Art Night Thursday – A Lovely Experience!

Art Night Thursday is a fruitful collaborative idea amongst the contemporary art galleries in Mumbai that has clicked well. Vineel Bhurke shares the lovely experience of exploring different art galleries along with a group of art lovers on this month’s Art Night Thursday.

With the delayed onset of monsoon this year, Art Night Thursday of this July was anticipated as the first Art Night of the year with the splash of Mumbai rains. I was a bit anxious too, by the thought of having to move across the streets choked by the ongoing metro work during the heavy downpour. But to my delight, this Art Night Thursday turned out to be a lovely experience, thanks to some wonderful art lovers whom I accompanied.

With Chinha’s earlier articles on Art Night Thursday, we have been receiving reader feedback and inquiries about the event. Some readers were curious and wanted to try the experience for the first time. To help them, we tried to look for some resources to plan their walkthroughs. We have already provided a list of 18 exhibitions (5 Previews on 13th July and 13 ongoing shows) with complete details in the last post on this subject. We also provided additional information to those who reached out to us.

Even though some informal groups of art lovers have tried to make Art Night Thursday a regular activity in the past, there have been disruptions during the lockdown period. Luckily, I came in touch with one such informal group initiated by Mr Balachandran (Fondly known as Bala), a senior gentleman with several decades of corporate experience, and an ardent art lover.

Bala is a witty person with an unending stockpile of anecdotes. At the same time, he is a meticulous person who not only believes in making elaborate to-do-lists but has a strong will power to turn them into action. By Monday, Bala was ready with his plan. A list of art galleries to visit and a list of art lover friends whom he invited to join him on Thursday. I quickly decided to join him. He had invited everyone to meet up at the Jehangir Art Gallery at 6 pm so that from there we could proceed to the listed art galleries in a sequence. Making my way through the drizzle, I realized that I had forgotten my umbrella at home!    

I began my Art Night Thursday in the afternoon itself, by visiting TARQ art gallery in the Fort area (http://www.tarq.in/), for their ongoing group show curated by Dhwani Gudka, titled ‘Ephemeroptera: Time After Time’. It is jointly presented by TARQ and Gallery XXL. Ephemeroptera is a taxonomical order which consists of mayflies – typically short-lived insects. The works presented in this exhibition try to fossilize images, attempts capturing the residues of loss – memorials to lost buildings, species, and ways of life. It showcases interesting ways in which life experiences can be presented in the form of artificially created insects and metallic pins pinned over a blank canvas. An interesting artistic expression indeed, with a definite identity of contemporary art.

Nibha Sikander’s work in ‘Ephemeroptera: Time After Time’ at TARQ 

I then moved to The Method art gallery in the Kala Ghoda area (https://themethod.art/). Currently, there is a group show titled ‘Bodies, Space & Time’ which has a wide range of artistic expressions through paintings. While entering the gallery, one is greeted by paintings that seem fairly approachable, but one doesn’t realize quickly that there is an upper floor too. On the upper floor, one gets to fly away into the visual world. 

A Painting from ‘Bodies, Space & Time’ at Method Kala Ghoda

Moving further to the Jehangir Art Gallery, https://jehangirartgallery.com/ I was eager to meet Bala and his group. As I walked up the steps, I was wondering how many art lovers from his list might have turned up. At the same time, I was relieved a bit because the rain had mysteriously subsided by then.

Jehangir Art Gallery recently concluded their ‘43rd Monsoon Art Show’ on which I had written in Chinha. The new exhibition was a two-day fund raiser titled ‘The Annual Monsoon Show’ by ‘Art For Concern’, an Exhibition and Sale of Paintings and Sculptures organized by ‘Secure Giving’. Secure Giving conceptualizes and organizes fund-raising events for charities. 

‘The Annual Monsoon Show’ at Jehangir Art Gallery

Here I got introduced to the art lovers’ group organized by Bala. I was pleased to note that the group consisted of artists, art lovers and experienced people related to the art field. We decided to follow Bala’s plan for the visits to the preview shows for the evening. We began by moving to the farthest point in our trail – Third Pasta Lane in Colaba – so that later during the Art Night we could move to places that were relatively nearer to the train stations – Churchgate and CSMT. A methodical approach of a seasoned Mumbaikar like Bala. At the third pasta lane, we were to visit Sakshi Gallery followed by APRE Art House. Even though there are two more art galleries in the same lane – Gallery Maskara and Kismat Art Gallery, as these were not listed on this Art Night Thursday, we were not sure if they were open for visitors that evening.

Art Night Thursday group of art lovers at Jehangir Art Gallery

At Sakshi Gallery, https://www.sakshigallery.com/ we experienced a diverse set of works in the group show titled ‘7th Chapter’, presented by 12 artists in a well-attended preview function. Exquisite watercolour paintings by Kim Seola, eye catching metallic sculptures by Lakshman Rao Kotturu, photographs by Nandini Valli Muthiah, Teak wood and watercolour composite sculptures by Roshan Chhabria, Cutout wood panels by Salik Ansari, metallic sculptures by Teja Gavankar were some of the striking works. Madam Geetha Mehra, Director of Sakshi Gallery shared her thoughts and experiences of conducting Art Night Thursday for the past several years. According to her, this is a fruitful collaborative idea amongst the contemporary art galleries in Mumbai that has clicked well. It suits the atmosphere of Mumbai city, which is considered relatively safer for evening and nighttime excursions.

Lakshman Rao Kotturu – ‘Plantation for partition’ at Sakshi Gallery 

Artists from our group engrossed in a discussion at Sakshi Gallery

Art lovers enjoying ‘7th Chapter’ at Sakshi Gallery

As we moved to the dead end of the third pasta lane towards our next destination APRE Art House, we were pleasantly surprised to see kids playing street cricket (Gully cricket, as they say). Thanks to rain, which had taken a time out for the rest of the evening. 

Walking through the ‘Third Pasta Lane’

APRE Art House https://www.aprearthouse.com/ was bustling with young art lover crowd. There was a group show by 12 contemporary artists, titled ‘Interim II’. With well-organized visual experiences of diverse nature spread across the ground and first floor, the exhibition provided a fresh feel of contemporary art. We could also meet and interact with one of the artists, Chaitanya Modak. He offered everyone pieces of his creation in the form of paper boxes, lined with his thoughtful concept ‘Art is Gift’, with a rather debatable tagline ‘Artist must not make money’. Many of our group members being artists themselves, engaged with him in a deeper conversation on those lines. I think that served the purpose well, by instigating people to engage with art. This is one of the characteristics of contemporary art which I admire.

An engaging conversation with Artist Chaitanya Modak (sitting) at APRE Art House

As the evening was advancing, we were off to our next destination, Galerie ISA at Ballard Estate. It becomes a bit tricky to get cab drivers to agree to take you to the area in the late evening. Nonetheless, after a bit of a frenzy, we were successful in wooing cab drivers.

At Galerie ISA, https://galerieisa.com/ we experienced the preview of the exhibition ‘Different Realms’ – a joint presentation by two women artists Diana Al-Hadid and Louise Despont. Their individual practices draw from architectural associations as well as from diverse references and sources of inspiration which include cosmology, esoteric objects, religious art, historical imagery and cartography. Use of novel combination of media and materials such as polymer gypsum, fibregalss, steel, copper and gold leaf makes Diana’s 3D works uniquely expressive in depicting the living spaces of homes. Whereas Louise’s lithographs start telling the stories of homes to the viewer once they befriend them. 

Works by Louise Despont and Diana Al-Hadid in ‘Different Realms’ at Galerie ISA

A strikingly interesting feature of this gallery space is the old, chiseled look of some of the walls and the arches, amalgamated with the suave look of the rest of the walls and other interiors. This, combined with well-designed lighting created the right ambience for enjoying such exquisite works of art. 

Art lovers engaging in conversations at Galerie ISA

Art Night Thursday – A lovely experience!

Art lovers with Mr Balachandran – ‘Bala’ (Third from left) 

As we were engrossed in enjoying the Art Night Thursday, everyone kind of lost track of time. At 9:30 pm though, we realized that there are many more art galleries which we could not cover in just one Art Night Thursday. Unanimously agreeing to catch up once again soon, we started on our way back home. On way home, I mentioned to Bala that we were lucky to have no rain throughout the evening. He replied confidently, “I knew, there won’t be any rain today!”. 

I am still wondering if stopping the rain was part of his to-do-list, too!

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Vineel Bhurke