Between, Beyond and Becoming: Men in Black and White (Revisiting Art History)

 

Wild Magic

 

At the end of viewing all the exhibits in Beyond Black and White (Season-II) at Icon, Art Gallery, Hyderabad, entered into world of Rajesh Nagulakonda’s exhibits. Suddenly a feel of traversing in a fantasy world echoes in the soul, rendering a mythical story of the wild.

While traveling in deep forest, often we got lost. And there’s a story beneath that. One if crosses the Tippa Teega (Menispermacea creeper) unknowingly, they will be lost and roaming around the same track.  It happened in Beyond Black and White show. It getting tough for me to exit from the show. Became a part of it. Reason might be spent much of my time and space in the wild. And getting accustomed to live in that fashion.

At if I exit from there will become part of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene human ('anthropo') and new ('cene’). A geological epoch. Truly it’s not true. In these times of Great Acceleration. Nature, natural are Myth. We are living in a concrete jungle with virtual realities. oh! no, not living, surviving.

Thanks To Rajesh Nagulakonda magic wand has commuted us from there to our green abode in a mythical memory -magical flying carpet. Rather than in auto machine.

Still cherishing the show. and that’s the spirit made to expressing the escapades’  of Beyond Black and white (Season—II).

 

 

Rajesh Nagulakonda: Artician

Being an Illustrator for comic books, animation. He has the kinetic energy with magical realism in his works. From Black and White to Beyond Black and White his narration moved his form from Indian mythology to Greek. For comic illustrators their tools are magic wands. Magicians usually make virtuality as reality. Comic illustrators make that factual with their works. So, Rajesh Nagulakonda is an Artician.

His form has intricate; fluid line rooted in Indian graphic storytelling and classical motifs. contours move with a natural rhythm as a bond of designed draftsmanship with organic expressionism.

His style of illustrative surrealism, blending classic graphic novel aesthetics with innate sensibilities. Clear outlines, complex internal patterns, and symbolic forms compose as contemplative mythical, Mythological imagery.

The works carry stout graphic balance between space alongside in textured motifs. The dynamic vertical formats make an image in viewer’s eye with a sense of movement, depth, and spatial height. Like listening to the Mythologies.

The colour with monochromatic base of rich blacks, subtle greys, and stark whites. Punctuating black-and-white spaces, vibrant, selective snaps of colour.  Intense reds, blues, or oranges. Create a key symbolic and narrative elements.  This is signature stroke of Rajesh which makes the viewer as listener of folk stories, rendering from their inner zones.

 Rajesh transition from illustrator to fine artist is an evolution from story-driven commercial artwork. With mythic graphic novels and illustrations for Campfire and Chandamama, standalone gallery art. Over time he  moved into vivid forms like print and digital media, physical art forms.

This is the secret behind his magic and width. The passages from virtual to real.

 

 

Enchanting thresholds 

  Rajesh Nagulakonda illustrative narratives have a striking mythological scene.  depicting a centaur warrior with a long spear set alongside a horned stag. These are conjuring themes of ancient legend, nature, and balance. Rendered in a vertical format. composition juxtaposes intricate line work with decorative geometric background panels. Through delicate line patterns and dense, stippled dark shading along the top and bottom edges. The exhibit relies on a high-contrast monochromatic black and white. Bright yellow is a luminous halo making a central focal point overdue the figures.

 

 

Golden Gait

 A world where boundary between myth and reality is fluid. A female centaur breaks free from the shadows of a fading, stagnant realm into light and liberation. Leaping ahead the movement shatters the rigid structure of past, casting off old symbols into floating fragments. Vibrant orange symbolizes rekindled life force, resilience, and individuality. courageous transition toward self-discovery and absolute freedom.

 The genre of the paintings is mythological illustrative surrealism. Magical realism. capturing an ethereal leap between movement, freedom, and transformation. Accomplished in a landscape orientation. Composition pays a diagonal division, with a dark, heavily stippled shadow realm on the left gives way to vast open space as the figure leaps forward. Trailing patterned grey tiles and floating square fragments in wake. Form demonstrates line precision, blending fine cross-hatching across the creature's lower body, flowing, rhythmic ink work in her hair and background panels. 

 

 Never ending story…

 Mythological, folk stories have neither end nor beginning. They continue to persist through time and space.

 Rajesh has striking parallel lines with James Jean and Amruta Patil For successfully spanning comic narrative illustration and mythic fine art. James Jean transitioned from award-winning comic cover illustration into high-art galleries, bringing his fluid line precision, dynamic surrealism. Amruta Patil (Adi Parva) and Appupen transitioned from graphic novels into gallery exhibitions, utilizing stark high-contrast ink work, mythological motifs, and graphic compositions to evolve sequential storytelling into standalone, contemplative fine art.

Rajesh Nagulakonda strives in similar thresholds. They are illustrious treasure hunters of Art and Mythological stories. They are Genie of the Lamp. Very happy, fun-loving, and is rarely seen without a big smile on face. Making others happy with their illustrative journeys. One should often join them in Between, Beyond and becoming Black and White for listening to the Bed time stories.