Innocence portrayed

"My paintings portray the simplicity, depth and subconscious of the human mind without the power of intelligence being misused,” notes artist Nina Gimi of her latest collection of paintings, A Little Bit of Innocence, exhibited at the Jehangir Art Gallery in March 2004. "Our natural environment sings messages of spirituality through its silence. The forms in my paintings are evanescent, an integral part of nature as it mingles with our life,” she states, further explaining the theme of the exhibition. Paintings like Light, Father and Child, A Peaceful Flame mark this series. Her work Seasons depicts the cycle of life similar to the seasonal changes in nature. The series marks Gimi’s eighth solo exhibition in the course of 14 years, her first being in 1990, also at the Jehangir.

Though in A Little Bit of Innocence she mainly worked with oil paint on canvas, in her earlier Icon paintings stone and wood surfaces were used. In her canvas paintings, "I break the barrier between foreground and background, allowing the forms to merge, emerge, and tell their story subtly... My work on rough stone speaks a more varied language. Working mainly in charcoal, mud, earthy colors and oils, I sometimes allow the uneven planes to help my thoughts to surface.” Imposing figures of Christ and Zoroaster characterize Gimi’s Icon series. Though the Zoroastrian work hasn’t been exhibited, her paintings on Christ were displayed simultaneously at two exhibitions at the Taj Art Gallery and the British Airways Gallery at the International Airport in 1999-2000, to bring in the millennium. Gimi reminisces that when she was working on her Christ paintings an observer commented on her interest in the subject being a Zoroastrian. But Gimi views art as something "very universal.”

In an article in Society, Maria Louis remarks about one of Gimi’s earlier exhibitions: "What strikes you immediately... are the bright reds, fiery oranges and fluorescent greens against dull browns and deep mauves.” Remarked another critic, "For sheer impact Gimi’s recently concluded exhibition... is hard to beat... Definitely paintings you’d like to live with.”

Having spent most of her holidays as a child in Matheran, the paintings of her first exhibition, were inspired by this scenic hill station. Gimi schooled at the Cumballa Hill School, Bombay, and after an applied arts course at the Sophia College Polytechnic, she worked with an advertising firm. Realizing that commercial art wasn’t her calling she then trained under Professor Bowlekar, head of the department of Fine Arts, at the Sir J. J. School of Arts. Currently a full time artist, Gimi remarks that it was perhaps her first exhibition that was most appreciated. "I’ve had a buyer calling me from London after 10 years, telling me how refreshing my paintings are, and how happy the paintings make his family feel as his whole house has my work; how initially his wife took a while to adjust to this ‘seen, not seen’ kind of form in my work, and now she loves my paintings,” recollects the artist. Over the years she has been working continuously (from her) studio at home. It is tough, "there are ups and downs, but if you’ve made up your mind you don’t think about those. It’s a passion and obsession to paint.”

Simin J. Patel