New Delhi: To celebrate its 25th anniversary this year, Gallery Espace is hosting one of the most ambitious shows ever featuring drawings by over hundred Indian contemporary artists. Titled Drawing 2014: Seven Decades of Indian Drawing, the show is co-curated by Prayag Shukla along with Annapurna Garimella and Sindhura Jois DM from Jackfruit Research and Design, Bangalore, and will be on at The Exhibition Hall, 11, Mansingh Road, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), Mansingh Road, New Delhi from November 10 till November 28, 2014. 11a.m. to 7 p.m.
Artists whose works will be showcased are Jogen Chowdhury, Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharya, Ambadas, Ganesh Haloi, K G Subramanyan, Shyamal Dutta Ray, Somnath Hore, Arpita Singh, Meera Mukherjee, Chtrapatti Dutta, Dharamnarayan Dasgupta, Bhupen Khakar, Jeram Patel, Nagji Patel, Jyoti Bhatt, Nasreen Mohamedi, Ghulam Muhamed Sheikh, Nilima Sheikh, Amit Ambalal, Vivan Sundaram, Amitava Das, Manu Parekh, Madhvi Parekh, Himmat Shah, Mona Rai, Manjit Bawa, Shobha Broota, Jai Zharotia, Anupam Sud, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar, Jatin Das, K K Hebbar, F N Souza, Tyeb Mehta, Navjot Altaf, G R Santosh, Laxma Goud, K C S Panniker, S G Vasudev, Zarina Hashmi, Prabhakar Kolte, Prabhakar Barwe, Sudhir Patwardhan, Surendran Nair, Siddharth, Anwar Chitrakar, Akshay Rathore, Adip Datta, Anju Dodiya, Atul Dodiya, Bhajju Shyam, Basant Peringod, Dhruvi Acharya, G R Iranna, Jagadesh Tammineni, Jitish Kallat, Lavanya Mani, Meghana Bisineer, Manisha Parekh, Manisha Gera Baswani, Moutushi Banerjee, Mithu Sen, Manjunath Kamath, Mekhala Bahl, Nikhil Raunak, Naini Arora, Nityanand Ojha, N S Harsha, Om Soorya, Riyas Komu, Ravi Kashi, Poonam Jain, Paula Sengupta, Puneet Kaushik, Pratik Prabhakar, Rakhi Peswani, Rakshit Kadlar, Ramesh Pithiya, Shreyas Karle, Sonia Khurana, Snehal Chordia, Sumakshi Singh, Sisir Thapa, Samit Das, Tushar Joag, Umesh Madanahalli, Vibhuti Sharma, Vijay Hagargundgi, Valsan Koleri, Waswo and Rakesh Vijay, Subodh Gupta, Chinan Upadhyay, Rohini Sen, Rollie Mukherjee, Probir Gupta, Birendra Pani, Shailesh, Shanti Swaroopini.
“Drawing is the foundation of all art and the basis of all disciplines,” says Renu Modi, Director, Gallery Espace. “It was the legendary M.F Husain who introduced me to the finer nuances of drawings and the intimate, small format nature of this genre has remained a personal favourite with me ever since.” Gallery Espace held a show on Drawings as far back as 1994 and it’s only natural that its 25th anniversary show should celebrate the genre with greater aplomb. Apart from this expansive show, there will be several collateral/outreach events that will reflect on the significance of drawings in art and other disciplines.
Incidentally, Gallery Espace was started in 1989 by Renu Modi at the suggestion of the Husain himself and was one of the first art galleries in India to introduce variable lighting and sound systems, in recognition of the crucial factor that is the environment within which a work of art is displayed. In a similar vein, Gallery Espace was a pioneer when it came to video installations, going so far as to organize a first-of-its-kind monthly out-reach programme (Video Wednesday I, 2008-09 and Video Wednesday II, 2011-12) in order to bring artists working in new media into the spotlight.
Drawing 2014 will showcase more than 100 artists from India and features works dating from 1947 to the present in which drawing is presented as a broad and inclusive practice. Along with works on single sheets of paper, there will be artists’ books, studies for other projects, multiples, laser drawings, animation and more. This breadth allows curators and viewers to understand how an academic practice moves between the pedagogic and the conceptual realms and between established and experimental ways of working.
Gallery Espace has served as a launch pad for emerging artists of promise (several of whom are now established names in the art world), whose work reflects their individual internal journeys of growth and self-discovery, resulting in a truly eclectic and protean collection. While the focus is predominantly on Indian artists, Gallery Espace has also promoted international artists and recently has diversified into displaying South-East Asian art. Gallery Espace laid the groundwork for curated exhibitions featuring leading art commentators and journalists. Past themed exhibitions like Drawing ’94, Sculpture ’95, Mini-Print ’96, Kitsch Kitsch Hota Hai ’01 and Bronze ’06 have explored different forms of artistic creation. Rather than using exhibitions as a marketing tool, Gallery Espace believes in creating opportunities for growth, showcasing new talent and enriching the world of art in India, thus becoming an important link between artists and buyers, viewers and auction houses
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