A square is said to represent orientation and direction, proper structure, balance, logic and law and order. For the past 3 years now Chetnaa’s practice has been revolving around disintegrating this basic shape: an exploration of balance between positive and negative space, presence and absence. A square has offered many possibilities within a set parameter yet forced me to always go beyond its limits.

This one-day workshop titled ‘Within A Square’, intends the participant to go deeper in understanding and exploring the various facets and possibilities that can be offered within a four sided shape. A Square can be dissected, painted, elevated, divided mathematically into further squares to create a unique symphony of its own.

Important: Interested and committed participants (18+) are expected to attend the entire duration of the workshop. Art material and refreshments will be provided. The onsite workshop with limited seats will be held at KNMA Saket.

Bio: Chetnaa

Born in 1981 in New Delhi, Chetnaa completed her Master’s degree in Painting from the College of Art in New Delhi. Her geometric abstractions are drawn largely from the landscape and architecture of her city : keen observations of the metropolis translated into an eloquent schematic of lines and markers. Initiated as symmetrical arrangements, Chetnaa’s work reveals the need to deconstruct the order she once sought, so as to build a new geometric logic that feeds her minimalist aesthetic. She recently presented a solo focus booth, ‘Sacred Square : 101 Meditations on Paper’, at the India Art Fair 2022 with Anupa Mehta Arts & Advisory and has had four solo shows, with a special online & a physical solo presentation ‘P = 4L, {Deconstructing Square Space}’ & has participated in many exhibitions in India and around the world. She has been a part of Inner Life of Things : Around Anatomies & Armatures, Group show, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, 2022; State of Mind: Between Dysphoria & Hope, group show, curated by Sayali Mundye, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 2021; Abstract Notations, online group show, curated by Jesal Thacker, Gallery Espace, New Delhi, 2020 ; All is Not Lost 20:20:20, group show curated by Saloni Doshi at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 2020 and many others such exhibitions.

Methods : A series of artist led medium workshops organized by KNMA

The force driving at the crux of the segment has been to re-examine the mandate of a medium centric ‘workshop’ and looks beyond the usual format of craft-hobby workroom sessions. At the heart of each session is a chosen artist with their unique style of expression and fashioned in an actively interactive module of facilitator-participant format. This KNMA series highlights how the paradigmatic shifts in contemporary art making need to be registered at individual levels and not merely as institutional applied skill dissemination. The workshop opens up room for both artists and non-artists as well as keen learners to interact with practitioners from a wide spectrum of styles and media to reimagine the tools and raw material for art making - ranging from drawings, maps, personal memories to printing techniques to textual excerpts to found or broken objects, just to name a few.