Bhubaneswar, March 12: Women artists coming together for an exhibition is rather uncommon in Odisha.

The effort and initiative of Odisha Modern Art Gallery has given them another chance to exhibit their creativity and adeptness in art with Art Era - an annual fix at the city-based gallery.

Since 2008, the weeklong exhibition begins on Women's Day. The event has now become a big occasion for female artists. From those who had to forget a career in art after marriage to those who have fought all odds to pursue their passion with the canvas and paint brush, apart from those that have already made their mark at national galleries, Art Era successfully pulls in women who love to draw and paint.

"When we started, apart from students of the art colleges in Odisha, that too mostly in Bhubaneswar, there were only a handful of women artists who thought it worthwhile to take part in this exhibition," said Tarakant Parida, founder of the gallery and secretary of the Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi.

This year, 26 artists have displayed their works on the theme of women's life. There are 19 artists from Odisha and the others belong to Delhi, Haryana and Bengal. Puri-based Pratibha Das' painting is a striking work that shows a rural woman taking pleasure in the simple art of winnowing while Shaista Naaz has created an abstract work wherein a shell is seen covering the virtues of women. Gouri Moharana has deftly painted a woman with butterfly wings, chained down while Chitra Patnaik's painting of only silhouettes and figures is intriguing.

Satyabhama Majhi has displayed a triptych that compares spices and chocolates in pouches and jars and sewing material to women's lives. Atasi Basu's painting in two parts talks of female foeticide while Ragini's paintings of kites, Gita Sahoo's veiled woman and Sasmita Kamila's abstract image of flowers trapped in a web are all fascinating.

Snehalata Moharana, Madhumita Barik, Rupali Kar and Nibedita Patnaik have all presented impressive works.

The yearly exhibition has raised the hopes of many women artists. "My parents did not want me to take up art whereas I always wanted to be an artist. They thought it would be tough to make ends meet as an artist and forced me to enrol into an MBBS programme. I'm pursuing that at a private medical college here to make them happy but I never left art. I have been practising and this exhibition is like a saviour for me," said Asha Mishra, who had been contacting many galleries and exhibitions but only lost some of her works and earned disappointment in return.

"Art Era has not only encouraged me to continue my passion but also helped me learn more of contemporary art from the works of senior painters displayed here," said the 22-year old from Siliguri in Bengal.

The exhibition is on till March 13.