Folk art, Tanjore and Warli, India Art Festival was also a platform for tribal artists from the hinterland to showcase their talent. Team Viva reports
It has been always pondered upon how to make art accessible to the common man. Promoting art as an affordable outfit to the masses is what India Art Festival also does. Walk in to the art event, you would find, all those who represent the ‘common man’, not the high-heeled dominating the crowd.
Folk art, miniatures, Madhubani, Warli, Tanjore, Tibetan and child art, the festival has got everything under its sleeve to satisfy the aesthetics sense of art lovers.
ArtPrint, an art gallery in Mumbai has lined up the works of tribal artists from the heartlands of the country for the festival. They have the kalamkari art, leh and Himalayan landscapes and calligraphy art in scroll form. The fest offers an eclectic mix of artistic forms that the audience might feel that they have stepped into various art galleries located at far posts of the country at once.
“We are, mainly, working among the tribal artists and has been collaborating with them for a while. The objective is to bring their talent to the surface,” says Renu Bala of ArtPrint.
As many as 400 artists and 35 galleries have been associated with the second edition of the festival, that commenced on Thursday. If the footfall the event has received is anything to go by, then the fest has surely been a hit among the art connoisseurs and public. The works ranges from Ramesh Gorjala’s divine deities which is a journey towards the Indian mythology to the bird series of Roy K john. Then there is Ravikumar Kashi’s experimental 3 D works, Niren Sengupta’s acrylic onsarangata, Manish Srivastava’s lord Krishna and Radha, Nilakshi Bezbaruah’s acrylic work on wildlife, Apurva Kansara’s Ekdant to name a few.
“Monopoly in art deprives several artists from the art fair circuit. What we need is the expansion of choices presented to art buyers and collectors by showing them diverse visual art products by both rural and urban artists. India Art Festival aspires to do exactly that,” says Rajendra, founder and managing director of the fest.
Myanmar Ink Art Gallery presents the works of artists like Nyo Win Pe and Ye Wing Aung where as Gnani Arts of Singapore showcases paintings of Kavita Sachdev, Syama Nadimpalli, among others. “The experience of participating in an art extravaganza like this is great. You get so many people to watch the works,” says Kyaw Thu Tun of Myanmar Ink Art Gallery. “The public, the masses, who won’t go to private galleries or museums for the fear that they are meant for the elite, are comfortable to come and enjoy art works in a fair like this. It’s more of making art accessible and affordable for them,” says Kavita Sachdev. “The platform the fair provides to artists also is great. There are artists who don’t know how to approach a gallery who are not rich enough to conduct an exhibition. It boosts our confident to bring out our best,” says Syama Nadimpalli.
Kumar Menon, a curator, says that the space the fest gives to artists and those who associate with art is unique: “It’s same for the emerging as well established artists to share the space with the masters. Here everybody gets an opportunity to discover their talent. It’s equally helpful for the collectors as well.”
Around 4000 art works have been exhibited in the four day event that include paintings, sculptures, photographs, original prints, serigraphs and installations, from urban and rural India. “I would have never got a platform like this where the footfall is high. The event is a real inspiration for artists,” says Vikash Kalra, a Delhi based artist. For Apurva Kansara, an artist based in Dubai, the fest helps to improvise and asks for introspection.
“It’s great that we can watch plenty of art works under one roof,” says Apurva Subbanna, who teaches at NIFT Delhi. Priya Singh, a housewife says that it allows you to interact with the artists as well as to choose an art work that you can afford. The opportunity to meet the artists and to interact with them enthuse Neha Achu Abraham, Shilpa Susan Samuel and Deenu Jacob, students of Jesus and Mary College. The fest, at Thyagaraj Stadium, concluded on Sunday.