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‘Art Night Thursday’ is a rocking success!
While writing my previous article on the ‘Art Night Thursday’ initiative of the contemporary art galleries in Mumbai, I was already excited to go out and explore the experience myself. The next ‘Art Night Thursday’ was on 8th June. To begin with, I drew my short-list of exhibitions that were lined up, referring to the programming guide provided by MGW (Mumbai Gallery Weekend). But it was soon evident that it’s difficult to visit every show on the list in a single evening. To simplify the task, I tried to draw a travel map, connecting the locations of galleries.
My first visit of the evening was to ‘Gallerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke’ at Ballard Estate to experience the exhibition ‘Mirrors of the Mind’ by Buddhadev Mukherjee. It presents an engaging body of 101 works in watercolour and ink media on a variety of paper, most commonly on Japanese paper. The artist makes an interesting comparison by saying, “Small works are like poems”. Indeed, the small and medium sized works presented in this exhibition are comparable to short poems or at times even to a Japanese Haiku, thus extending the Japanese connection from paper to the literary form of Haiku.
Most paintings present human and abstract forms or a conjugation of both. Humans carrying on their mundane life, moving and jostling, interacting or alone, give rise to multitude of possibilities of form, colour and energy. That is something that makes them fluid and interesting. Well-defined human figures interacting with undefined abstract forms reflect upon the transient nature of life itself. This is an important characteristic of this body of work, that melts the distinction between figurative and abstract work and offers them as beautiful composite visual experiences. The tasteful and well-balanced arrangement of these 101 paintings within the vast space of the gallery enriched the experience.
As the evening matured, the footfall of art lovers in the gallery started to grow. I could sense their eyes filled with curiosity and wonder as they were relating with the humans seen in the paintings. I was already getting geared up to witness the reactions of many other art lovers through the rest of the evening.
Next, I moved to TARQ Gallery at Fort for Sameer Kulavoor’s show titled ‘Edifice Complex’. This is the first exhibition of TARQ since it moved to the new location at KK (Navsari) Chambers at Fort. As I reached the gallery’s entrance, I was pleasantly surprised to meet senior artist Mr Vilas Shinde. We could have a quick chat about ‘Art Night Thursday’ initiative as well as about the show. He mentioned that the extended evening timing on Art Night Thursday was a good opportunity for him to visit this show, which he had been planning but somehow had missed visiting for many days.
As I entered TARQ, I was captivated by the dexterous arrangement of the show. The works are diverse in terms of size, media, and form, yet are arranged in such a cohesive manner that they merge with the available space. ‘Edifice complex’ presents Sameer Kulavoor’s unique observations of spaces, structures, and geographies. His distinctive compositions, featuring sequential drawings and reverse painted transparent sheets, emphasize his affinity towards cities and their multi-layered identities. In this exhibition, not humans but architecture itself is the main protagonist. The city depicted is anonymous yet, the observations are relatable to any modern city.
The forms presented here are those that make the architecture of a city and interact with the viewer through various ways. Sometimes they are stationary while sometimes they start shifting shapes. This ability of architectural forms to evolve makes the city a living organism. The animated musical videos presented in the exhibition provide a lively experience of this phenomenon. The music is specially designed for Sameer Kulavoor’s series ‘Drawn timelapses’ by Suryakant Sawhney aka ‘Lifafa’. These videos reflect the constantly changing skyline of a metro city like Mumbai, hence much relatable to any urban dweller. Art lovers gathered at TARQ seemed to have been able to connect with the works deeply. The interesting ways of the presentation spurred engaging interactions and spontaneous conversations among them.
While the shape shifting edifices of this show were still fresh in my mind, it was time for me to move to my next destination. I then moved to Sakshi Gallery at the third Pasta Lane at Colaba.
This was my second visit to the current exhibition ‘2 feet above’ by Sojwal Samanat. It is an absorbing exhibition on which I have written in a separate feature. In this exhibition, Sojwal has presented diverse visual experiences to the viewer through her remarkable creations in the form of photographs, sculptures, installations, and video art. But this time, it was even more special because she was present personally. For me, it was a pleasant opportunity to meet her and to have an insightful conversation that helped me to approach and appreciate the depth of sensitivity of her work. She was able to make me understand how nuances of the lighting and how it can alter the visual experiences of some of her works. Throughout the evening, Sojwal was constantly surrounded by art lovers, fellow artist colleagues and visitors. This seems like the success of initiatives like Art Night Thursday. Madam Geetha Mehra, Director of Sakshi Gallery corroborated that this initiative has proven to be very effective in encouraging art lovers to visit the gallery.
As I engaged in conversations with the artists and art lovers at Sakshi gallery, I didn’t even realize that it was past 9 pm and I still have 4 more galleries on my short-list for the evening. I was relieved by the fact that most of those shows were still on for a few more days. I am now planning my calendar to ensure that none of those are missed. Afterall, there are a total of 33 Contemporary Art Galleries involved in Art Night Thursday!
If you visited this Art Night Thursday, please share your experiences in comments. If you missed it, you could still start planning your visits on other days using the help available on the links given below. If you need help with planning your sequence of visits, you could use maps provided by ‘Carpe Arte’ – an informal volunteer association of art lovers that is providing info support to those interested in Art Night Thursday.
For Programming Guide, refer to https://www.instagram.com/mumbaigalleryweekend/
For further information, refer to www.mumbaigalleryweekend.com
For walk maps, refer to https://www.instagram.com/carpearteofficial/
Vineel Bhurke
Sojwal Samant goes ‘2 feet above’ at Sakshi Gallery!
Sojwal Samant goes ‘2 feet above’ at Sakshi Gallery!
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