With COVID-19 continuing to restrict all activities, artists and art students are increasingly exploring online activities as a vent for their creativity and a means to express their solidarity with the world.

Typical of the new normal in the art world are two online art shows this week that intend to share the pain of war on the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

On Sunday

The shows are being organised under the aegis of White Rose Movement, a cultural forum that stands against fascism and war, says former chairman of Kerala Lalithakala Akademi T.A. Satyapal, who is also curating the shows.

The first show, ‘Sky Blue, Shadows of Hiroshima,’ was inaugurated on Thursday by Hindi poet Ashok Vajpeyi. The second, ‘Sky Blue, Shadows of Nagasaki,’ will be inaugurated by scholar Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty on Sunday.

Over 70 artists from all over India and 150 of their works, which include paintings, sculptures and photographs, are part of the show, says Mr. Satyapal. The show is open to the public at the White Rose Movement Facebook site and on YouTube (facebook.com/ 2020whiterose; www.whiterosemovement.in and 2020whiterose. blogspot.com).

Art classes too are finding ample patronage on cyberspace. Seema Suresh, an art teacher from Kochi, says her online classes have drawn students from across Kerala besides expatriate Malayalis from places such as Sydney, Uganda, Zambia, and the U.S.

The online idea was explored as the pandemic spread, shutting down all institutions. Ms. Suresh, who specialised in murals from Mahe Kalagramam, decided to take the digital route for her classes.

Tremendous response

In another online venture in the city, a month-long exhibition of around 50 works by 25 artists in the district drew tremendous response as the pandemic-induced lockdown grew more stringent in June, recalled district secretary of Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham Joshi Don Bosco on Thursday.

“The exhibition had a big reach with hundreds sharing the link to the show,” he says.