Jan. 20 marks the opening day for Unseen Narratives, a solo exhibition by artist Sudeep Kumar in the Brazos Gallery this semester.
Kumar is a DFW artist specializing in mixed media landscapes, particularly watercolor.
His works highlight the city’s construction and transitioning landscape, showcasing new perspectives of buildings and construction sites.
“Sudeep draws our attention to things like the process of constructing a building, so we see it with scaffolding, foundations and the workers. He helps to expand the way that we perceive the landscape by looking at buildings and locations from unusual vantage points,” said Randall Garrett, gallery and art collection manager at Dallas College.
The exhibit includes a variety of artworks featuring different ways an area can be shown. “There are paintings of unusual vantage points of commercial buildings that might have graffiti or murals on them and also kind of more traditional scenes that show the kind of way an area used to look and also what it’s in transition to looking and the contemporary landscape,” said Garrett.
What stands out the most in his art is what the eye might not notice at first glance.
“I think something unique about Sudeep’s art is that he is drawing our attention to places that we don’t typically pay attention to,” said Garrett.
While capturing the design and aesthetics of a location can bring forth new ways to look at a place, the artistic form itself is not as common these days. “I think probably with the development of photography and then moving images, like film and video, a lot of that representational aspect of art moves from drawing and painting into newer media,” said Garrett.
“That’s probably why it’s not as common to see these days, like more artists are working in abstract or conceptual ways.
But it’s still important and it still has kind of unique viewpoints that can be exposed by the artist looking at the landscape in a different way.”
Exhibitions throughout Dallas College have become an example of serving as a catalyst for connecting students with art and their communities.
“The professional exhibits that we do at all of our campuses are great opportunities not only for our students to engage with them as a learning opportunity to learn more about culture and how it’s communicated through visual art, but also to meet members and professional artists from our community and interact with them as well,” said Garrett.
The exhibition runs from Jan. 20 – Feb. 27, with a reception on Feb. 12 from noon-2 p.m. Brazos Gallery is located in Crockett Hall, C140, and is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
