Poonam Rao
to
University Hospital 600 Highland Ave., Madison, Wisconsin
Poonam Rao
Detail of a mandala by Poonam Rao.
Paintings, through 6/28, University Hospital-Carbone Center waiting room.
press release: Poonam Rao is a self-taught local artist, practicing folk style of Indian artworks. This exhibit features Warli tribal art, Mandala style art and Indian themed landscapes. Warli tribal paintings date back to 2500-3000 BCE. Tribes created these as wall murals and this style is still practiced by a tribe called Warlis, residing in Thane district of Maharashtra. They use rudimentary symbols made up of circles, squares, triangles and lines to represent human, animal and all life forms. The traditional form of this painting uses rice paste to decorate hut walls using a bamboo twig as a paint brush. Mandala paintings are concentric circles decorated using henna art motifs.