Indian Artist Ravinder Reddy's Work Celebrates the Female Form "Women are the focus of my work," said sculptor Ravinder Reddy, who has spent almost two decades creating monumental sculptures of women. Some of these celebrate curvaceous female bodies, others are just giant heads portraying women; his style typically defines them by neatly coiled or braided black hair, wide dark eyes, colored lips, the nose and ears pierced with ornaments. "I like them," Mr. Reddy explains. Clad in a pair of black trousers and a striped cotton shirt with a satchel hung around his shoulder, the unassuming, 56- year-old artist from Andhra Pradesh spoke to India Ink at the India Art Fair 2012. During the fair, six galleries exhibited the bold, bright sculptures created by the artist. One of his creations, exhibited by the Delhi-based Vadehra Art Gallery, was a sculpture titled "Stepping Out." The 8-foot, 10-inch tall, gilded and painted fiberglass sculpture of a naked woman was positioned on a blue platform with red flowers springing up from it. Mr. Reddy said that it depicted the mother goddess standing in water with flowers around her - symbolizing fertility. Without women there is no life. Representatives at Vadehra said they could not disclose the price of that particular work since a collector was still considering buying the piece. Another of Mr. Reddy's works, a 5-foot, 11-inch tall figure of a nude woman, made from painted fiberglass covered with a gold leaf is priced at 9.5 million rupees (about $191,000), the director of Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai told India Ink. The work received several inquiries during the fair, the director said. Mr. Reddy said he draws his inspiration from the women who surround him, which includes "women of all shapes and sizes - fat, thin, working women," he said. Fat women are beautiful. "In India we have a notion of taboos," Mr. Reddy said, despite ancient India's temple works that featured women's bodies openly. "Women are vulnerable," he said, adding that contemporary art gives him the opportunity to explore volume and form. He creates the basic model for his sculptures in clay, then transfers that into fiberglass or a bronze cast, and paints the sculpture in vivid colors. "I strive for something iconic and monumental that transcends the boundaries of culture, nature and geography," Mr. Reddy said. He has taken his gargantuan artworks to several exhibitions across the globe. In August the Arken Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, will exhibit one of his signature female heads. The 22-foot tall sculpture, cast in bronze is part of his existing series titled, "migrant," which symbolizes the movement of people from small towns to big cities. His professional journey has not been an easy one. At the age of 17, Mr. Reddy said he realized that art was his calling. "Perhaps this is the only thing I could do," he added. His first art show was held in Delhi in 1980, when Mr. Reddy was 25 and "when art was not fashionable," he said. When he started out, he worked with fiberglass, while other artists worked with the more conventional mediums including, wood, stone and bronze. "When I was exhibiting everyone was skeptical about the potential of the material I was using," he said. He began his career working on busts and figures. It was not until 1995 that he sculpted his first 3-foot tall gold gilded head, which was showcased at the "Contemporary Art in Asia: Traditions/Tensions" exhibition in New York. Ever since, he has experimented with bigger sizes and he is, "still striving to take it to a higher level," he said. His advice to budding artists is to be focused. One day perseverance will bear fruit. To support himself he first taught fine art in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and then moved to the fine art department of Andhra University, where he taught until four years ago, when he stopped teaching so he could devote his time to making art. "Money will come sooner or later," to an artist, he said. Some people have to do odd jobs to sustain themselves.