Visitors look at an oil painting at the art gallery inaugurated by artist BN Bariar in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, Oct. 9: Art lovers here no longer have to look outside the state capital to satiate their aesthetic cravings. The state capital now has its very own art gallery to boast of.

Artists, too, will get ample space to showcase their work, courtesy self-taught artist B.N. Bariar and the art gallery he inaugurated today at Ashiana Tower on Exhibition Road.

The gallery — BN Bariar Art Gallery — opened in style as housewives lit the traditional lamp. Also present at the event was physician Diwakar Tejaswi.

Bariar said the gallery at present is quite small and he plans to shift it to a larger campus if he tastes success with his initiative. “Indeed, this is a very small gallery and cannot house lot of artwork at a time. But we needed a beginning and that has been achieved with this small initiative. I will definitely look forward to shift it to a bigger campus in future,” said Bariar. Today, he opened the gallery with 13 of his oil paintings.

Bariar’s oil paintings caught the eye of most visitors to the inauguration not only for their beauty but also for their unique names. After all, not many paintings are given names like Dehati Monalisa aur Phoolwatia, Sapno mein sapno ki mallika and Lagaam. In most of his oil paintings, the amateur artist has portrayed women trapped in social barriers. “I have chosen unique names for my paintings as I wanted my gallery to be unusual from the opening day itself. Not only have I worked on some beautiful subjects but also given them unique names as this move will definitely grab the attention of the people,” added Bariar.

He also said the gallery would display works of other amateur artists like him. “I started this gallery because I believe very few initiatives have been taken to establish art galleries in the state. In the absence of these, artists cannot sell their work or continue with their passion,” added Bariar.

Anupam Raj, the gallery co-ordinator, said: “This gallery aims to bring artists from across the state to the forefront and allow them to reach heights in the art world.” He added that for the next seven days, artists can display up to two creations at the gallery for free after which they would have to pay a helping sum.