EXCERPTS FROM ART REVIEWS
AND WRITE-UPS BY ART CRITICS
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Things that fade, that cannot easily be caught and pinned
down are Mehra’s concern, as of any devoted artist who knows that to seek is
all.
Keshav Malik
in The Times of India
There must be
something common between painting, sculpture, poetry and music, so many
painters write poetry,
so many poets can also play some musical instrument or the other or sing.
One of
them is Rooma Mehra.
-
Khushwant Singh
in his MALICE column on Rooma Mehra in THE HINDUSTAN TIMES.
_______________________________________________________________________
Rooma’s works reveal the products of a mind which in its
ultimate imaginative reach is capable of finding itself wherever it looks even
though it marks within, its own divisive strengths.
There is a
sense of visual victory, as one perceives these works.
Rooma’s is a fertile mind rich in the aspects of intricately and exquisitely enriched cognitive details. Rooma’s works invite an inexorable condition in which the intricacies are not to be revealed in the experience of the condition. It’s quality is felt in the richness of the ambient which engages the imagination with a wide range of tactile visual incident.
Rooma’s paintings evoke a splendor that must have existed below the thin white sheen of the canvas she touched. In the stillness of all else around you listen to these paintings – as they weave their way through the crest of melody. For Rooma perhaps it is the inevitable that colour should be used with a fervent relish.
In her
deliberation to personalize or depersonalize she has also set a stage for a
creative art.
-“ROOMA’S
RESONANCE’ BY UMA NAIR
Rooma
Mehra is a young artist who combines in her person both poetry and
painting. It is a rare combination, but a strong one. What is significant is
that she makes effective statements both literally as well as visually.
Rooma’s works with a sure hand and a lot of thinking goes into
her work. That is why she knows what she is doing and what exactly she wants
from the medium. It will be interesting to watch her next stage in both
painting and in poetry. For
she is a progressive artist and poet.
-“WITH A SURE HAND” BY
R.S. YADAV
Within the tradition of a synthesis of art forms and artists is
an increasingly popular artist, Rooma Mehra. A self-taught painter and a poetess of repute, her watercolours are
currently on display.
Rooma has chosen to work within the paradigm of the universal
shunning the obvious “Indian” imagery.
- “NOT OF IMAGERY ALONE’ BY SEEMA BAWA
IN “THE PIONEER’
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Her strength lies in her sensitive faces as well as in her use
of colours. Mehra has made skillful use of the medium of watercolours,
exploiting both its dreamy, vapour-like quality as well as its rich colours and
hues.
-“SERENE
DREAMSCAPES’ BY BHARATI CHATURVEDI IN THE INDIAN EXPRESS
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Rooma’s works exude secretiveness and a magical charm. You must believe in magic, if you want to prod this unknown terrain.
-‘ROOMA MEHRA’S ART; ‘PRODDING AN UNKNOWN TERRAIN’ by Narendra Dixit
(the then Director of the LALIT KALA AKADEMI’S ARTIST’S STUDIOS) IN Sunday
Reading of “The Tribune”
Among the sculptors, Rooma Mehra holds an important place with
her mural-like pieces. She interweaves imagery with a philosophical bent to
life. In the modern context, her art is highly evocative and innovative. And
the general effect is that of relief
sculpture.
-“PROGRESSIVE TRENDS’ BY V. SHAW reviewing
the 62nd Annual All India Art Exhibition organized by the All India
Fine Arts and Crafts Society.
Rooma belongs to the new generation and as her duty demand, she
has a record to show a total involvement with her subject. She is an artist who
finds her platform step by step. Her growth in the field has been evident for a
strong work base
.
-
“GLIMPSE OF PRESENT-DAY OBJETS D’ART’ from the Art Review of
THE NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF ART
The familiar
idiom of brush and colour, used to express familiar emotions, but the style in
which Rooma Mehra expresses them truly distinguishes them.
- RATNOTTAMA SENGUPTA in THE
TIMES OF INDIA
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If the viewer goes through the paintings of Rooma Mehra, he will
find a tragic sense of life deeply etched in the background of every painting.
Looking at her paintings, no one would doubt the reality of the disquiet in her
soul.
-“PAINTER’S
DISQUIET IN SOUL’ in THE INDIAN EXPRESS
After seeing her paintings,
the predominant feeling that one has is that she is in search of an
incomprehensible and invisible truth – a longing for which is reflected in all
her paintings.
“ROOMA MEHRA’S WORLD OF ART’ IN NAVBHARAT TIMES
As a poetess and composer of many published pieces,
Rooma views painting as having strong affinity with poetry. One expresses in
the unsaid manner and the other in the said word.
“FULFILLING A NEED’ in THE HINDUSTAN
TIMES
Rooma Mehra’s multi-faceted personality cast a woman in bronze
entitled “Prayer” to remind the sacrifices made by the martyrs.
Conglomeration of forms, and rough textures are found so often in
the art of Rooma.
-IN TRIBUTE TO MARTYRS’ by VIJAY BHUSHAN
Commenting on an exhibition organized by GARHI ARTISTS COMMUNITY FOR KARGIL
MARTYRS at Lalit Kala Akademi
rooma mehra
Academic Honours
Awarded Government of India’s Merit
Scholarship
Awarded by the USIS
Topped
in the Mittelstufe-I examination conducted by the
Max
Mueller Bhawan in German Language
Awarded by the Goethe-Institut,
Munich
Awarded
at the Shankar’s International Painting Competition at age 13
Scholarships
Scholarship for studying Fine Arts at the Art Students League of New York, U.S.A. 1986
Included in
the International WHO’S WHO OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN by AMERICAN BIOGRAPHICAL
INSTITUTE, North Carolina, U.S.A. in March 2000
Artist of the
Month Award from www.digitalconsciousness.com
in May 2005
Solo Shows
First
solo show at AIFACS, New Delhi in 1982 (Paintings)
Same
Exhibition sponsored by the Indo-Soviet Cultural Society (1982)
Third
solo show of Paintings and Sculptures at Shridharani Gallery,
New
Delhi in 1985
Fourth
solo exhibition of Paintings, Reliefs and Sculptures at Shridharani
Gallery
in 1989
Vadehra
Art Gallery, 1989 (their inaugural show)
Educational
show sponsored by the Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi at
The
LSR Premises in September 1989
Exhibition of Watercolours sponsored by Gallery
42 in 1992
“IN
SEARCH OF PEACE” An Exhibition of Paintings and Mixed Medias at the
LALIT
KALA AKADEMI, NEW DELHI, from NOV. 25TH to DECEMBER 2ND
2002
Exhibition
at Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, organized by Aakar December 25th to
30th 2003
January 2005 – Sponsored Exhibition at the India Habitat Centre,
Open Palm Court
Participations & Group
Shows(India)
GARHI
ARTISTS COMMUNITY for Kargil Martyrs at LALIT KALA
AKADEMI
Galleries in July- August 1999.
“THE
FEMININE PERCEPTION” – An Exhibition of Paintings by three
Women Artists sponsored by Gallerie Petite
in Oct, Nov. 1995
Dhoomi Mal Art
Centre, May 1996
AIFACS Annual 1996,
AIFACS Mini Sculpture Exibition 1996
Sahitya
Kala Parishad Annual Exhibitions 1981, 83, 85, Yuva Mahotsavas Kala
Melas ,etc
Sahitya Kala Parishad 1994
Dhoomimal Art Gallery
– Ravi Jain Memorial 1992
1ST
All India Mini Sculpture Exhibition March 31- April 8, 1992
.
AIFACS Annuals 1987, 1988 (Diamond Jubilee Exhibition), 1990 etc.
All
India
Women’s
Art Exhibition 1987
Dhoomimal Sculpture
Festival 1990 to 1994
Artists
of Fame and Promise – Living Art”- co – sponsored by Studio One
and AIFACS in February 1991
Inter-State Exchange of Art (SKP) 1984, 1985
Welcomgroup Art Auction for Drought Relief at the Maurya Sheraton in
November
1986
International Women’s
Art Exhibition AIFACS in 1988
National Exhibition 1990 (Lalit Kala Akademi) New Delhi
Bharat
Bhavan Biennial of Contemporary Indian Art in February 1990
Participation
International Exhibitions and Exhibitions Abroad
Represented at the
exhibition of Indian Artists organised by the Indian
Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1984
Works displayed in
Copenhagen Town Hall, Denmark
Invited
to participate in “ A View of the New “ a Commonwealth and U.K.
Contemporaries Art Show by the Royal Overseas League held in 1990
Private
showings and sale of paintings during travel to Austria
Denmark, Austria and Switzerland in 1984 and the
U.S.A
Collections (India)
National Gallery of Modern
Art, 1999
Lalit Kala Akademi Collection,
1989
Individual
collections in India (incl. Secretary, Indian Council of Cultural Research
(ICCR)
during first exhibition in 1982 and the then Ambassador of Switzerland (in the
same
year), the Embassy of Spain, the Embassy of Switzerland, Studio One collection,
the
Indian Ambassador to Denmark etc.
Collections (Abroad)
Collection of
ARTE ANTICA, Canada, 2002
Paintings and
Sculptures in individual Collections in Switzerland, U.S.A. Denmark,
Austria,
Spain and Japan
rooma’s art/Virtual
Websites:
http://www.geocities.com/roomamehra/rooma_s_studio_art_gallery
http://www.geocities.com/authorsjourney/roomamehra.htm
http://www.waterperryarts.com
http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/r/roomamehra
http://www.lib.washington.edu
http://www.uta.fi
http://www.greendove.net
(Green Dove’s Poetry of Peace Gallery)
http://www.digitalconsciousness.com
http://www.geocities.com/rooma_mehra/artworks
http://www.saffronart.com
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Poetry
--Publications:
Three Volumes of Poetry published :
Sunshadow, Reaching
out and For You
--4th volume
of poetry (with accompanying photographs of Paintings, Reliefs and Sculptures)
and
--1st
compilation of human interest articles with complimenting artworks in the
pipeline for publication
--Awarded Certificate of Honour by Skylark Poetry Academy
--Life-Member
of THE POETRY SOCIETY, India
--1989
Northern American Open Poetry contest” by the National Library of Poetry ,
Maryland –
--Selected
semi- finalist among 12,000 competitors and published in their anthology
--Honoured
as “GOLDEN POET” by the Executive Committee of the Board of
Directors of the "WORLD OF POETRY”, California
--Included
in the GOLDEN TREASURY OF INDO-ANGLIAN POETRY and Indo-
Anglian Literature’s “WHO’S WHO” published by SAHITYA AKADEMI, India
--Widely
published (Poetry and Creative Writing) and Free-lance Writer of human-
interest articles for all national dailies of India
incl. THE HINDUSTAN TIMES,
THE TRIBUNE, THE TIMES OF INDIA, THE INDIAN EXPRESS,
THE HINDU,
THE ASIAN AGE, THE STATESMAN,
THE PIONEER, THE ECONOMIC TIMES TRAVEL among others
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http://www.geocities.com/roomamehra/rooma_s_studio_art_gallery.htm