Schon Mendes brings urban buzz alive in art

The Goan artist puts a new spin on canvassing the city, with his acrylic works.

The busy works of Goan artist Schön Mendes show you the private and public life of a metropolis. The nine acrylic works, from his exhibition Cameos of a City, at Sakshi Gallery, have wrestlers in a traditional gym (akhada), women cooking in their kitchens, a traffic policeman navigating a snarl of vehicles, men sleeping on bunk beds, construction workers building flyovers and hospital patients.

Sakshi Gallery hosts Cameos Of A City, new works by Goan artist Schon Mendes.(Schon Mendes)

“I have always been fascinated with the urban life played out in Indian cities, and it spontaneously finds a place in my paintings,” says Mendes, 35.

As a chronicler of his surroundings, the artist’s paintings contain echoes of Goa, Mumbai and Vadodara, the places that he has lived in. “Through my work, I celebrate life and the experience of being a part of it,” says Mendes.

The colourful and busy works of Schon Mendes are created to highlight the buzz, vibrancy and inter-connectivity in our urban experience. (Schon Mendes)

His attempt is to bring together multiple stories to create a spectacle that depicts the synergy of people.

“People fascinate me, in the manner that they direct the energy and rhythm of the city,” he says. “People with their various attitudes, views, behavioural tendencies; sometimes intermingling and converging. It is this energy of people that forms the basis of my work.”

The paintings may look like they are simultaneously centred around the individual and the collective. It echoes the story of our cities, where the life of one person is interlinked with that of another. “As members of society, all that we do influences that of others who are a part of this whole,” says Mendes.