Beyond Bars Art Exhibition at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad

The objective of Krishnakriti Foundation is to celebrate humanity and bind people with the thread called "art and culture".

One of the recent activities conducted by the Krishnakriti Foundation in association with Chanchalguda Jail and Cherlapally Jail echoes this ideology.

One can be a prisoner of many things- physical, mental and psychological. The essence of freedom can be conceived only through imagination. When we met the prisoners, there was hesitation and a fear of unknown from both the sides.

We adopted a language of art to break this silence. When they started reflecting themselves through lines and colours on paper they became transparent. One can see the inner self of the prisoners through these painting, which perhaps, they themselves did not know.
One of the interesting aspects in the paintings' is the subject matter which they chose; most of the paintings have beautiful landscapes, with open sky, field, etc.

These landscapes are not just sky, land and houses; one can see layers of meaning in them. There is a desire in the jail inmates to be in open space.

They used landscape as a metaphor of freedom. Also, there is a sense of realization that we can see through the portraits of Gods & Goddesses.

To conclude, we all our prisoners of our deeds, when we immerse in arts we experience the absolute freedom.

Artist Sayyad Shaiek represented Krishnakriti Foundation to give art classes to the jail inmates. Sayyad completed his BFA in Painting from Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam in 2005 and MFA in Printmaking from the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad in 2007.

He has received Awards from the Lalit Kala Parishat, Vishakhapatnam, in 2004; 'Sukoon Festival Award' from the University of Hyderabad, in 2006; the 'Highly Commendable Certificate' from Hyderabad Art Society, Hyderabad in 2007 & 11, and Scholarship from the Krishnakriti Art Foundation, in 2007.

The artist debut solo works 'Landscape India' was showcased at Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey, USA, followed by several other shows in India & abroad.

Sayyad is intimate with the landscapes of Indian villages. His works are mystical; they open up the heart of the land, its buildings and its people. His works engages perspective to carry the spectator from their own space into a place of vivid imagination.