Atul Dodiya

Armed with a superb command over a whole range of painting techniques and styles, Dodiya creates inventive images that are metaphorically suggestive. His lavish visual vocabulary makes reference to religious paintings, movie posters, billboards and calendar art. It is clear the artist enjoys playing with styles and artistic concepts, merging them in unexpected ways to excite and intrigue the viewer.

The current work is produced on a shopkeeper's shutter which is commonplace in the commercial districts of Bombay and under normal circumstances they bear advertisements for everyday products, but the artist instead depicts Gandhi on its corrugated exterior.The choice of the surface is intentional as it presents an industrial barrier to the viewer, but underneath the painted shutter is a second canvas that although initially obscured can be viewed once the shutter is opened. The work thus creates a tension between the public and private, internal thoughts and external facades.

John Brunetti states, "the disparities between Indian public facades and private realities are dramatically revealed as the viewer raises one of Dodiya's shutters. Accompanied by the staccato rhythm of raising the accordion door is the immediate shock of the garish, surreal composition beneath.  All of Dodiya's shutter works are constructed in a manner requiring the viewer to physically, as well as metaphorically remove one layer of public history to see another version of events behind it. These hidden images are stark portrayals of an India very different from that presented by Gandhi's non-violent resistance."

In reference to the use of Gandhi in his works Dodiya states, "the reason an artist chooses or decides to paint a character from history is because he sees a visual potential to create images that will work not only visually but will also say something in a new light to the viewer. I belong to Saurashtra, have been brought up in Mumbai and have been drawn to certain ‘isms’ of Gandhi- his philosophy of ahimsa (non-violence). But in our nation all those things have been spoken of yet there is no Gandhi in modern day living. Mumbai had its riots, its divisions that grow day by day. I also thought of his figure, that frail lean figure, that figure is so ingrained in our minds, it is a cultural symbol. I felt that the icon was being ignored in modern day life. We have moved miles away from him. The leadership and political climate changes everyday, and when we were celebrating 50 years of Independence, Gandhi was only a hint of an image. I wanted to scrutinize that failing, that fabric of society that never practiced what he spoke about or wrote." (Bodhibuzz, February 2006).

"Dodiya moves effortlessly between a post–colonial society in India filled with contradictions and an intimate narrative style. He engages a wide range of influences from Indian and Western traditions such as comic strips, religious icons and movie posters. He also directly quotes from his favorite paintings made by: Richter, Beuys, Brancusi, and Benode Behari Mukherejee. Ultimately, Dodiya deals with a world of both physical and spiritual contradictions. His shutter series is the perfect embodiment of these thwarted desires in life." (E.T. and Others, Walsh Gallery, 2002).