story with each of his exhibitions. This
particular collection of paintings is inspired by the artist’s four year
old daughter and her excitement at a toy store. Shukla shares, “ When
I look at her childish cravings for a new toy and think, in amusement,
how she can be so fascinated by something so useless, I wonder aren’t
our lives a never ending succession of wanting this or that…and then
quickly coming to terms with our gain or sulking when we do not
get our toy?” Shukla equates our everyday lives to a toy store in his
paintings. “For one, the desire may be the whole world, for another,
a source of amusement. The glint in the eyes of my one year old son,
when he sees a new toy in a store, is unmistakable. His whole world
converges on that one object of desire. Nothing else in the world holds
greater happiness for him at that moment.”
Intrigued by colours, textures, patterns and even the nostalgic
nature of discarded toys, Shukla reinterprets the meanings of these
toys as a mode of self- expression and combines them in thought
provoking ways. “Toys are age-old, and representing innocence
and play. They can be basic or very complex and can trigger deep
psychological memories as well as imagination,” says Shukla. The
reference in Shukla’s work comes across as humorous but also puts
you on a path towards a revelation about the nature of one’s desires.
Keep a look out for the paintings titled “Makeover” and
“Limousine” as the humour element is well stated in these pieces.
According to him, “The closest I can get to express what my words
cannot, and to define what my thoughts cannot, is to try and create a
visual replica of my perception on the rectangular arena of a canvas.
On this taut, grainy playground, my subconscious meets the viscous
movement of paint, talks to it intimately, and together, they bring out
and concretize the colours of my being