Indo-American Arts Council, Inc.

Velli Motton Street: May 17 - 21, 2006

PRESS RELEASE

For Information:
Hina Oomer Ahmed, Hina2410@yahoo.com
Aroon Shivdasani, aroon@iaac.us

April 21 2006: The Indo-American Arts Council is delighted to announce an exhibition-cum-sale of paintings and photographs: Velli Motton Street "A Breath of Life" at The Arch, 66 W. 39th St., 3rd Floor, NYC. Media are invited to the Opening Night Reception on Wednesday, May 17 from 7-9 pm. The exhibition will be open to the public on Opening Night and from 10 am - 5 pm Thursday-Sunday May 18-21.

The artists Kiritin Beyer and Florian Le Bris met in Velli Motton Street, located in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu in 2005 while working as volunteers for the Tsunami relief efforts. While helping the fishermen's families in the devasted villages they became attached to the families and children of Velli Motton Street and decided to adopt 12 young children. So they decided to embark on this project by choosing women and children as principal subjects for their work and highlighting how grace rubs elbows with destitution in disconcerting ways. They say, "It is through photography and painting that we wish to express faces full of energy of those who survived the misery of the disaster." Monies collected from this exhibition and sale will be used towards the education of these children, aged between six and thirteen till the higher secondary level. The funds raised will be deposited directly with the "St Anne" school in Cuddalore. The main idea behind the exhibition, they say, is "We want to show to the occidental world that beauty and happiness depend more on the spirit we give to life than the materialistic prosperity that we can never own."

About the Artists

Florian Le Bris:

Florian Le Bris was born in Nantes, in the northwest of France in 1976. As a teenager, he was already drawing comic characters and illustrating people the way that he saw them. He completed his Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts at the art school, "Auguste Renoir", in Paris. There he learned different technical aspects of painting. After researching various materials for his works, he chose walnut stain as his main medium. The main subjects of most of his works are women and their beauty; depicted with a definite kind of aesthetics. Whether urban and sophisticated or natural and ethnic, by using simple lines, Florian attempts to allow his subject's essence to shine through. After various exhibitions in Paris, including one at the Big Arch of La Defense, he traveled to India in January 2005 as a volunteer for the Tsunami Relief work. From there began his new series of paintings illustrating the grace of the women and children of India. His goal is to sell his art and donate the funds to help to the people of Cuddalore who inspire his paintings.

Kiritin Beyer:

Kiritin Beyer was born not far from Copenhagen, Denmark in 1980. During her childhood her parents traveled and lived all over Europe but eventually settling down in Pyrenees, France. She became interested in the circus because of its universal way of communicating and joined the National Circus School, "L'Ecole National du Cirque Fratellini" in Paris. She says, "My goal had always been to describe the feeling and emotions of humans, regardless of race, belief system and origin." Soon she learnt that she could extend the experience with a camera. She became interested in portraits for the way she could catch the most deeply felt emotions expressed by her subjects. Again she felt the call to begin a journey. She left Europe for America in 2002. Kiritin has shown her works at various exhibitions, including at the "Supreme Trading Gallery", in New York. She volunteered for the Tsunami Relief work in India for six months and came back with several portraits of those who survived the misery.

Details on both artists and their work are available on our website .

The Indo-American Arts Council Inc is a 501©3 not-for-profit arts council passionately dedicated to promoting, showcasing and building an awareness of artists and artistic disciplines of Indian origin or related to India. The IAAC is very cognizant of its responsibility as a socially conscious entity and raises money and awareness through the arts for myriad humanitarian activities in India as well as in the US. We raised money and awareness through the arts for the victims of the Maharashtra, Gujarat and Kashmir earthquakes as well as the Tsunami disaster. The IAAC created social awareness and dialogue through the arts during the Hindu-Muslim communal riots in India and the 9/11 disaster in New York. For information please visit .

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