THE UNION OF SEVEN
The Delhi Contemporary Art Week (DCAW) showcases at Bikaner House some of the best contemporary artists promoted by seven of the best-known galleries.
Walking into Bikaner House, on 8 April 2021, one felt a little bit of the old magic had returned to the art world. There was a live, two-person band, spinning out some old tunes, with keyboard and singer. There were cocktails, croissants and sandwiches, but most importantly there was art—oodles of it.
Three different venues at Bikaner House are hosting the offering of the seven art galleries and a separately curated show at the ballroom. For the uninitiated, DCAW began as a curated forum drawing on the synergies between seven like-minded galleries in the city, who have been promoting contemporary art consistently and are committed to the vision of coming together to educate, showcase and promote Contemporary Art. In addition to the showcase at Bikaner House, the seven partner galleries will also be holding exhibitions at their own spaces.
This edition of DCAW has many exciting new features in its package beginning with the new venue, Bikaner House which brings in energy and vigour to the event with its grand colonial era architecture and spacious exhibition spaces. It presents a specially curated group exhibition of interdisciplinary practices by accomplished young curator Reha Sodhi titled “RESIDUES” in the Main Ballroom’s side wing. The exhibition features interesting work by artists Anupama Alias, Khadim Ali, Niyeti Chadha Kannal, Wardha Shabbir, Tanmoy Samanta, Reena Saini Kalat, Arunkumar H G and Baraan Ijlal. The exhibition was engaging and presented a range of sensitive work.
“The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in evolving innovations in the art world in many different ways. The emergence of online exhibitions and virtual art fairs, new audio and video content, as well as a number of informational/ educational sessions on Zoom and similar platforms,” says Tariq Allana of Art Heritage Gallery, along with Sunaina Anand of Art Alive and Reena Lath of Gallery Akar Prakar.
“These developments have resulted in better informed collectors and art lovers, and this has led to steady sales. As the pandemic continues, there remains fluidity in the sector, but the importance of physical gallery space has re-emerged,” says Lath.
“The event has grown in stature to become one of the premiere art events in the city’s calendar,” says Renu Modi, founder-director, Gallery Espace.
“After a year with sparse physical programming in the arts, there is a lot of excitement around catching artworks by such a diverse range of artists from leading galleries in the city,” adds Anahita Taneja, co-director, Shrine Empire Gallery.
“We have seen a new crop of collectors come up during the pandemic,” says Roshini Vadehra.
The members of DCAW observe that interestingly what has emerged is a stronger art market. People were spending more time in their homes, and have had the luxury of spending time with their art and hence have explored art online.
The DCAW team also conferred with Tara Lal of Chatterjee and Lal Gallery who is one of the founder galleries of the Mumbai Art Week, which has proved to be quite successful. After conversing with Lal, they came up with a list of factors that worked in favour of the galleries.
The curated programme of events for collectors, connoisseurs and art lovers which will include Talks, Workshops, Walkthroughs, Wine Tastings and more.
“Despite the setbacks we experienced during the worst stages of the pandemic last year we have striven forward in continuation of our work to promote and support contemporary art and artists. The challenges we have faced, and still face, have become sources of motivation rather than restrictions,” says Bhavna Kakar, director of Latitude 28 and editor of TAKE on Art.
“Our times call for a new level of creative and collective thinking and together we have conceived this edition of DCAW, which despite the times we’re going through, will give art connoisseurs an engaging interactive space to experience the best of contemporary art,” adds Kakar.
The gallery featured works by Anupama Alias, Baiju Parthan, Bhagyanath C, Khadim Ali, Ketaki Sarpotdar, Jyoti Bhatt, Niyeti Chadha Kannal, Prajjwal Choudhary, Radhika Agarwal, Sanket Viramgami, Sudipta Das, Wardha Shabbir, Waseem Ahmed, Waswo X. Waswo, Yogesh Ramakrishnan and Zahra Yazdani.
“Though we have passed through considerably tough times, this year promises to be the best edition of them all,” points out Aparajita Jain of Nature Morte that presented a fabulous section featuring work by RAQs Media Collective, that looked at the idea of isolation, especially the new media rendition quoting ‘the death of Ināyat Khān’ a Mughal painting by the artist Bālchand, who depicted the emaciated body of the emperor Jahangir’s close court official.
“Our aim is to present these young, emerging artists using experimental art forms at the DCAW, which is an ideal platform for artist-collector interaction,” says Mandira Lamba of Blueprint 12. The gallery featured work by Devika Sundar, Meghana Gavireddygari, Namrata Arjun, Nihaal Faizal, Sarasija Subramanian, and Visakh Menon.
It will be an evocative week that brings forth some of Delhi’s best artists and their artworks to a crowd that is enjoying the physicality of seeing art in the flesh.
Text by Georgina Maddox
Image Courtesy: Nikhil Mishra and DCAW
Find more about the Artists and Galleries:
https://www.shrineempiregallery.com/exhibitions/
