This year, after being postponed from January to February, one of Mumbai’s most coveted art and cultural events, Mumbai Gallery Weekend (MGW), will take place this month from 10 to 13. The ‘weekend’ will preview shows by artists, photographers, installation artists, doodle artists, and more. There are group and solo shows, which range from showcasing works by minimalist artists to expressionists to showcasing ‘teakwood prints’ to showing rich, embroidered paintings. Some shows like ‘Savage Flowers’, curated by independent curators like Nancy Adajania, present woven sculptures that use everyday material, found objects and strings of fabric, whereas other shows such as ‘Where do We Come From?’ by Kochi-based Sosa Joseph present oil paintings inspired by the riverine ecosystem amidst which the artist grew up, in a village in Kerala.
Speaking about the show, Ranjana Steinruecke, Owner, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, says, “We have some beautiful shows previewing this year, along with walkthroughs planned over four days. From shows by abstract artists like Anupa Mehta to a book launch at the DAG gallery at the Taj Mahal Palace on the iconic masterpieces of Indian modern art to ceramics showcased by a Sri Lankan artist at Jhaveri Contemporary, to our own show, the ‘weekend’ promises to have something for everyone.”
An exhibition called Blck by Mumbai-based Santanu Hazarika will invite viewers into a world of “comfortable turbulence”. Winner of the Red Bull Doodle Art championships in 2014, Hazarika who doodles themes relating to pop art, Japanese anime, philosophy and other themes has also jumped onto the metaverse bandwagon. He will soon launch a line of cool repurposed jackets and T-shirts that will be available to wear physically and as NFTs.
Many of the artists who have created fresh works for the ‘weekend’ have sought inspiration from where they grew up, the idea of migration, to displacement to even taking inspiration from the politics of the day, how political ads are reused. A show by photographer Ritesh Uttamchandani, curated by Ranjit Hoskote, explores this very theme, where images from across Mumbai show how political hoardings have found a new life. Either as roofs of houses or clothing for goddess sculptures or coverings for street-side stalls. “There are three layers to the show. One is a book I brought out in 2018, The Red Cat and Other Stories, which has been stacked on shelves. The other layer is the entire book put out for display as a spread, and the third layer is the images themselves,” shares Uttamchandani. The images hope to present a commentary on society and a pictorial investigation of the curiosity that the hoardings often generate among us. What actually happens to them when parties are done with them?
Delhi-based Parul Gupta, an artist participating in a group show titled Ufuq: Zarina A Tribute, says, “This is the first time I have dealt with a topic that I had so far been trying to escape. Of family and financial troubles, and continually moving houses in Delhi. There have been similarities between Zarina’s themes and mine, with loss and relocation being a common one.” In the works, Gupta has used black primarily — charcoal, oil pastels, and ink on paper to convey her feelings, to pay homage to feminist artist, Zarina Hashmi. The show curated by Arshiya Lokhandwala is the art historian’s way of paying tribute to an essentially South Asian artist whom the world lost two years ago. Ufuq means horizon and the show seeks to celebrate Hashmi’s “incredibly political and beautiful remembered legacy”.
The subject of going back home has been examined by Mumbai-based Saju Kunhan in a show called ‘Home Ground’, where he has explored his ancestral history and the battle march of North Malabar and how his people who were mainly warriors migrated to Kerala. “I constructed the works from collective memory by observing my two ancestral homes, which were in a demolished condition. Migration is an important theme for me and I also try to show my great grandfather’s brother’s journey to Fiji; he was an indentured labourer. Another grand uncle who was being sent to Penang is also shown,” Kunhan explains. The process of transferring images digitally onto teakwood is called ‘displacement’ and quite telling of how the art also migrates from one media to another. Just like Kuhnan’s family did. For Kuhnan “history is extremely important today”.
Other exhibitions one can look forward to are Information Architecture by Kunel Gaur, Trinity by Hetain Patel, Cosmos by Desmond Lazaro, Portraits of Intimacy by Sathi Guin, and As I Am by T. Venkanna. “As I Am’ is a continuation of a series by the artist before it called ‘Love Me’. The two series come together as ‘Love me as I am’. 'As I Am' is a story of sexual imagination, and how there is a kind of alienation in recent times. How love has fallen by the wayside and lust has gotten more importance,” says curator of 'As I Am', Abhay Maskara.
The works which are the handiwork of 14 Zardozi Karigars from Lucknow showcase ideas of angst and how the emotional and physical self varies. Maskara says one should view the show with an open mind, and that there are quintessential elements of surprise within it. The paintings question typical ways in which sexuality has been thought about so far. They explore the realm of sexual fantasy, which often stems from the sexual conditioning in society. How daydreaming allows one that flight of fantasy, and right and wrong are surpassed. Well as Picasso says, “Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.”
