Art exhibition at Lalit Kala Akademi features themes of dalit resilience, justice, equality, and nature

Chennai: The narrow lanes of Mint Street are compact, packed with houses, with broken compound walls plastered with movie posters. There are overflowing dustbins, drunk men sleeping on the platform, and women running their households.

This was everyday life for dalit artist S Venkatesan, and is what has been translated in his work. “North Chennai has a strong influence on my work , especially the topics I choose matriarchal households, motherhood, marginalization by oppressors, and politics.

Women are a fierce force and I can’t help but try to honour them through my work,” says Venkatesan, whose works are part of an ongoing art exhibition ‘Becoming: Weaving the Commons’ organized by Neelam Cultural Centre at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai.

The exhibition also features dalit artist K Natarajan, who along with Venkatesan, explores themes of ecology, memory, and equality, as acts of reclamation. Venkatesan’s art captures landscapes of urban North Chennai, its workers, streets, grace, and melancholy in the ordinary. Natarajan’s work, rooted in Buddhism and dalit resilience, turns lived struggle into collective renewal.

Venkatesan says, having lived in a 150sqft house with his family created a lasting impact on how he perceives things. “All my subjects are often cramped to the centre, while the rest of the canvas space is empty. When I look at my subject, I look at it multi-dimensionally,” he says.

Growing up in the foothills of Jawadhu, Tiruvannamalai, Natarajan has always felt one with nature. His work has powerful themes with subtle imagery that reflect stories of forest preservation, role of women, man versus animal conflict, and the innocence of youth. “With women playing huge roles in preserving nature during the ongoing Sudan and Gaza genocides, and in Jaipur this year, where hundreds of women formed a human chain to protest plans to cut down more than 2,500 trees, I noticed how it’s women who stand in solidarity for nature,” he says. For him preserving nature is about fairness and justice. “My work is a way to reclaim what has been taken. The forest, the soil, and the women who protect them, appear in my work as signs of hope and continuity. Through them, I ask what it is to live in harmony when survival has become an act of resistance,” says Natarajan.

The exhibition will be on display till Nov 2 .

Courtesy : TOI

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