Introductory Note
For the June issue of our monthly newsletter, we’ve got a guest writer writing a feature on the recently concluded Art Basel 2022 art fair in Switzerland. Shreya Ajmani spoke to Aashna Patel of Chemould Prescott Road and Simer Dhingra Soni from Vadehra Art Gallery to offer a slice of the experience for these Indian visual arts galleries that were a part of the coveted global exhibition this year. With June being a celebration of pride, we highlight a very special exhibition at the Kolkata Centre for Creativity. ‘Learn Togetherness’ was a wonderful curation, with its focus on celebrating and showcasing queer art from emerging young artists across the country. The show, curated and put together by the Kolkata Centre for Creativity, was one of a kind with its singular focus on celebrating pride month and in providing a platform for queer art. With numerous exhibitions launching in July, we also have a curated list of must-see exhibitions coming up this month. Read along for more!
Ankita Ghosh
India at Art Basel
by Shreya Ajmani
Art Basel — the fair where the globe’s leading international galleries assemble for four days of an experiential extravaganza.
The 2022 edition of Art Basel featured 289 galleries from 40 countries and territories. Over the course of its VIP and public days, the fair garnered 70,000 visitors.
During the show week, Basel's leading museums provided a variety of noteworthy exhibitions including Fondation Beyeler 'Passages – Landscape, Figure and Abstraction’, 'Mondrian Evolution’ and Kunstmuseum Basel ‘Picasso – El Greco’.
This year, Chemould Prescott Road, Vadehra Art Gallery, and Experimenter were three of the participating Indian galleries.
After their triumphal return to India from Basel, we spoke with Simer Dhingra Soni of Vadehra Art Gallery and Aashna Patel of Chemould Prescott Road to learn about their experiences working alongside India’s leading galleries at one of the most revered art fairs in the world.
Simer Dhingra Soni, Vadehra Art Gallery
1. What is your role at the gallery?
As a Creative Executive at the gallery, my role entails handling design and creatives, from designing exhibition layouts and catalogues to managing our website, social media and public relations. We are a small collaborative team and are encouraged to contribute to all aspects of the gallery operations including artist and client relations.
2. What did you appreciate the most about being at Art Basel?
As Art Basel is the most prestigious art fair in the world what I appreciated most was being “a part” of it rather than just attending it.
3. Favourite piece from the fair?
Definitely the works by Balkrisha Doshi at the Vadehra Art Gallery booth. I spent ample time studying his architecture and his fairly recent artistic practice which made me fall in love with his work even more. The series titled Remnants of Memories is mostly large canvases that create a perception of a labyrinth within it. The clever use of colour and geometric patterns almost create a lenticular kind of sensation which explore his personal revelation and the concept of memory in a digital age. I was also intrigued to view the canvases by Le Corbusier at the Landau Fine Art booth for the first time. Doshi worked very closely with Corbusier in the 1950s so it was interesting to observe their connection through their art forms.
4. What did a typical day entail?
Days would usually begin with breakfast at museums where we would get the opportunity to see iconic shows like the Picasso – El Greco exhibit at the Kunstmuseum after which we would head to the fair. During and after the fair timings there would be interesting events like talks by curators, collectors and even hip-hop artists like Chance the rapper, as well as gallery dinners and evenings at the Beyeler Foundation where famous DJ Peggy Gou performed.
5. What was your biggest takeaway?
The magnitude of the immersive Art Basel Unlimited section was so captivating. It took me a few visits to absorb all the monumental installations by leading contemporary artists from all over the globe. It was just spectacular!
6. Highlight of the fair?
The calm before the storm - I would try and get to the fair early so I could grab a cup of coffee and wander the halls at my own pace exploring gallery booths and artists I like to follow while also discovering new ones.
7. Best art world advice you’ve received?
Appreciate and support the talent of today for they are on the path to becoming the masters of tomorrow.
Aashna Patel, Chemould Prescott Road
1. What is your role at the gallery?
The exact role on paper is strategy and sales, but as anyone in the art world knows - it’s always more fluid than that.
2. What did you appreciate the most about being at Art Basel?
The unabashed exhilaration to just simply consume art.
3. Favourite piece from the fair?
Artists friends racists - Jordan Wolfson.
4. What did a typical day entail?
A large Swiss breakfast in perpetration for a day at our booth - speaking to collectors and art lovers about our artists and their work. The adrenaline once you’re in your booth always runs high - especially charged by the curiosity of others. After the day is done, there were always events lined up for us to attend at some museum or the other. It was great because we had a chance to speak with others that are part of the global gallery network while looking at the most incredible exhibitions the museums had on.
5. What was your biggest takeaway?
There is a lot of admiration, love and support between all the gallerists (from all over the world) - the thought of almost everyone wanting to support each other was very special to see - it is what will continue to make the art world thrive.
6. Highlight of the fair?
Peggy Gou performing at Foundation Beyeler whilst we also got a chance to look at their incredible collection and exhibits!
7. Best art world advice you’ve received?
No advice in particular but I guess it’s all about the love for the artists and want to do the best for them.
This piece was penned by our guest writer Shreya Ajmani, who can be reached at www.shreyaajmani.com or on Instagram @shreyaajmani.
Learn Togetherness
What might the idea of ‘home’ be? Through a curated exhibition involving the visual, performing and literary arts, the Learn Togetherness exhibition that took place between the 15th of June to 2nd of July at the Kolkata Centre for Creativity brought out an important lens into how to look at queer art practice emerging out of the country. Starting with an open call, this show was put together to bring into perspective the different ways of feeling at home for individuals.
Working with the theme of “Being Queer, Being Home”, this was a way for the Kolkata Centre for Creativity to celebrate the LGBTQIA++ Pride Month in June 2022. Be it through the use of visual art, performing art, or literary creations based on the idea of “home”, this was an exploration through the queer lens of artists selected through the open call. With multiple art forms like paintings, photographs, sculptures, installations, writings, and performance pieces, each of these was aimed towards exploring “home” in relation to being queer—from the perspective of a queer person in a conventional home to the utopic exploration of how a queer home might be.
Some of the highlights from the show include some insightful works presented by young and emerging artists who were selected through the open call.
You can’t please all by Bhupen Khakhar
One of the seminal Indian artists to have contributed to contemporary Indian art, Bhupen Khakhar’s works are immensely rich in terms of the figurative and narrative elements that hold the paintings together. Having come out as a gay man and witnessed the development of the gay rights movement in Europe, Khakhar’s works were explicit with homoerotic themes in the most honest sense. There is a confessional element to his art, with many of the paintings illustrating his own sexual desires. One such painting that is supposedly Khakhar’s way of coming out as a gay man is You can’t please all (1981).
Taking from Aesop’s fable, this painting combines several narrative elements together, and also includes the painter himself within this narrative. An in-depth explanation of how this revolutionary painting stands out as a queer portrait is offered by Art History+ on YouTube. Watch it here:
Current exhibitions
Here’s a round-up of some of the best exhibitions currently taking place across the country:
KNMA Delhi has 3 current exhibitions that are a must-see:
Atul Dodiya: Walking with the waves includes the artist’s latest series of watercolours that were conceived during the pandemic and reveal the rare dimensions of a solitary quest.
K Ramanujam’s Mythopoetic Universe allows one to step into an intimate and dream-like world of a ‘moonlight paradise’ with the exceptional images on view.
Somnath Hore: Birth of a White Rose, curated by Roobina Karode pays tribute to Hore on the 101 birth anniversary of the artist by revealing a collection of works in a range of different mediums. With works that combine social realism with humanistic modernism, ‘Birth of a White Rose’ helps unfold the nuances of creative implementations of the artist.
Vadehra Art Gallery: Anupam Roy’s Broken Cogs in the Machine
The Foundation of Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) in collaboration with the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Anupam Roy titled Broken Cogs in the Machine. Broken Cogs in the Machine speaks to Roy’s conversations with and within the expanses of movements, forms of protest, socio-economic identities and the binaries of language; it zeroes in on an attempt to think about representation by addressing the impossibilities of the same. Running till the 5th of August.
Zamin: Homelands at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, Mumbai
An exhibition that features some of the seminal works from SH Raza and his explorations of place, borders and home through colour, shapes and patterns. This is on till 31st of July.
Kallol Datta’s second solo at Experimenter Kolkata is upcoming from the 15th of July, 2022, and will be on view till the 23rd of September. Making explorations with clothing material and geometrical shapes and sizes, Datta creates unique textile sculptures that make for an immersive experience for the gallery audiences.
That’s all for this issue. If there are any suggestions or feedback you’d like to send our way, please feel free to get in touch with us at artinindiaco@gmail.com!