Milburn Cherian's Memento Mori exhibition

Life in a metro, no not the movie, the real thing — can be at best, energetic, at worst, frenzied. So when I stepped into the cool, quiet space that is gallery Art Musings tucked away in a corner of Colaba, it’s strange that I came face to face with my urban experience but in a medieval setting.

At once jarring yet strangely soothing, looking at artist extraordinaire Milburn Cherian’s paintings evokes a sense of belonging. Titled ‘Memento Mori’, the collection makes it hard not to relate to the milieu of faces, some pained, some ecstatic, others distorted in anger or various degrees of distress, painted in earthy shades with painstaking attention to detail.

Minus any technical jargon or allusions to particular styles, Milburn is refreshingly affable and rather to the point when she says, “I just paint”. And yet her works have the ability to draw you in, absorbing your gaze as you sift through the crowds of faces, limbs, costumes and scenes, trying to decipher the embedded stories.

Milburn’s canvasses, which seem set in biblical times, have managed to capture all the emotions we experience in our rushed everyday existence.

Take a minute, stop rushing, and head to this gallery for a little downtime.

Gallery Art Musings: Admirality Building, Colaba Cross Lane, Colaba, Mumbai; Tel: 22163339. The exhibition MEMENTO MORI is on at Art Musings, Mumbai till December 5, 2008 and moves to the Jehangir Art Gallery from December 10 -16, 2008. Prices: Range from Rs 30,000 to Rs 25 lakh.