Out of the Attic

Vadehra Art Gallery at Okhla is busy with renovations,but they have one floor dedicated to their collection and are displaying works by Ravinder Reddy,Tushar Joag,Prajakta Pallav,Atul and Anju Dodiya and photographs by Sunil and Shilpa Gupta. “Atul’s works are interesting because these are from his earlier phase. Works from his recent solo,“Malevich Matters”,are currently showing at the Saatchi Gallery in the UK,” says Parul Vadehra.

Those who were holidaying in May may have missed Mrinalini Mukherjee’s show at Gallery Espace,but some of her bronzes are still available at the gallery and are part of their collection. “For the summer,we have a selection of young artists in our basement and ground floor,while we showcase our gallery collection on the top floor,” says gallerist Renu Modi. Espace represents Vibha Galhotra,Manjunath Kamath,Rina Banerjee and Zarina Hashmi. Galhotra is known for her large-format installation work,based on photographs of cityscapes. However,she also paints highly collectable canvases done in charcoal and acrylic. You can pick up some of them this summer. For the adventurous,there’s Kamath’s humorous installation,Secondhand car goes to heaven. This was one of the highlights at Espace’s massive retrospective at the Lalit Kala Akademi recently. It has white fiberglass rabbits huddled near a long exhaust pipe that is connected to a car with wings. The car was perched on Lalit Kala’s ceiling,but you may decide to display the work differently. The fun part of this work is that a few snow-white rabbits have blackened snouts.

Seasoned gallery trawlers who are not deterred by the soaring mercury know summer is a good time to pick up art,away from the hype. “Through the year we are occupied with organising new shows,but summer is a good time for collectors to visit galleries and see what all are available. These are works that they might not see otherwise,” says Bhavna Kakar at Latitude 28. They are showing young artists,except for a 2005 abstract oil by Ram Kumar. This work is offset by a George Martin abstract,done in his trademark shades of bright red and green. A figurative acrylic and oil by G.R. Iranna gives you a chance to look at his earlier spiritual period. Another show on digital media,with photographs by Manjunath Kamath and Vivek Vilasini,opens at the gallery on June 16.

Some galleries prefer to focus on individual artists. Gallery Threshold,for example,has mounted its collection of Shanti Swaroopini’s sculptures and watercolours. Those who attended the India Art Summit in 2009 would remember her semi-abstract human forms hung dramatically at gallery owner Tunty Chauhan’s booth. The artist’s copper wire works provide an interesting contrast to the gregarious pop of Ved Gupta’s fibreglass dog. Both the artists are available at the gallery,though Swaroopini is getting the spotlight this time.

— With inputs from Vandana Kalra