KATHMANDU: Touching upon the issues of people, settlement, religion and universe, 30 artworks — paintings and prints — are on display at Nepal Art Council, Babarmahal from March 31. The paintings by Narendra Bahadur Shrestha, Nagendra Pd Paudyal, Devendra Thumkeli and Keshab Raj Khanal, and prints by Anita Khanal Bhattarai are a part of the group painting and print exhibition ‘Solidarity’. Birth of universe and its relation with earth are the major themes in Shrestha’s paintings. With the use of bold colours like gold, dark blue, and black among others, he has created striking paintings. Interestingly, he has used match sticks, thread and sand to give texture to his paintings. In one of his works, he has created a huge golden sun in black backdrop where the artist has evenly placed matchsticks around the sun forming the rays of light. Among many other things, what keeps this universe going is people’s religious faith. And the influences of religion, and culture are seen in Paudyal’s work. Using contrast colours and minimal motifs, he has painted jamara, rice, om, trishul and more, of Hindu religion denoting people’s faith in their society. For instance, a painting of Paudyal showcases a plate full of rice mixed in red powder, and green jamara — required during Dashain festival — at the centre of the canvas. The canvas’ background is painted in red (bottom) and yellow (upper part), where damaru and metal vessel used for butter lamp are also seen. Khanal Bhattarai too has chosen religious motifs — of Hinduism and Buddhism in her prints. Her printworks display Lord Ganesh, Goddess Tara and more in monochrome of red, purple and grey. However, modernisation has also made an impact in the present world, urbanisation being one of the effects. Unplanned urbanisation not only makes the city look ugly, it also threatens its culture and identity of that area. This notion is evident in artist Khanal’s paintings. With traditional houses, temples, stupa et cetera on the backdrop of the canvas, sprouting mushrooms are in the foreground in all his works. The mushrooms signify the rapid unplanned urbanisation and encroachment on the cultural heritages. He has painted Capital’s cityscape — that is turning into concrete jungle — along with mushrooms using hues like blue, pink orange, white, red, and yellow. Meanwhile, Thumkeli has painted dual nature of human beings, especially of politicians — their faces show honesty, but are dishonest in reality. According to Thumkeli, every human being has dual nature — be it a common man or a politician. And his paintings suggest not to lose hope despite all odds. The artist has used motifs like humans with mask, lotus flower, its leaves, and sun in his works — while the mask suggests dual human nature, the lotus and the sun represent hope. The exhibition is on till March 6.