Daring to be different
24 May 2012 12:00 PM GMT
When Meena Verma opened Arts of the Earth, a gallery dedicated solely to folk and tribal art about a year ago, she would not have probably foreseen that specialising in a medium would soon become a trend for gallerists in the city’s emerging artscape.
While earlier, galleries would pride themselves on being able to provide a diverse range of art — be it different media or artists from across genres — the new generation of art gallerists are happy to restrict themselves to a specialised theme or even a niche medium.
‘It is important to create a brand value for oneself as there’s so much competition these days,’ says Suruchi Saraf, owner of Art Perspective, the latest entrant in Lado Sarai’s art street. A sprawling space at 2,200 sq feet, the gallery has launched itself with an inaugural show of black and white works, evocatively titled Ebony & Ivory, with each of the participating artists stepping out of the usual ambit of their practice and exploring the monochromatic possibilities of their Â
distinctive forms.
‘We chose to show black and white works of even those artists who do not usually work in this colour palette, and that has made people sit up and take notice,’ says the 29-year-old, whose vision is to build up Art Perspective as a space for collaboration between two genres. ‘The niche we hope to create for the gallery is blending two art forms like our forthcoming show will bring together tribal and contemporary artists to create art together,’ she says.
In close proximity to Art Perspective is the slightly older Wonderwall gallery that opened doors in April this year and is owned by Ajay Rajgharia. The medium he has chosen to work with is photography. ‘We existed as an online entity since 2007 and even then I was doing more than three shows in a year. Since then, I have studied the market trends and believe that a gallery dedicated to photography made great business sense. Moreover, no other gallery in the vicinity works exclusively in this genre,’ he says.
The young entrepreneur duo Mandira Lamba and Ridhi Bhalla, who are currently working out the logistics of their new gallery Blueprint 12, while preparing to have their first art outing with a group show in September, are convinced that their USP would lie in showing emerging talent.
Then there is Must Art Gallery which specialises in Gond Art, Engendered Gallery which will promote art on gender issues and Ojas Art which has consistently taken up social issues as the theme for art shows. And we are still counting.
While earlier, galleries would pride themselves on being able to provide a diverse range of art — be it different media or artists from across genres — the new generation of art gallerists are happy to restrict themselves to a specialised theme or even a niche medium.
‘It is important to create a brand value for oneself as there’s so much competition these days,’ says Suruchi Saraf, owner of Art Perspective, the latest entrant in Lado Sarai’s art street. A sprawling space at 2,200 sq feet, the gallery has launched itself with an inaugural show of black and white works, evocatively titled Ebony & Ivory, with each of the participating artists stepping out of the usual ambit of their practice and exploring the monochromatic possibilities of their Â
distinctive forms.
‘We chose to show black and white works of even those artists who do not usually work in this colour palette, and that has made people sit up and take notice,’ says the 29-year-old, whose vision is to build up Art Perspective as a space for collaboration between two genres. ‘The niche we hope to create for the gallery is blending two art forms like our forthcoming show will bring together tribal and contemporary artists to create art together,’ she says.
In close proximity to Art Perspective is the slightly older Wonderwall gallery that opened doors in April this year and is owned by Ajay Rajgharia. The medium he has chosen to work with is photography. ‘We existed as an online entity since 2007 and even then I was doing more than three shows in a year. Since then, I have studied the market trends and believe that a gallery dedicated to photography made great business sense. Moreover, no other gallery in the vicinity works exclusively in this genre,’ he says.
The young entrepreneur duo Mandira Lamba and Ridhi Bhalla, who are currently working out the logistics of their new gallery Blueprint 12, while preparing to have their first art outing with a group show in September, are convinced that their USP would lie in showing emerging talent.
Then there is Must Art Gallery which specialises in Gond Art, Engendered Gallery which will promote art on gender issues and Ojas Art which has consistently taken up social issues as the theme for art shows. And we are still counting.
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