ART EXHIBITIONS GO DIGITAL
Vadehra Art Gallery’s online initiative is aimed at supporting young artists and charities
—Latika Gupta
Even as some art galleries reopen (by appointment only) after over two months, sales and exhibitions continue to be online. Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery (VAG), along with new exhibitions, like ‘A World of One’s Own’, featuring stalwarts like Paramjit Singh, B.B. Mukherjee and Arpita Singh, among others, participating virtually in Frieze NY, and hosting an exhibition on In Touch, a digital platform, has announced ‘VAG Fresh’.
An online series, VAG Fresh is aimed at helping younger artists gain financial stability and to raise funds for organisations actively involved in social relief work.
Roshini Vadehra, director of VAG, points out that this initiative is different from the others by them as it will include even those artists not formally represented by the gallery. The first two exhibitions, by Shailesh B.R. and Vicky Roy, can be viewed on the gallery’s website until July 21.
‘Notes to Self’ by Shailesh has watercolour, ink and acrylic paintings on paper, as single images, or in suites combining many paintings. His subjects range from landscapes to still life and combinations of image and text that act like diagrammatic notes deconstructing the object in the painting.
For instance, in ‘Vasanta 1’, a log in a meadow is ‘taken apart’ for timber. Others, like ‘Gulmohar’, are his interpretation of colonial botanical paintings. The website informs us that part of the proceeds of sales from ‘Notes to Self’ will go to the Centre for Advocacy Research. In the case of Roy’s exhibition, the recipient will be the Salaam Baalak Trust— an obvious choice for Roy who worked as a ragpicker as a child and was rehabilitated by the Trust.
Roy’s virtual exhibition, ‘Bachpan’, the accompanying note tells us, ‘is imbued with the arresting tranquility of a moment of pleasure found outdoors…(and) examines the psychology and principles of childhood games as performed specifically by underprivileged children’. Roy’s subjects are visibly underprivileged but, even if some of the images seem clichéd, they display an obvious empathy.
VAG Fresh is a welcome addition to the many online platforms that connect emerging artists to young collectors looking to build a collection. The next artist on VAG Fresh’s line-up is Shrimanti Saha from Vadodara. According to Roshini, even though “most artists would ideally like to have physical exhibitions, VAG will try to maintain a mix of exhibitions on site and online in the future too”.