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Yatin Patel’s ‘Sutra’ examines our world, helps local non-profits
Published in the Orlando Sentinal by Matthew J. Palm

Orlando resident and photographer Yatin Patel, is combining his art with a program that lets community-based organizations raise funds to support their programs and activities.

The artist launches “Sutra,” his first large-scale photography exhibition this Saturday, Sept. 17, at 120 N. Orange Ave., Orlando, with a public reception.

The artist’s goal is to engage the community with arts, culture and philanthropy, so he is offering local foundations to host their own private events around his art exhibit.

“We have a very diverse group of foundations with great causes taking part in this event, and I am very excited to provide them a meaningful platform to help promote their cause,” says Yatin, who goes by his first name. Among the groups who will be hosting events there are BETA, the Boy Scouts and Give Kids the World.

“Yatin’s vision is extraordinary and we were honored when he invited us to be a part of his Orlando debut,” says Adonal Foyle, Founder and President of the Kerosene Lamp Foundation (KLF), another group that will use the space. “KLF emphasizes empowerment as the way forward for young people and the messages in Yatin’s art reinforce that concept, making ‘SUTRA’ the perfect backdrop for our fall fund-raising event.” With “Sutra,” Yatin reveals through life-size prints, the beautiful textural fibers that are woven into the environments of present day urban India, evocative of its ancient society and civilization at large.

Sutra borrows its name from the ancient Sanskrit “SUTRA”, translated as “a thread or line that holds elements together.”

Each print uses custom inks printed on large pieces of handmade, Japanese kozo paper – a process that ensures each print will be exclusive.

It opens for the general public from 6:10-10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, and from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18. Yatin’s series was photographed in his hometown of Ahmedabad, India. Having lived in both India and the Western world, Yatin was compelled to explore his roots and the lifestyle he had taken for granted. “What fascinates me is how, after thousands of years, the original environment and its habitants have organically evolved in time to find a delicate balance between tradition and modernism, without compromise.,” Yatin says. “My work seeks to document this astonishing yet harmonious paradox. It is the spatial and intimate interconnection between architecture and mankind which matters to me.”

Digital printmaker Jon Cone created the methodology used to produce Yatin’s prints. He says: “For Yatin’s imagery, I am printing using a bluish gray ink to carry the mood in the shadows. It peeks out from behind the blackest parts. I use a brown nearly as strong as tea in color. I have three shades of pure warm carbon that make up the bulk of the gray tones in the print so that the images appear to be rich and with considerable depth.”