As workmen rush to complete the over 5000 square foot, basement gallery in the heart of Delhi’s Connaught Place, the two co-founders Tavleen Akoi Gill and Amrita Varma survey what will soon become an art hub for ‘significant, young and upcoming artists from India and the subcontinent’. The new gallery that is located in Narain Manzil at Barakhamba Road, opened on the 9th of April, with a group exhibition titled Genesis: The Veil.

It is almost a ‘tradition’ in the Capital that when one gallery closes another opens. Connaught Place was defined by the Religare Art Gallery and café, until it shut down in 2012. Now The Egg Art Studio will give the South Delhi crowd a new stopover for all things art related.

“We are planning to enliven the gallery with interactive art projects like art talks, open studios, interactive installations, live painting and a café besides the art exhibitions. Most importantly it is a space for young artists to grow,” says Akoi-Gill whose early orientation to art was through exposure to her great grand aunt, Amrita Sher-Gil’s artwork. “Her passion, aesthetic and daring was inspiring for me. I have always hoped that Delhi would have a space where an untrained eye, like mine can organically explore the love of art,” she adds.

Amrita Varma is known to the art world, having had many years of experience as an arts advisor and writer. She began working as gallery manager at Art Motif, was the first editor of the Wall Art Magazine and Wall Art TV and managed Japa Arts an arts advising firm. “I had soon satiated myself with these projects and was looking for something more. I had the exposure but wanted to collaborate with someone who had a fresh eye. Tavleen and I hope that the Egg Art Studio will become a space to incubate art ideas, mentor artists and introduce the art going public to new art. The idea is not squeeze into an already existing space rather to create a place for the general public to engage with art in a holistic manner,” says Varma.

Their opening exhibition Genesis: The Veil is a group show featuring a mixture of well-known and emerging artists from India and Asia. The colourful and attractive works by Hojat Amani, combine calligraphy and collage work to present a contemporary take on the angel, a messenger of God whose presence straddles several cultures and beliefs. Tashi Norbu is a Tibetan artists currently working out of the Netherlands and he brings to the exhibition a series of works that present in bright colours and contemporary visual language, the tantric interpretation of Buddhism, which focuses on the male and female spirit as a conjoined force.

Shafi Quraishy is a Kerala born artist, settled in Dubai and his minimal works poignantly explore what it means to be a ‘Blue Chip’ immigrant where the brain is another commodity to be marketed along with other ‘products’ in foreign exchange. Natalya Natasha Manrineko from the Ukraine now living in Goa and Venugopal V G also explore the theme of travel and migration. Not to forget art in the third dimension, artists Yogesh Mahida from Baroda, and Manoj Dwivedi from MP present sculptural works that are themed on a sense of home and belonging, urbanism and nature.

Delhi-based artists like Anoop Kamat, Shampa Sircar Das, Rajiv Kumar, Ritu Kamat and Nikhil Mahajan express themselves in a variety of styles and mediums through their works—from figurative to abstract art, from oil and canvas to mixed media. Mahajan presents a piece that combines sound and visuals.

The exhibition presents a divergent set of works that allow the viewer to experience a large variety of styles and artistic expressions from across India, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The intention is to orient the viewer towards an international slice of the art pie, with many flavours and ingredients to draw a parallel with world cuisine.

Ultimately the goal is to nurture the artist over a period of years till they reach their full potential, and to create a space for art that pushes out of the mold, but also to grow a new collector base for art while nurturing the already existing pool of buyers and viewers. Only time will tell if the duo will be successful in sustaining their venture, in the meantime, lets raise the bubbly to a spanking new gallery in the Capital.

Genesis: The Veil is on till 9 May

Georgina Maddox is a Delhi based writer

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW