Jun 10, 2022

India Art Fair 2022: Celebration for enthusiast art lovers

The 13th India Art fair held at NSCI was a wonderful celebration for enthusiast art lovers who flocked to the venue regardless of sultry weather and a revival of a few Covid cases. This much waited fair returned after two years and the visitors embraced it.  It contained a plurality of spirit that reflected the resilience of the Indian art world in these uncertain & challenging times. Artists, galleries, and art patrons came together to behold a new version of the art fair that included traditional art juxtaposed with contemporary art! Ganesh Pyne, Sakti Burman, Manjit Bawa, Souza, Madhvi Parekh, Brojeshwar Mandal, Anjoli Ela Menon, Raza, Anjan Modak, Vipeksha Gupta, Sangita Maity, Purvai Rai, Cyrus Penuganti, Krishen Khanna were put together with traditional art practices like Gond painting by Jangarh Singh Shyam, a Madhubani painting by Anmana Devi, rare bhuta bronze masks, a mesmerising vision of Kalight Krishna!

The fair addressed issues of identity, gender, health, race, and social structure through its numerous vehicles. The installation made by university students on the power of art therapy by Ashoka University Centre for Well Being, as well as the 50-feet long Aravani Art Project titled The Future is Femme created by the transgender community were two such thought-provoking projects.

Amongst the contemporary, there was an eclectic range that covered all genres of art from digital, oils, watercolors, print, photographs, and installations. It was wonderful to observe how artist Atul Dodiya’s work had evolved from his Gandhi series, and shutter series to his recent delicate watercolors that featured faceless soul or souls in a minimal mode. His characters drift through a gamut of emotions as he and she were surrounded by nature. There was a timeless quality and a slice of deeply felt humanity, a moment of spiritual revelation in his new works.

Anju Dodiya’s protagonist radiated a mysterious and sensuous quality. She highlighted the inner emotions of the woman, displaying a clear mix of the magical and surreal elements.

Mithu Sen’s hard-hitting images instantly seizes the viewer’s attention as her intuitive drawings documented events of violence that have deeply affected us in our global dangerous climate.

Paresh Maity’s abstract vision of Benaras executed in a global format was enticing. It caught different aspects of Varanasi and revealed his mastery of color, and his techniques. He breathed life into his images with the stroke of his brush
Ganesh Haloi an abstract landscape painter, his works are simply divine. With an economy of lines, dots, and squiggles, he skillfully caught the immediacy of a fleeting moment.

Shilpa Gupta’s cut-frames navigated the wear and tear of borders and boundaries, and the blank canvas spoke of the void and empty periods we experienced during the pandemic. The illusions cut out as part evoked the despair and unrest we felt during the past two difficult years.

The stress of the refugees was evident in Sudipta Das’s Soaring to Nowhere through the figures that were suspended in the air. The artist who was the fourth generation, Bangladeshi migrant, in India has personally felt their non-existence and displacement.

A delightful Manjit Bawa painting of a priest on a smooth cobalt blue background showed him as an absolute master draughtsman. His mastery of color and technique is evident as his brush smoothly glides from the bright to the dark, creating his unique visual language.

Khadim Ali’s born into the Hazara community in Afghanistan used his large tapestries to document the spirit of his community and reflect on the ongoing political crisis in Afghanistan. His work like Evacuation has become an intricate narrative of time and place, highlighting unending migrations, that bring a feeling of loss and trauma.

Debanjan Roy's toy-like fiberglass images of Mahatma Gandhi in a modern setting questioning his relevance in modern times.

The miniature format adopted by the Singh Twins explored important issues of social, political, and cultural debate and re-defined narrow Eurocentric perceptions of art, heritage and identity. The work evokes the light and sensation of wandering in an ornamental sphere.

Home is wherever you are by Rekha Rodwittya shows an assemblage of women from all walks and periods of life from the queen, fairy, and child, simply suggesting that the mind decides where your home is with several undertones.
Ruby Chisti’s little loving dolls standing in pairs or groups speak of empathy and the bond that exists among women. 
While Sri Lanka’s artist Senaka Senanayake focused on nature while Sri Lankan artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran had another story tell in his ceramic sculpture with a futuristic element titled Bi-spiky Head. He questioned the shape of the South Asian religious idol of the future.

K.S. Radhakrishnan’s two large pieces in bronze Ascent/Descent were a symphony of movement. Although several sculptures in motion were connected to one another, each one retained its own identity. His muses Maya and Musie leaped in the air with a euphoric joy, with a surge of energy that instantly seized the viewer’s attention.

Ram Kumar’s pensive expression on the small bronze face reflected the trials and tribulations of the ordinary man. Kumar began his career as a figurative artist. focused on the common man, moved away to abstract art and two decades later he revived the figurative mode through bronze sculptures. Dhruva Mistry‘s three-dimensional forms in space, created in stainless steel, ranged in several sizes, as they showed the figure moving out of its comfort zone. There was a very interesting Hanuman.

Himmat Shah’s elongated, rough head in bronze showed a neat union of the tribal and the modern.

Megha Joshi in her Quasi-Ritual series used materials purely from Hindu rituals such as sacred threads, cotton wicks, incense, and prayer beads to make biomorphic forms from these meaning-heavy materials. With traditional means, she created her contemporary art.

Ganesh Gohain’s employed eight symbols like egg, torso, and pebbles for his narrative. in Artist Table, The artist recount things and situations that have influenced him like Mohenjodaro's torso, Gandhi’s letter to his mother, twenty eggs found under a bush to create a drama. There is a clear mix of the magical and surreal elements and at the same time a narrative. Israeli artist Achia’s installation I love you more than the riches of the East is composed of texts, drawings, and sculptures, and explores the Western fascination with the Orient’s wealth.  It refers to the mythological voyage of Jason and the Argonauts and moves on to the West’s search in the East encompassing the Golden Fleece, antiquity stemmed out of greed and curiosity.

There were 8 solo artist exhibition. However the trajectory of contemporary artists like Jogen Chowdhury and Santosh Kumar Das a living indigenous (tribal/traditional made a fascinating study. Jogen Chowdhury's works titled Enduring Forms consisted of around 50 works focusing mostly on what is famously known as ‘crosshatching’ – the signature style of Jogen Chowdhury. His stories of love, agony, ecstasy lust, sorrow, and Bengal famine come alive in this collection but the one that caught the eye was the Bengali couple seated next to each other in color.

Santosh Kumar Das's (Mithila Art) works on display included Krishna, Kali, and Lovers. The artist reinvented these mythical realities of gods and goddesses born out of religious iconography tradition, as he was not totally bound by tradition. Having understood the essence of line, he embarked on creating his own visual language. The presence of other art spaces and forthcoming events were enlightening and promised a great future for art shows. From The Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation, Kochi Biennale Foundation, Aravani Art Project, Kolkata Centre for Creativity, Space Studio, HH Art Spaces, Museo Camera, Alkazi Theatre Archives, Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art, Liszt Institute Hungarian Cultural Centre, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art to Serendipity Arts.<

Jaya Asokan, Fair Director of India Art Fair, who along with her team tirelessly worked to get this show on the ground said  “As the first fair that I oversaw, I am immensely proud of the team and all our artists, galleries, and partners for working so seamlessly together and for pushing the boundaries of the region’s artistic language. The upbeat energy at the fair has demonstrated that audiences here are ready to dive back in and experience art in person again, a true embodiment of the strength and resilience of the region’s art scene.”

While the avant-garde artists have drawn inspiration and strength from the thrill of the new, the traditional artists evoked their cultural and traditional beliefs to make the India Art Fair a multifarious narrative experience filled with excitement.

By Uma Prakash