Jeet Aulakh, Ajapa Jaapa Abstract Geometric Modern Indian Painting, 2007

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Born and raised in India, Canadian Contemporary artist Jeet Aulakh participates in a rich and varied cultural and social history … Read more Born and raised in India, Canadian Contemporary artist Jeet Aulakh participates in a rich and varied cultural and social history in which notions of humanity are indivisible into secular and spiritual realms. A central theme in Indian philosophy is the ultimate release from the subservience of life and all its contingent aspects: to be detached from life by the realization of the “absolute supreme principle”, which is itself beyond definition. The goal is to achieve, through inner realization, a reintegration into this indefinable absolute realm. Aulakh ably depicts this other abstract realm through the use of floating circles of saturated colour seemingly floating in the dark to evoke cosmic cycles in which human history and individual identity is peripheral. The radiant world of the enraptured, disembodied soul is undiminished by this enveloping cosmic darkness.

His images suggest a cosmic egg from which the manifest world is born. Striving to reveal through geometric abstraction what remains incomprehensible, Aulakh, through his use of glowing circles of colour, gives form to what is formless and cohesive totality to individual consciousness. Aulakh’s celestial circles are irreducible: they are void of narrative or symbolic content. They suggest the way in which the distinctions between varying avenues to spiritual enlightenment are illusory despite separate names and forms. His is a minimalist and conceptual approach to spirituality informed by the rich history of Indian culture in which one finds countless references to cosmic consciousness.

His work has been exhibited at numerous museums and galleries. He is represented by Rupert Young Toronto. See less