Showcasing Art, For the People, By the People: India Art Festival, 2018 at Nehru Centre, Mumbai
Art
World of Art
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February 17, 2018 at 10:59 AM
Yes, it’s your time of the year for art – whether you want to create or appreciate, sell or buy – as the country’s biggest and most comprehensive art show unfolds at Nehru Centre, Worli, Mumbai. The India Art Festival, showcasing 4500 pieces of splendorous art in 150 comfortably air-conditioned stalls, hosts its 7th Mumbai edition at two levels of the Discovery of India building from the 15th to the 18th of this February of 2108. It’s a call to feast for art lovers, appreciators, collectors, buyers, designers and architects as a full range of artists from established urbane professionals and masters to little known remote rural practitioners of contemporary, modern, classic, traditional, tribal and fusion art forms have laid out their creations on a single and equal platform at this springtime bonanza.
© Courtesy of
artistsrushti, Srushti Rao
To seek beauty in our lives, in our world that surrounds us, is but a human trait, and one that urgently needs strength and encouragement as one of the fast diminishing attributes of an increasingly power and technology centric world. Aesthetic expression often finds itself benumbed for want of takers, and conversely, its seekers may wait endlessly to discover their desired artistic terminus.
Conceived in 2011 as a formula that broke the barriers of the Indian art market by creating an opportunity for the producers and consumers of various visual art forms to connect, offer and consume at a single place and time – a veritable art mela for one and all – the India Art Festival is held in two annual editions at Mumbai and New Delhi each year. Artists from all over the larger Asian subcontinent have access to book a stall and display their creations at this fest, as individuals or collectives through large and mid-sized art galleries. The currently ongoing February 2018 version has 49 art galleries and 565 artists from 30 cities and 10 countries displaying their artistic works.
The mind-boggling range of artists and their creations on display here and the unhindered accessibility to them that an art lover enjoys, bears testimony to the resounding success of Festival’s format. What’s more, most works can even be customised and commissioned to suit sizes and other parameters of a buyer’s choice.
You can find works of well-known artists like M.F. Hussain, K.K. Hebbar, Bose Krishnamachari and Rini Dhumal sharing display space with much lesser known and even obscure names still budding in the art world. A booth where your eyes can feast on contemporary strokes and dreamy abstractions may be a neighbour of another where treasures of traditional or tribal art sourced from remote locations can be discovered.
Rohan Sonawane from Mumbai displays evocative brass sculptures in his ‘Rhythm in Movement’ and ‘Peace’ series based on Buddha’s life and Buddism, while his sister, Lalita’s paintings in acrylic on canvas titled ‘ Colours for Harmony’ bring the walls of their booth to joyous life. ‘Canvas Dreams’ is a 3 member Nagpur group of amateurs which displays, among others, Shubhangi Jangde’s fetish for the cube as a theme in her mixed media works and her booth-mate Bhagyashree Bahekar explores her creative expression using the form of a fish in her works.
Deepali Sarde, a resident of Badlapur, is a young painter who unleashes surprisingly evolved emotions through a series of paintings in oil and acrylic on canvas of a female protagonist’s various moods and phases. The startling contrasts between a dark heroine and her ultra-bright surroundings are attractively bold and imaginatively balanced by the use of delicate butterflies and flowers. Artist Gireesan Bhattathiripad from Thrissur, Kerala, has laid out a spread of vibrant paintings that bring the green plantains and golden harvests of his land to life in a unique contemporary style.
Vineeta Rupani contemporises tribal art using acrylic on different surfaces with elan. Her contemporary take on Bengal’s Santhal art form in a series titled ‘Aging Together’ as also her use of Warli and Gond forms and techniques to picturise different aspects of women’s lives in a work titled ‘She’ are both irresistibly charming. ‘Beyond Square’ is an Udaipur venture that specialises in bringing the art of Pichwai, the painting style that adorns the cloth backdrop of the idol at the Udaipur Shreenathji Temple, to the spaces of art lovers. The traditional theme of Krishna’s life done in natural pigments is often fused with Mughal or Madhubani elements and modern colours to create exclusive curated and customised pieces. ‘Sahaj Srajan’ is an NGO that showcases a collection of original works, exquisitely detailed and authentic, of tribals like Gonds, Bhils, Santhals and traditional artists like Madhubani and Patchitra done on canvas and small pieces of simple furniture as well as sculptures too.
Many established galleries like Tao, Easel Stories, Dolna, Rhythm and Studio3 have put up a fine spread of works by well-known artists. Arpan Bhowmik marks his presence with his characteristic water-colour style acrylic on canvas grey-scale scapes of Kolkata with fiery highlighted trams and autos. G. Subrahmanyam delights with his magazine paper collages painted on with acrylic to depict Radha and Krishna, and other figures. Srushti Rao's signature style, called 'lineism' by her, makes splashes in several different takes.
The spread is huge and impossible to capture even a fraction within such a tiny window. It would be best enjoyed with a visit within the 18th of the month, where you can be assured of hours of engagement with imaginative, vibrant, enrapturing art.
Cover Image: Acrylic, oil, metal, mixed media on canvas by Jaideep Mehrotra displayed at the booth of Tao Art Gallery
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Photography :Various
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