Meghana HarikumarThe India Art Festival (IAF) – a contemporary art fair hosted annually in New Delhi and Mumbai since 2011 is presenting its debut edition in association with Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath from 05 to 08 May 2022 at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath Art Complex, Kumara Krupa Road. The art show will be open to the public from 06 to 08 May 2022 from 11.00 am to 8.00 pm daily. Entry to the Art Festival is free.
Around 25 art galleries are showcasing 100 master artists’ artworks along with 300 mid-career and emerging artists, showcasing 3000 works of art displayed through 80 booths.
Since 2011, the twenty editions of the India Art Festival mounted in New Delhi and Mumbai annually established the popularity of the India Art Festival as a mixed art fair module wherein art galleries as well as independent artists are invited to exhibit under one roof. This democratic structure of art fair with art galleries & independent artists pavilion under one roof saw phenomenal ‘growth in scale, quality, and expansion’ in the last decade.
In this season, the festival is spreading its mission of ‘democratizing ‘art-viewing and buying’ to India’s Silicon Valley ‘Bengaluru’ from 06 to 08 May 2022 at a picturesque and historical Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath Art Complex, Kumara Krupa Road.
India Art Festival gives artists an opportunity to expose their art to several different kinds of audiences and build their network and assess their potential markets. On the other hand, art buyers and art collectors prefer annual art fairs to search for works of art they like from thousands of quality artworks available under one roof, instead of exhaustive weekend hopping around the city’s art spaces. It also gives an opportunity to non-participating artists to interact with those who are displaying their works.
India Art Festival Director, Rajendra says “every year thousands of new artists come out of art schools in the country, but they seldom get art galleries to represent them immediately. Today’s millennials look for ‘artworks’ that they can acquire to create an inspiring ambiance around their living spaces; many major and mid-level art galleries also look for art fairs in the metro cities to reach out to the wider art buyer base. Today’s art buyers are working rich who look for ‘one-stop art shop’ with thousands of art choices under one roof; India Art Festival fulfills the needs of both artists and art buyers.”
Rajendra further adds, “all these factors together made India Art Festival expand its base from Mumbai to Delhi and now to Bengaluru in the last twelve years. India Art Festival has successfully expanded the periphery of art patronage and art choice presented to the art buyers. The young talent teeming with the unbridled form of creativity brings refreshing and new radical visual art voices to the art festival from rural as well as urban India.”
This year, 100 master and established artists represented by various art galleries from Mumbai, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Singapore, Noida, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Agartala can be seen at the art festival presenting an outstanding panorama of the Indian art. Apart from art galleries, hundreds of independent artists hailing from various places from Tamil Nadu to Jammu and Tripura to Gujarat are showcasing their artworks first time after two years of the pandemic in Bengaluru. The independent artists include mid-career, established as well as young rising stars of tomorrow.
The specialty of the first edition at Bengaluru is the Gallery pavilion which sees the participation from art galleries and stunning artworks by master artists represented by various galleries. Art Festival Director Rajendra confirms “This is an overwhelming response from the galleries to the India Art Festival at Bengaluru even though it is the first edition in the city”. Informing us further, he tells about the participation by overseas gallery Gnani Arts from Singapore along with galleries from different parts of India.
The artworks by ten artists represented by Gnani Arts from Singapore display a mix of figurative and enhancing styles in the vibrancy of color while some are seen displaying unique works. The paintings and sculptures of P Gnana, lingering on the figurative-abstraction idiom exude the universal emotion of love.
The veteran art gallery from Bengaluru Galerie Sara Arakkal is showcasing master as well as young artists from Bengaluru which include works of master painter Yusuf Arakkal, C.F. John, Azis. T.M, Venugopal EK, Chandranath Acharya, Gita Hudson, Praveen Kumar, Rani Rekha, and others. The other two galleries from Bengaluru – Charvi Art Gallery and H Art Gallery are also exhibiting master artists that include SG Vasudev, P Suresh, G Subramanian, Suhas Roy, Sunil Das, Laxman Aelay, Devraj Dakoji, S A Vimalanathan, Anilakumar Govindappa, and others. Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath is showcasing works of a few senior artists Prof M J kamalakshi, V R Chandrashaka, A Ramakrishnappa, B Y Vinoda, Rama Sharma, and Tharakeshwari T V apart from their master collection.
Gallerie Splash and Easel Stories from New Delhi and Noida respectively have been regulars at the India Art Festival; at the first edition in Bengaluru, they have brought in an array of artworks by master and veteran artists along with new and upcoming artists. The artworks by master artists Manu Parekh, Ashok Bhowmick, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Gurmeeet Marwah, Lalbahadur Singh, Nagesh Ghodke, and Roy K John exhibited by Galerie Splash are presented for the first time in the city. Easel Stories is showcasing the eclectic mix of artworks by senior artists A. Viswam, Arpan Bhowmik, Bikash Poddar, Jyotirmoy Ash, Sandeep Chhatraband, Shuvankar Maitra, and Vikash Kalra. Mumbai-based Studio3 Gallery is presenting an assortment of landscapes, religious and spiritual art, and portraiture in figurative and semi abstractions by Bharti-Prajapati, Gurudas Shenoy, JMS Mani, Vinita-Karim, and others.
The master artists whose museum-quality works will be displayed include Jogen Chowdhury, Jatin Das, Krishen Khanna, Lalu Prasad Shaw, SG Vasudev, Manu Parekh, Neeraj Goswami, Jayshree Burman, Sudhir Patwardhan, Jatin Das, Sakti Burman, Laxma Goud, Seema Kohli, Ashok Bhowmick, Vasudev SG, Yusuf Arakkal, Paresh Maity, T Vaikuntam, P Gnana, Laxman Aelay, Niladri Paul, Gurudas Shenoy, Ramesh Gorjala, M Narayan, HR Das, and 100 other established names.
Participating Art Galleries:
Bengaluru: Charvi Art Gallery, Dhera Art Studio, Galerie Sara Arakkal, Huespikes, H Art Gallery
New Delhi & NCR: Art Lune, Easel Stories, Eminent Art Gallery, Gallerie Splash, Gallery Pioneer, ICM, Kalasrotam, Sudha Art Creations, Uchaan
Mumbai: Art Melange, ArtDesh Foundation, Artvista, Dolna the Movement, House of Emerge, Mriya Arts, Studio P Bawdekar, Studio3 Art Gallery,
The Bombay Art Society
Other Cities: Gnani Arts – Singapore, Kalabhawan – Agartala, M Narayan Studio- Pune, Sneha Arts- Hyderabad
Venue: Chitrakala Parishath, Kumara Kripa Road, Bangalore
Date: May 6th – 8th, 2022
Time: 11 AM – 8 PM
Free entry
Editor
Meghana Harikumar
Raj Rangarajan
Erini Petratou
Chaitra Udayakumar
