Fair Start

Apart from the old-timers,India Art Fair has a sizeable number of international galleries making a debut this year.

Seated in her stall at the India Art Fair (IAF),Salwa Zeidan wears a constant smile. The UAE-based Lebanese gallerist,artist and curator is not too familiar with the nuances of the Indian art mart,but she is keen to learn. She is also enthusiastic to share details about the art industry back home. There should be an exchange of ideas, notes Zeidan,who decided to participate in the IAF after reading reports about the brisk business recorded during its earlier editions. She is one of the first timers at the fair heading east,from Greece to Germany,South Africa to Russia,Argentina to America and attracted to India due to the sales proposition that has emerged with the rise of a new breed of collectors.

I have heard a lot about the art market in India and attending the fair seemed the best way to explore it, says Argentinian gallerist,Ignacio Liprandi,director of Arte Contemporaneo. In his first year here,he is presenting a solo of Argentinian artist Tomas Espina. The name may not attract attention but the artwork does. The 36-year-old uses gunpowder in his works that make socio-political comments. There is curiosity about new artists and its the galleries responsibility to inform the audience, says Yuli Karatsiki of Athens-based Kalfayan Galleries,which is showing works of a host of artists including Maria Loizidou,who represented Cyprus in 1986 at the Venice Biennale and Iranian artist Ala Dehghan.

With his stall located right at the entrance of the IAF,James Lavender,associate director of Hauser & Wirth,has numerous footfalls. Aficionados usually take a close look at Subodh Gupta’s larger-than-life 2011 installation Stone and Bharti Khers bindi-pasted wall work and then move on to western artists like French-American sculptor Louise Bourgeois and conceptual artist Martin Creed,but Lavender does not mind. People like to see works of artists more known to them. We have a huge collector base in India and the fair gives an opportunity to expand that base, says Lavender.

Lorenzo Fiaschi of Galleria Continua agrees. It was after thorough research that he decided to travel from Italy with the works of Shilpa Gupta,renowned African artist Pascale Marthine Tayou and India-born British artist Anish Kapoor,who was the highlight of the fair in 2011. This year,the spotlight has shifted on another British artist,Damien Hirst. The rumour that he was travelling to India proved to be false but his work is being exhibited by two first timers at the fair White Cube and Other Criteria. While the former has his wall installations and spot paintings on sale,the latter has more affordable prints of Hirst,priced Rs 2 lakh onwards. We are looking forward to networking and meeting new people, says Cathy Lanigan-O Keeffe,sales assistant at Other Criteria,who is equally excited about the after-parties scheduled at the end of each day.

The India Art Fair is on at NSIC Exhibition Grounds,Okhla,till January 29.

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India Art Fair