Three artists are holding an exhibition called The Wandering Alchemist (till August 9) at Gallery Sanskriti. Two of them — Alexis Kersey and George K. — have much in common, insomuch as they are compulsive attention-seekers. The third, Manish Nai, is unlike these two — his work conforms to the rules of good taste, a quality that the other two make one feel uncomfortable about possessing. Nai’s work derives from textile design. He actually uses jute along with watercolour and handmade paper to create squares and rectangles in close conjunction as in stonework. Lines ripple and create waves with geometric precision. The subtle colours are also in keeping with the harmony of his compositions (picture).

Alexis Kersey and George K. have none of his reticence. Kersey, of Anglo-Australian parentage, borrows the look of billboards, churning out images that are shinier, using caste marks, anthropomorphic creatures, black-and-white photographs, a Dürer classic, a Jain muni and the Madonna in a truly obscene way. George K. paints familiar images of people in a bazaar in the old-fashioned photo-realist manner and pretends to address market economy issues by scrawling slogans on them. He does the same with his life-size fibreglass likenesses of eunuchs. They are no worse or better than Krishnagar clay models.