Abstraction for Nicola Durvasula implies a referent. Material, colour, texture, surface and form might gesture towards environment, sound, art history or spiritual practice. In this, Durvasula’s work sits within a genealogy of artists who have used abstraction to explore the ‘life world', which along with their human scale, makes for an approachability.
Small sculptures point to a legacy of the Objets Trouvés. They can refer to the artist’s biography, to happenstance, to metaphysics or to the beauty of the ordinary.
PS2, 2017-25
Earthenware, acrylic, ink (found object)
11.8 x 11.8 x 1.9 inches / 30 x 30 x 5 cm
PS4, Untitled (dry landscape), 2023-25
Found stones, plaster, acrylic, gesso (cluster)
11 x 10.2 x 3.1 inches / 28 x 26 x 8 cm
PS5, Untitled (rear mirror), 2025
Mirror, plastic metal, cardboard, acrylic
6.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches / 16 x 16 x 3.5 cm
PS6, Untitled (La Pietà), 2010-25
Plastic bottles, gesso + base (earthenware, gesso)
8.4 x 6.2 x 5.9 inches / 21.5 x 16 x 15 cm
PS9, Untitled (piano piece 2), 2020-25
Stone, ceramic (stoneware), acrylic, gesso
Cluster of 5: 5.9 x 4.7 x 1.5 inches / 15 x 12 x 4 cm (Individual approx. 1.9 x 1.5 x 1.5 inches / 5 x 4 x 4 cm)
PS11, 2010-25
Found object, plastic, acrylic | Found object, leather heel
2.7 x 2.7 x 0.3 inches / 7 x 7 x 1 cm | 2.7 x 2.3 x 0.1 inches / 7 x 6 x 0.5 cm
PS12, 2020
Found object, natural chalk
6.4 x 6.2 x 2.9 inches / 16.5 x 16 x 7.5 cm | 8.6 x 2.3 x 1.7 inches / 22 x 6 x 4.5 cm
PS13, 2025
Papier mache, paint remnants, PVA glue
2.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 inches / 6.5 x 6.5 x 6.5 cm
PS17, 2019
Top right Untitled (मोन): Ceramic (glazed stoneware) | 3.75 x 5 x 5 inches /
9.5 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm
Bottom left: Wood, plastic, acrylic | 0.75 x 1.5 x 0.75 / 1.9 x 3.8 x 1.9 cm
M7, 2025
Acrylic, gesso on handmade paper
23.6 x 23.6 inches / 60 x 60 cm (framed dimensions)
Monochromes which appear deceptively simple are built up using multiple layers. The choice of handmade paper, the use of gouache, watercolour, or pigments dissolved in Ganges water, inflect them with a particular tone or significance. Shown as singular statements, individually or in groups, they insist on the power of colour.
Shown as singular statements, individually or in groups, they insist on the power of colour.
GN17, 2024
Watercolour, printing ink, graphite on paper
6.9 x 9.3 inches / 17.5 x 23.5 cm
Graphic notations use mark and symbol to suggest sequences of sound. Here, there is a reference to the confluence of avant-garde music and art from the 1950s, as well as an echo of the artist’s own earlier figurative works in their fluid lines.
Seascapes captured from the artist’s window recall a 19th development towards abstraction, in which sea and sky become the pretext to render qualities of light through watercolour paint.
Sea and sky become the pretext to render qualities of light through watercolour paint.
Light on water in Varanasi, and a technical glitch, give rise to a video by the artist; and in a short film commission titled The Painting, writer and artist Will Eaves explores a dialogue between one of Durvasula’s paintings and its viewer.
