Daughter of famous Gond artist Jangarh Singh Shyam, Japani Shyam’s works have been displayed at Tribal Traditions, an exhibition hosted by Gallerie Ganesha, New Delhi, from August 22 till September 22.
Japani has won several accolades just like her father, but the one that is closest to her heart is the Kamala Devi Award she won at the Crafts Museum in Delhi when she was barely 11. “That was the beginning of my journey as a serious artist,” she says.
The exhibition has 15 Gond art paintings by Japani Shyam, on nature, both flora and fauna. Japani creates forms of animals, birds and trees through a vivid imagination of her own. The exhibition is an ode to mother nature according to the artist.
The colours used in the artworks are subtle and soft, making the works aesthetic and meditative. .
It is her father’s legacy that Japani is carrying forward of creating a new school of art in India called the Jangarh Kalam school. “I was always around my father even as a seven-eight year old, totally enamoured by his paintings, especially the way he used to tell folk tales through his art,” says the 30-year-old, who also has to her name the FICCI Young Achiever’s Award 2018.
Using brushes and colours her father used to give her, Japani painted regularly, even while accompanying her father to various galleries and exhibitions. She soon began assisting him as well, but the motif that inspired her most was that of trees.
“I like to delve into the meaning and significance of flora and fauna in Gond art.
My world is mostly inhabited by animals and rituals, and I integrate nature through forests in which these animals live.” Like her father then, Japani too narrates stories of nature, though she believes her style is a little different. “That is the beauty of Gond art,” she says.
Though Japani admits that she has consciously carried forward her father’s style, in terms of figures and designs, she has experimented too to carve her own niche.
One of the styles she has come with has been the unique white-on-black style of painting which she continues to do till this day. No wonder then, Japani credits her father for all her success, having shown at several galleries in India and abroad.
She believes that the struggle for a tribal artist is much less now than it was for her father, who died young while on an assignment in Japan.