The India Art Festival, a modern and contemporary art fair for art galleries and artists is being held from 14 to 17 January at National Stadium, opp. India Gate, New Delhi. Forty art galleries and more than 350 artists are participating from fifteen different cities and five countries.
The India Art Festival, is a successfully-tested model for dialogue and collaborations between art galleries, independent artists, art collectors and connoisseurs; it is a unique mixed art fair established in 2011 that showcases major and mid-level art galleries with thousands of innovative artworks from the range of their associate artists, and also offers emerging, independent artists the opportunity to get discovered and enjoy the attention along with the established, master artists.
The National Capital is in many ways an interesting city as far as art is concerned. It has galleries with history of several decades and very new ones as well. Right from Noida to Gurgaon and from Faridabad to Old Delhi, one gets to see private and public galleries functioning at various levels and scale.
But most of them do not get an opportunity to exhibit in the major art fairs for various reasons. Many art galleries are deprived of a chance to be a part of the art fair circuit.
The India Art Festival has successfully completed five editions at Mumbai and an international edition at World Trade Centre, Seoul. The mid-level galleries have welcomed the idea with open arms as they got their due space in the Art Festival. Seventy percent of India Art Festival exhibitors have been repeatedly participating since 2011.This is possible only when there is a sense of belonging and a sense of pride about the Festival.
The Delhi edition of the India Art Festival is mainly aimed at the mid-level galleries who would like to get their value for a moderate expenditure, with some participation from major galleries as well. Thus, the Festival is not only an affordable art fair for art buyers but affordable for exhibitors too.
According to Art Festival Director Rajendra, “India Art Festival has a social and cultural responsibility and so it is pertinent to take it to various cities in India. So, the Delhi edition opens with an unbiased approach. While the India Art Festival is the flagship brand, all the artists and the participating galleries become its ambassadors”.
He further adds, “India Art Festival is here to democratize the very functioning of the art market and the gallery system. Galleries are private establishments whereas art fairs are brand identities. Both have credibility; over a period of time our art market has become more and more democratic through the activities in the secondary art market. There was a time when the works of the masters were available only with the mainstream galleries. But today, medium to small level galleries and several other secondary market operators deal with the works of the masters. That means the market has literally opened up”.
The effort of the India Art Festival is to sort of create “large galleries set” in Mumbai and Delhi and showcase every year the artworks of the galleries and independent artists who look for exhibition spaces. Some of the participating Art Galleries are:
From Delhi: Anyahh Art Gallery, Art Konsult, Artsy.com, Galerie Art Eterne, Gallery Pioneer, Gallery Ruki, Lavanya Art, Mayll Arts, Shree Yash Art Gallery, Studio 55 Café & Art Gallery, and The Lexicon Art Gallery
Mumbai: Artequest Art Gallery, Cymroza Art Gallery, Kanakia Art Foundation, Studio 3, and West10 Art Gallery from New Mumbai
From Gurgaon: Indian Art Place, Gallerie Splash, and Uchaan
Bangalore: Charvi Art Gallery, Grune Elefant Art, and Galerie Sara Arakkal
Others from India include: Art Alinda, Kolkata; Forum Art Gallery, Chennai; Gallery Endless Thoughts, Faridabad; Gallery Y S Era, Indore; Indian Red.in, Hyderabad; and Suvnidh Art Gallery, Jaipur
Galleries from overseas include: Kirsanov Photography, Zug, Switzerland; Gnani Arts, Singapore; Myanmar Ink Art Gallery, Dubai; and Segar Gallery, Colombo
India Art Festival is five editions old and the institution Kalavishkar that organizes India Art Festival is the publisher of Indian contemporary Art Journal, a decade-old quarterly art magazine which has gained credibility in the country..
With such massive participation, it is no wonder that someone said the arts are an even better barometer of what is happening in our world than the stock market or the debates in Parliament. Let us make this art festival at step toward generating ‘Culturonomics”
We are eagar to attend this art fair