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Vivid paintings, stirring melodies and rhythms, and expressive movement await visitors to the Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) on Aug. 8. The Mountain View venue is showcasing both visual and performing arts rooted in the cultural heritage of the Indian subcontinent when it hosts a reception and artist talk for the exhibition “Pragati Sharma Mohanty: Kingdoms, Forests & Battles,” followed by the concert “Anantam – From One to Infinity.”
Sunnyvale-based artist Pragati Sharma Mohanty, who has a background in architecture and design, creates exquisitely detailed works that have ties to folk art traditions from India, which she’s been teaching for several decades, including the intricate miniaturist style.
“I have adapted the technique to suit my purpose, telling the ancient stories that originate from the subcontinent,” she said. She’s formed her own “maximalist-miniaturist” style, in layers so dense that “sometimes you won’t be able to tell the foreground from the background,” as she put it.
The CSMA exhibit, which runs through the end of August, is focused on paintings from her mixed-media series exploring scenes from the ancient Hindu epic the Ramayana, full of brave heroes, thrilling adventures and sacred moments. Her process involves painting the backgrounds — lush, leafy landscapes, buildings and all — in vibrantly colored acrylics; drawing the human and animal figures and laser-cutting them out of rice paper, collaging them into the scenes, “then I paint on top of those using traditional miniature techniques of watercolor and egg wash,” she said.
The scenes portrayed are rich with meaning and symbolism as well as color. Mohanty, who draws on her extensive research into the Ramayana to interpret these tales through visual art, hopes viewers will gain new appreciation for the still-resonant themes of courage, sacrifice and wisdom from the millennia-old tale. “Most of my stories are like that — a moral story, a little bit of takeaway from the painting,” she said, giving the example of the painting “Hanuman’s Lesson,” which, depicts an episode toward the end of the epic in which the deity Hanuman learns about the eternally cyclical nature of the universe.
“At its core, the exhibition tells stories about the timeless qualities that transform ordinary humans into heroes,” CSMA’s website states.
Following the reception and artist talk, CSMA is kicking off its free fall community concert series with “Anantam – From One to Infinity,” featuring classical Indian music and dance.
“I’m looking forward to it because it’s such a beautiful connection to the ancient traditions of storytelling,” Mohanty said of how she feels the performing-arts event complements the fine art exhibition.
The word anantam in Sanskrit means infinite, and the performance centers around the concept that “everything begins with one,” dancer, choreographer and educator Gayatri Joshi said. “We start with one cell and then we grow to millions … a few basic notes can produce countless melodies.”
The concert “explores how the numbers are woven into the fabric of Indian classical dance, music and even spirituality,” she said.
“Any concert is complete when there is live music, there is vocal and there is dance,” according to Joshi. “Those three things are very key elements in any (Indian classical) concert.”
Joshi, the co-founder of iGurukul Foundation, specializes in Odissi, one of the eight forms of Indian classical dance, which originated in the temples of the eastern state of Odisha and is known for its graceful postures and poses, inspired by ancient temple carvings. She described it as a blend of masculine and feminine, with strong footwork counterbalanced by soft and lyrical upper-body movements. The music, she said, is “the soul of Odissi dance. When you hear it, you will know.” Her dance school holds classes in Santa Clara and the East Bay, and she’ll be bringing a group of her graduate students to perform at CMSA.
Manipuri is another distinctive classical Indian dance form, originating in the northeastern state of Manipur, which blends movement, music, poetry and spirituality, based in the devotional tradition of Vaishnavism. Sanjib Bhattacharya, a renowned Manipuri dancer, choreographer and teacher, with whom Joshi often works, will also be bringing some of his senior students to perform.
The CSMA show will include vocalist Sangeeta Gosain, sitar player Swapneswar Chakraborty, mardala player Budhanath Swain, vocalist and harmonium player Dilip Acharya and flutist Rudra Prasad Parida.
Joshi said she is very excited to bring such an accomplished group of musicians to Mountain View. Chakraborty, for example, is also a composer, and the performance will likely include two of his original pieces.
The mardala is a traditional two-headed drum with roots in Odisha and the Aug. 8 concert will include a solo by Swain that plays with the theme of numbers. Audiences can also expect a “question and answer” duet on sitar and flute (according to CSMA’s website, “Antanam” marks flutist Parida’s U.S. debut).
Joshi said she felt it was fitting to celebrate the fine art of the “Pragati Sharma Mohanty: Kingdoms, Forests & Battles” exhibition alongside the performance of “Anantam – From One to Infinity,” as both express Indian cultural and artistic traditions.
She praised Mohanty’s work and said, referring to her own medium of dance, “What we do is, we draw the visual art on the stage when we’re moving.”
“Anantam” kicks off CSMA’s fall concert series, the line-up for which also includes performances by Michael Echaniz Trio on Sept. 4, Dr. Gabriela Calderón and Astrid Morales Torres on Sept. 18, Bagwell & Troy on Oct. 9, Naoko Kasai on Oct. 24 and Davin-Levin Duo on Nov. 15. All performances are suitable for ages 7 and up.
“Pragati Sharma Mohanty: Kingdoms, Forests & Battles” runs through Aug. 31 in the Main Gallery, Community School of Music and Arts, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The artist reception will be held Aug. 8, 6-7:15 p.m.
“Anantam – From One to Infinity” will be performed Aug. 8, 7:30 p.m., at Tateuchi Hall, Community School of Music and Arts, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View. Both events are free. More information is available at arts4all.org/mohr-gallery and arts4all.org/concerts/anantam-from-one-to-infinity.
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