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Abhijeet Tamhane

It can be told as a tale of two roads in Mumbai. Nathalal Parikh Marg, a road in Colaba that leads to Taj Wellington Mews apartment hotel, now has an art-destination, Sakshi Gallery has moved to Tanna house on
this quiet street, and the old Ganpatrao Kadam Marg in Worli which now would be a hub of memories for the art-lover. The wonderful mill-land space Sakshi had on G. K. Marg is history now, and a corporate, classic experience unfolds at Colaba. To be sure, this was a culture shock for many. It was like an off-broadway play being a sellout on Broadway. Though Sakshi did not have anything against the 'Kala Ghoda Art District' hustle-bustle, it had remained calm and maintained its splendid isolation at Worli.

For some months now, Mumbai (read Kala Ghoda and its vicinity) is
undergoing a makeover in terms of the Gallries and their respective
importance. The presence of Jehangir Art Gallery helped Kala Ghoda
attain its 'art district' status, and the birth of NGMA- Mumbai in
December 1996 as well as Kala Ghoda Art Festival in the same season
led this 'art district' to fame. When Sakshi press kits and invites
happily declared its relocation at the art district, it is not the same Kala Ghoda anyways. The innocent texture of the Jehagir shows has given way to the corporate looks by newer places (Bodhi, Mirchandani + Steinruecke and art-dealer Sethi's space in the down the lane called 'ICA'). The places around Kala Ghoda are increasingly demanding your casuals to be smart enough! Can Sakshi change this? No, perhaps. But the art district, with Sakshi as the newest addition, surely will think of a new chapter in its autobiography in the years to follow. It will see a crystallization of artist-gallery bonds, more openings on a same day, more off-opening audiences to private galleries…

Sakshi just had its inaugural group show. It had a thrust on new works
by younger artists as well as its repertoire of Sabawala, Malani and Bawa. Three big rooms and three smaller, gave the 'museum experience' that's going to be the USP of the new Sakshi space. The politics within works, who is at the central hall and who occupies the back
rooms, is an issue that curators will both face and explore at this space. The rooms can induce individual works to begin interplay between formal and spatial elements, and the play can mean different things in different rooms. Even a show with less curatorial rigour, the dynamics of multiple rooms cannot be ignored.

Shilpa Gupta is next at Sakshi… what will Shilpa do to the space? Will
she? Won't she?

Landscapes under Stretch

Natraj Sharma is one of the few artists who think in microscopic details and then succeed in letting the fractions of thought delve into the audience. Natraj's credit lies in his play at inclusion and exlusion of visual detail and his emphatic rendering that accords importance to the chosen detail. His recent show at Bodhi art gallery was no exception. In his observations of  guided/unguided movements of people or visual asymmetries of a computer-generated 'Systems error',
the artist drew home the debate on order and chaos; while his
landscapes sought active involvement of the audience to shed their
notions of order so as to reconcile between viewed and perceived. It
was Bodhi who took Natraj to the Singapore Tyler Print Institute
[STPI] on a residency, and the show will travel to New York. The
serigraphs on paper pulp were examples of technical finesse employed
for an artist's agenda. Natraj's Detroit Landscape, shown here, is a
superb mix of abstract tactility and narrative texture.

The season is on…

March will mark a continuance of the season with many openings slated
for the first week.  Laxman Shreshtha exhibits his black and white
works at Pundole Art Gallery, while his contemporary abstractionist,
Prabhakar Kolte, shows at Studio Napean. Bodhi will house Subodh
Gupta's show. The Museum Gallery is a venue to look at, as Gieve Patel
keeps his canvases aside for a while and experiments with bronze
sculpture. Patel's first show of sculptures will be another feather in
cap for the sponsor gallery, the Guild.