There’s a veritable explosion of art at the city’s NSIC Grounds, New Delhi. Oils, acrylics and tempera paintings vie for space with sculptures and installations. Upcoming artists display their works cheek-by-jowl with those of big names in the art world. And as one soaks in the artistic expressions on canvas and a variety of other media, one also gets to watch stage artistes from India and abroad.
The ongoing 12th edition of the India Art Fair has brought together 81 exhibitors from 20 Indian and international cities besides performance artists like Maya Krishna Rao, Jelili Atiku and Piyali Ghosh.
Jagdip Jagpal, Fair Director, says “the India Art Fair has grown extraordinarily in the last 12 years, turning the spotlight on South Asian and Indian art.” Modern and contemporary South Asian art remains the focus of the fair, she says, adding that while 70% of the floor space is dedicated to Indian galleries, there is a valuable “line-up of artists not seen in India too,presented by international galleries.”
For Abhishek, a young participating artist, displaying his works next to some great masters and contemporary artists is a big thing. He says the work he has exhibited at the show are representations of contemporary socio-political issues. He uses hand-bleached techniques and works with watercolours.
By Raja Ravi Varma
The installations created by Probhir Gupta are his tribute to the women currently gathered at Shaheen Bagh. “I thought, apart from going there myself, I must speak about it in some way or the other”, he explained. A recurrent symbol in his work is the comb, which, he says, “represents a personal and physical interior.”
Avijit Dutta tries to showcase the mechanical nature of mankind, “how emotionless, heartless life is every day”. He uses tempera on paper, a technique involving applying layer-upon-layer of colour.
Martin Parr’s chosen medium of art is photography. Apart from exhibiting the photographs he had taken earlier, Martin takes snaps of people visiting the exhibition. “I very much like the idea of bringing photographs back to the people who are in them. This is the best way to do it, to take them, print them and show them, and hopefully people see them”, he says, adding, “I am making art out of people looking at art!”
