A young artist from the western state of Gujarat in India is pursuing his dream in Manitoba. Arts Mosaic’s gallery assistant Opeyemi Olukotun met Dhairya Vaidya at Brandon Art Gallery and invited Vaidya to display his collection in Virden’s Station gallery.
On Feb. 9, a Friday evening reception introduced the artist. The social evening began with mellow vocals and guitar by Krista Pederson, a great warm up for the evening.
Vaidya is a fine arts student at Brandon University who is also pursuing a degree in digital design at Assiniboine Community College.
He arrived in Canada in 2019 as a high school graduate and with an uncle in Brandon, Brandon University became his choice. Vaidya also works weekends in Chilli Chutney restaurant and has secured a position with the Brandon Art Gallery as a front desk assistant there. That’s where Olukotun discovered Vaidya.
In the Virden display, Vaidya’s most treasured piece entitled "Jui chi Jiva" which translates to Jui's soul / life.JThe piece features an endearing portrait of his sister holding her new baby. Jiva in Hindi means ‘life’.
Another striking piece is the life-sized self portrait next to it. The mural style piece comes with a story: “So, it was a part of my university assignment, for figure drawing class. Basically, the assignment was to make life size self portrait.”
Research for the work into Rennaisance artist Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) stirred the student artist. “I was really inspired by his technique called chiaroscuro (involving dramatic lighting). He points to his own work playing off of a matte black. “So that was my inspiration.”
A element in this three-part self-portrait reflects his weekly juggling between work and education to pursue his passion. Here you see Vaidya in the past (small portrait), the present man after work, and the future man in the mirror a suited figure.
As his present self: “When I come home, like there's a lot of lifting and stuff, because I'm a waiter… my body aches. And then… I realized that I have assignments due. So, I'm looking at the assignments, and I'm kind of like holding my shoulders, painting. So that's the whole pose.”
It reflects struggle, “And basically, the thing is, in my low times, or when I'm feeling not motivated, so, at that time I look at the mirror and tell myself that no matter how hard it gets, keep going and pushing your limits and then one day you'll be a successful artist.”
On Friday night, standing in his suit beside the large mural as he realizes the unfolding irony – his future self, just as in the portrait, has become the present this night - a suit clad artist whose works adorn the Station gallery.
Many other wonderful pieces are included in the show, including a series of 14 days of drawings where Vaidya has drawn 130 small portraits of vastly different people, from different cultures and time periods.
This series has challenged him in new ways. “I've taken a break currently from it, but I'll be starting it again. And what I learned is, drawing portraits every day, it improved my muscle memory and my observation skills of the shapes and the proportions of the portrait.”
What initially took 20 minutes to sketch became 15 and then 10 minutes. “Drawing everyday helped me learn so many things like time management.”
Throughout February and into the first week of March, Dhairya Vaidya’s work will hang in Arts Mosaic’s Station gallery. A show that must be seen.
