The origins of the word Alchemy come from the Arabic Al-kimiya or the art of transmuting matter. Figuratively, a process by which paradoxical results are achieved or incompatible elements combined with no obvious rational explanation.

While Play generally denotes an amusing interaction with people, animals, or toys, often in the context of learning or recreation, some play has clearly defined goals and is called a game, while other play has no such goal and is unrestrained.

As a theoretical concept, play is notoriously difficult to define tightly. Rather than having a single meaning, play is best seen as descriptive of a range of activities that can be ascribed to humans and non-humans. We also use "play" as a contrast to other parts of our ritualistic lives.

So the transmutation of playing to perceiving the metaphysical, is the leitmotif of these works.

Effervescence alludes to the figment of our imagination and allegory of existence in our minds. It plays with myriads of colours and reflections, a skewed view of our perception. The bubbles become planets in space, an example of the size of enormous diaphanous world in relation to the universe.

Like in the games of our childhood, Revelation of Sorts emblematises how we hide and what we seek. Secreting our hopes, desires, apprehensions and thoughts within the depths of our minds. We hide our nakedness under our clothes and yet, like the artist within us, take our inner most thoughts and display our laundry to dry outdoors. Clothes that hang out of homes, talk about people that live there, their tastes, stature and gender.

Fine Balance epitomises our role as jugglers, how we balance a precarious relationship, of agreement or acquiescence, of delicacy and subtlety or crudity and the brusque. Caught between opposites and contrasts - this is the yin yang of our social existence.

Jaideep Mehrotra was born in Mumbai, India into a business family. His mother, a Manipuri dancer and well known singer of traditional Indian Classical music from the Shantiniketan School and tutored under Rabindranath Tagore, was an influence in his predilection to art.

He held his first solo exhibition in 1967 at the age of 12. Subsequent circumstances drove Jaideep to University to complete his Bachelor of Commerce while working in corporations to sustain a livelihood. He kept his interest in painting alive by having a solo show every 4 years.

In 1983, after a spell of 8 years in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Africa, he returned to India and switched careers to institute painting full time.

A self-taught artist, he has a unique style, developed as a concatenation from introspection and mystical exploration. A style that could be described as surreal, iconic or hyper-realism. The creative quest of not confining to parameters, has driven him to experiment with different mediums & subjects, both within and without the two dimensional. This foray has led him to sculpture, using fabric and resin and the digital domain of installations, web based art, giclee, audio-visual depiction and short films.

In content, the work embraces both, a social commentary and the arcane phenomenon. Paintings about life as we perceive it, or an enigma of sorts. People's relationship with their emotions and the interactivity with what surrounds them. The apparent in reality, could be an illusion, a moment caught between a frame of a camera click or a blink of an eye.