Bhubaneswar, Dec. 4: Young artists raised their voices against gender discrimination and sexism through their paintings at a two-day-long art workshop hosted at Utsha Foundation in the city that concluded on Thursday.

Mostly students of fine art took part in the event that highlighted women's equality.

Around 20 students from four art institutions - B.K. College of Art and Crafts, Khallikote Government Art College, Dhauli Art College and Utkal University of Culture - took part in the workshop.

The young artists used the brush and the canvas to give expression to their ideas on women's rights, their versatile role and prevalent societal injustice.

"I took up the issue of life of women in an urban set-up for my painting. It has been a great experience to interact with young male artists and know that they are also aware of gender issues and the existing bias against women," said one of the young artists Sapna Ruchismita Kar.

Another artist created a contemporary artwork where she depicted a man's and woman's foot standing together to depict the issue.

"Until men and women walk together on every issue, there will be no equality," she said.

Many male artists depicted the female divinity in the form of Goddess Durga and Kali to portray the power of women.

The paintings were exhibited on Thursday evening when a jury of three senior artists, including Ramhari Jena, Pratap Jena and Ramakant Samantray, chose the best three paintings for felicitation.

The winners were Nibedita Rout, Nirod Nalini and Digvijay Singh.

"Art has always been a medium of expressing social issues for creating social awareness. For gender sensitisation, too, art can work wonders and the young artists have done very well to use to the workshop to create paintings that question such issues," said Ramhari Jena.

The workshop was part of a 16-day programme hosted by an international NGO that is organising a state-wide campaign to spread awareness on the issue of discrimination and widespread violence against women.

Among various events at the state and district level, awareness programmes using local cultural groups, youth convention, art workshops and sand art installations are also being organised.