Travel Through The Works Of Contemporary Indian Artists

Art is a lot of things, but just like cinema and literature, art is a foremost form of escape sometimes for the artists, most of the time for the viewer. 

"If you've ever been fascinated by a destination filled with rich life, culture and history that can't help but lead you to take a snapshot of every detail &ndash then you'll understand its creative appeal to an artist," said Ankita Talreja of Indian auction house AstaGuru. "Whether it's the bright city lights of Mumbai, the cosy beaches of Goa or the reckless streets of New York, the significance of a destination has roused some incredible artistic interpretations."

Here is a list of Indian artists whose works are heavily inspired by their travels.

Gigi Scaria

Gigi Scaria is a Kerala-born artist who dabbles in mixed media, including painting, photography, sculpture, installation, and video. Scaria's work emphasises travelling through different places as a medium of exploration of people and culture. He has travelled extensively across India, and his works represent what he takes from each place.

Shruti Goenka

Shruti Goneka had an exhibition at the India Habitat Centre comprising paintings influenced by her travels. "Tibet and Ladakh are definitely my favourite places to travel to. I have taken all of my inspirations from everywhere I have travelled to so far and that will continue." She said of her favourite places to travel for inspiration.

Sudhir Patwardhan

Primarily painting cityscapes, Sudhir Patwardhan is a Pune-based visual artist and a practising radiologist. Not only confined to places, Patwardhan also draws on the people he encounters while travelling. For example, in his painting "The Train to Munich" he captured the mundaneness of a woman sitting on the train and made it into an exquisite piece, with the blur effect suggesting the movement of the train and time.

Reena Saini Kallat

Delhi-born artist Reena Kallat works with a variety of materials. Kallat found her inspiration to work with salt in 2013 while travelling to Korea. Salt forms an integral part of many of her works with her travelling inspiring her to use more of such unconventional objects. She also depicts lost monuments and reinscribes them using the state's tools to display bodies that reside at its margin.

Ramakrishna Behera

Orissa-born Ramkrishna Behera is a self-taught artist who has travelled around the world and captured some of the most scenic and serene beauties through his travels. His landscapes, such as the Ladakh mountains and monasteries, the Orissan countryside, the Italian streets, and even his home interiors, capture the essence of a place and the viewer's interest. Behera's works are often surrealist take on the places he is trying to depict, sending the viewers on a psychedelic journey to make their discoveries about the place.