A fair to remember

Over the past few years art has become increasingly accessible to the Mumbaikar with regular initiatives from galleries and museumsmdashin the form of walkthroughs and educational programmingmdashand events like Art Night Thursday Mumbai Gallery Weekend and Mumbai Urban Art Festival opening vibrant avenues for collectors and art enthusiasts Though the city is ripe with art goingson and termed Indiarsquos culture hub therersquos still a regular comparison with New Delhi which has successfully been playing host to the India Art Fair since 2008 But change is afoot as Mumbai prepares to host its very first art fair next week at Mahalaxmi RacecourseHair 2001 by Vivan Sundaram Pigment print PIC COURTESY Kiran Nadar Museum of ArtldquoNot only the financial and cultural capital Mumbai is also home to some of the countryrsquos oldest galleries and most revered artists Wersquod been discussing organising an art fair here for a few years but the COVID19 pandemic and lockdown meant we had to put those plans on holdrdquo says Minal Vazirani the president of Saffronart who has cofounded Art Mumbai Planned as an immersive celebration of art and the city across four days the fair features a dynamic lineup of 53 galleries foundations and prominent art institutions from India and overseas Vazirani adds ldquoWe have come out of the pandemic noting that the art market was growing tremendously with 2022 ending as one of the peak years for auction sales of South Asian art This was an important inflexion point which boosted our resolve to introduce a commercial art fair to the city this yearrdquoLife of The Party by Ricky Vasan PIC COURTESY Galerie ISAFor its inaugural edition the fair has been planned to place a significant emphasis on fostering a sense of community and designed to be inclusive and welcoming to not just high net worth individuals and collectors but also the wider public budding collectors and young students ldquoThe primary goal is to enhance art accessibility promoting engagement within the art ecosystem and the community We hope all the events and energy of the fair combine to create a vibrant atmosphere for visitors and democratise access to the purchasing of fine art that includes modern contemporary indigenous art and antiquitiesrdquo shares Dinesh Vazirani the CEO of Saffronart and cofounder of Art MumbaiThe team behind Art Mumbai comprising clockwise from left Conor Macklin Sumanth Ram Dinesh Vazirani Rhea Kuruvilla Nakul Dev Chawla Teesta Bhandare and Minal VaziraniNotably renowned art fairs across the globe have been showcasing Indian art for years For example Art Basel where Indian art was shown for the first time in 2006 This yearrsquos Frieze London too featured a fascinating lineup of galleries from across the country However Conor Macklin director of Grosvenor Gallery London and cofounder of Art Mumbai points out that the fair market in the West has become oversophisticated losing a great deal of energy and charm in the process ldquoThere is a distinct proliferation of art fairs in the West with too much focus on one group of artists and galleries We are cognisant of that and hope to be able to bring that learning to Art Mumbai An art fair is a rich platform to see several galleries at one venue eschewing the need to make several trips to different city centres to view artrdquoHerersquos a handy guide to navigating the fairmdashto catch the most promising booths and programming highlightsAicon ContemporaryShowcasing a collection of paintings sculptures and tapestries by Indian and Pakistani artists the New Yorkbased gallery will be bringing forth Keralan artist Tom Vattakuzhyrsquos simplistic and nostalgiadriven artworks ldquoIf one asks me what I paint I would shrink away as I do not have a straight answer I do not work to mould myself into any political or ideological tag For me art is a meditative solitary journey and I am concerned with exploring the psychological moods and feelings that I experience I do not have any words to describe it At best what I can say at this moment is that I am a painter of interiorsmdashinteriors of lives I see around lives of the silenced the marginalised and the alienatedrdquo he musesEmami ArtWith a show titled Insoluble Time the booth of the Dubaibased gallery will feature intergenerational artists reflecting on humanityrsquos fate and urgent sociopolitical issues The highlight of the show is Bangladeshi photojournalist and teacher Shahidul Alammdashone of the most influential photographers of our timemdashwho has captured pivotal South Asian vignettes through his photographs taken towards the turn of the last centuryAlongside Alamrsquos works West Bengalbased painter printmaker and weaver Sibaprasad Karchaudhurirsquos abstract pieces echo troubled landscapes and Kolkatabased Anjan Modakrsquos drawings and paintings portray the working class struggle against capitalism Vadodarabased Ali Akbarrsquos collages critique contemporary politics through memory and identity and Arpita Akhanda from Santiniketan explores migration and memory through paper weaving symbolising intertwined histories and existenceExperimenterAfter spending his childhood in Dubai Abu Dhabi and Manama Kolkatabased lsquoclothes makerrsquo Kallol Datta went on to study womenswear at Central Saint Martins London graduating in 2006 Today he engages in structural experiments in pattern cutting and traditional geometry to create silhouettes akin to textile sculpturesBringing together his ongoing inquiry in native clothing practices across southwest Asia north Africa the Indian subcontinent and the Korean peninsula Dattarsquos work is rooted in an exploration of abstract forms constructed in textiles that question material and their apparent tenacity Datta also reflects upon the notions of reconstructing repurposing and restructuring donated pieces of clothes that hold memory emotion and historyGalerie ISAFor this fair Galerie ISA brings together a range of artists from across the globe with works spanning techniques traditions and styles that unite in a quest to break down traditional social constructs and explore evolving identities and changing environments Indianborn Californiabased artist Anoushka Mirchandanirsquos bright and vivid selfportraits offer more than just an autobiographical lens into her life as an outsider living in a foreign country They hold layers of intergenerational memories and nuances that question the identity and repeated experiences of womanhood the gift and burden of ancestry and carving out what it means to truly come to terms with living a dual existenceKiran Nadar Museum of ArtThe Delhibased museumrsquos booth will feature prominent drawings sculptural objects and photographs from the late artist Vivan Sundaram who passed away in March this year at the age of 79 His expansive body of work and practice opened up radical approaches and new thinking in contemporary Indian art and through his lifetime as an artist and activist he remained committed to making art with a purpose spotlighting social humanist and political concerns and running threads of melancholy and deathWith his work he created immersive experiences and spatial structures for viewers through installations with elements figures influences and playful inspirations drawn from artists such Amrita SherGil RB Kitaj Bhupen Khakhar Nalini Malani Jeram Patel and Himmat ShahNatesanrsquos AntiqartsIn a break from contemporary art hop over to Natesanrsquos Antiqartsrsquo booth for a view into the fascinating world of antiques and heritage objectsmdashfrom a ninthcentury Varahi stone figure from the Nolamba dynasty in todayrsquos Karnataka to a 17thcentury pichwai from the Nathdwara School Rajasthan depicting Sharad Purnima and an illustrated cover from an 11thcentury Jain manuscript from western India quite possibly one of the earliest forms of Jain paintingsldquoAt Art Mumbai we are showing high quality sculptures from various regions for viewing as part of our art awareness initiative with a mix of stone and wood objects and paintings across diverse periods ranging from the second century up to the 19th centuryrdquo shares the owner Deepak NatesanSculpture GardenAs an initiative to highlight art in outdoor spaces the sculpture garden will comprise two sections of a garden areamdashone which highlights animals and nature and their correlation with man and the other moving into human forms that hold a correlation to elements of the Earth Showcasing a range of captivating sculptures the garden will include New Delhibased alternative art gallery Black Cube presenting Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi Dhananjay Singh and Valay Shende displaying a range of materials from bronze with patina to stainless steel and Dhruva Mistryrsquos sculpture titled Doodledom in Cherry RedShrine EmpireIn a group show by the Delhibased gallery Madhya Pradesh based artist Awdhesh Tamrakarrsquos series The River at Dusk stands out for delving into the largely unrecorded narratives of the Thathera communitymdasha Hindu and Sikh artisan community whose traditional occupation is the making of brass and copper utensilsldquoIntricately weaving together the forgotten tales of my community and their fading metal craft my artwork serves as a visual documentation shedding light on the history of Pancham Nagarmdashmy ancestral villagemdashwhich is now only alive in stories and memories Each ceramic tile meticulously attached with hammered and etched brass sheets captures a fragment of the riverrsquos essence intertwining with remnants of diverse structuresrdquo Tamrakar sharesSpace StudioIf yoursquore a young collector or keen on starting your journey collecting art look out for notforprofit organisation Space Studiorsquos booth The Vadodarabased foundation dedicated to supporting emerging artists and projectsmdashoffering studios resources and support to artists to nurture their creative practice since 2005mdashwill be showcasing six artists who are alums of the residency Presenting works by Shaik Azgharali Akshata Mokashi Harman Taneja Timeblur Collective Sashikanth Thavudoz and Ahalya Rajendran we have our eye on Rajendran who was a recipient of the Nasreen Mohamedi Scholarship Award in 2019Vadehra Art GalleryIn a group show with legendary artists from Atul Dodiya and Shilpa Gupta to MF Husain and Sudhir Patwardhan Delhibased Vadehra Art Gallery will be showcasing AmericanPakistani contemporary artist Zaam Arifrsquos works for the first time in the city Of his Mirror series the artist is said to create landscapes that go beyond mere imagery observation or imagination ldquoI aim to encapsulate not just the surface but the very essence of reflection itself Through this work I invite you to experience the connections between the self and their surroundingsrdquo he relatesArt programmingFor three days a slew of panel discussions live events and performances will offer key insights and storytelling adding a sense of dynamism to the fair The most noteworthy of these on Day 1 is the speaker series Women to Watchmdasha conversation between five artists about championing women in the artsThis is followed by The Making of a Museum From Passion To Institution where art collector and philanthropist Kiran Nadar will discuss how her keen passion for the arts evolved into an diverse and intricate collection that is now the Kiran Nadar Museum of Artmdashan iconic South Asian Museum shaping a new cultural corridor Collectors old and new can also look forward to a series about navigating the laws of art estate planning and copyright lawA screening of the film Picturing Life captures the life and work of eminent painter Sudhir Patwardhan while a book launch and discussion with seminal artist Jogen Chowdhury reflects on the artistrsquos life and art At regular intervals art walk organisers Art amp Wonderment will be conducting guided walkthroughs of the fairTherersquos also a glitzy side to Art Mumbai with fashion designer Tarun Tahiliani launching his book based on the intersection of fashion and Indian aesthetics Karan Johar the fairrsquos cultural ambassador will be in conversation with Dinesh Vazirani on culture the city and cinema Attendees can also look forward to standup comedy music and culinary experiencesWHAT Art Mumbai 2023WHERE Mahalaxmi Racecourse Royal Western India Turf Club MahalaxmiWHEN November 16 to 19 from 11 am to 7 pmTICKETS available on Paytm Insider