Eight galleries join hands this weekend to give the city a taste of eclectic riot of colours, at various venues
Make way for art this weekend in Mumbai, where eight galleries are collaborating to provide a greater exposure to contemporary art. The three-day event called Mumbai Gallery Weekend is power-packed with exhibitions, walkthrough, panel discussions and lectures.
Started in 2012 by Mumbai’s leading contemporary art galleries, the initiative to organise the event is taken up by different galleries in each edition. This year, the event is organised by Lakeeren and starts from January 20 to 22. “Mumbai Gallery Weekend 2017 is even more exciting than before as we have expanded the gallery platform from Colaba to Bandra. The exhibitions are top-notch, and, well-curated, the walkthroughs are informative. The gallery weekend has grown and looks forward to more people walking through our doors to experience art in Mumbai at its best,” says Dr Arshiya Lokhandwala, Director of Lakeeren Gallery which is the organiser this year.
Geetha Mehra, Director of Sakshi Gallery, last year’s organiser, adds, “It’s great to engage an interested audience in a conversation with the artist in the gallery amidst the display. It gives them a chance to get to know the art, the artist and to engage with the artist on a one on one. In some sense it also demystifies the art and its process.”
There will also be previews at the host galleries on January 20 between 6 pm and 9 pm.
Visitors can also check out their collateral exhibitions and events scheduled at different art galleries from South Mumbai to the suburbs. These include an exhibition of rare photographs captured by Kanu Gandhi displaying the last decade of Mahatma Gandhi’s life, Clark House initiative architecture of the city in videos and Museum in my pocket at Dr Bhau Daji Lad City Museum, among others.
Bootstrapping by Project 88
A solo exhibition of paintings by artist Goutam Ghosh smudges the line between reality and fantasy.
Walkthrough: January 21, 10:30 am
Venue: Colaba
Gallerists as Interventionist: Collaboration as Strategy by Lakeeren
It is a unique show collaborating seven artists –Anita Dube, Hemali Bhuta, Manish Nai, Mithu Sen, Priyanka Choudhary, Manjit Bawa and Sahej Rahal –from different galleries to showcase the work which they consider to be representative of themselves in the exhibition.
Walkthrough: January 21, 11:15 am
Venue: Colaba
Sunrise Ceremonies by Sakshi Gallery
Donning a large pea-head artist Princess Pea showcases her daily activities –supervising at the workshop, leisurely walking on the beach or interacting with kids –in pictorial format. Sporting the huge head the artists almost leaves her blindfolded transferring her into an imaginary space. This helps her to gain new vision to life, relationships and objects.
Walkthrough: January 21, 11:45 pm
Venue: Colaba
Squeeze lime in your eye by Chatterjee & Lal
The solo-exhibition by Kolkata-based artist Kausik Mukhopadhyay showcases his experiments with kinetic sculptures. His experimentation spins dull objects into works of art.
Walkthrough: January 21, 12:15 pm
Venue: Colaba
Approaching Land by Akara Art
Curated by Girish Shahane, the exhibition features modern and contemporary Indian paintings depicting traditional landscapes. The show displays works by legendary artists like Akbar Padamsee, Jyothi Basu, MF Hussain, Jamini Roy and Bharti Kher. The nature of the work varies from semi-abstract to conceptual and from lyrical to political.
Walkthrough: January 21, 2 pm
Venue: Colaba
Footboard rider by Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke
Mumbai-based artist Gieve Patel gets in depth with the lifeline of Mumbai. The name of the exhibition is derived from one of his works showcasing a sleeping shape putting together a man riding the train on the footboard.
Walkthrough: January 21, 2:45 pm
Venue: Colaba
Portraits in Time by Tarq
Artist Tanmoy Samanta’s second solo exhibition features a series of paperwork, books and sculptures. The works are created using de-saturated colours to get the stone-like textures. While the subjects are iconographic depiction of boring objects that are crafted in unusual hues keeping the fundamental features of the objects.
Walkthrough: January 21, 3.30 pm
Venue: Colaba
Fold/Unfold by Chemould Prescott Road
The Delhi-based artist Sonia Khurana showcases work that includes voice, fictions of sameness, twinning and relation of dereliction to life. The artist discovers the want to escape versus our requirement to be grounded in reality.
Walkthrough: January 21, 4:15 pm
Venue: Fort
