Art Stop

Life,love,entertainment and even hatred,for our generation,are just a click away. When there’s no chat window blinking at one corner of your PC screen,or music playing as you chase deadlines and tweets making you privy to the life of your favourite actor,life becomes mostly difficult to get by. Now,it’s blasphemy to assume that the hallowed paintbrush and canvas would be dethroned by Photoshop someday,but art too has long taken the e-way to reach out to more people. Kolkata,renowned for its vibrant art community,however has mostly steered clear of online art groups or activities related to art. Until Aakriti Talk Art happened a few days back. “This is a forum to reach out to anybody interested in art—be it painting,sculpture,print making,creative photography,video art or new media. This is a space not only for the practitioners of different forms of art,but also collectors,connoisseurs and critics,” says Vikram Bachawat,director,Aakriti Art Gallery and Emami Chisel Art. The first of its kind,from a Kolkata-based gallery,Talk Art aims at providing a virtual bind to the art community scattered across the city and the country. “When you have an online forum,artistes are more visible to each other. Exchanging ideas becomes easier,” says Bachawat. “Members may upload images of artworks they create or own or enjoy in order to share with other members,chat with fellow art lovers,hold debates on art,exchange notes,post blogs,create groups,share information,update members with art happenings around the world,upload videos,invite friends,add events etc.”

The idea of starting a virtual community which let art enthusiasts interact came to the owners post last year’s Gen Next show,where the gallery features upcoming artists. “We get nothing less than 800-1000 entries each year. In the process,we receive a lot of enquiries from painters from other countries. They are very keen on knowing about Indian art,collaborating with artistes here. That’s when we decided to start something that helps all these people to interact for real,” says Bachawat.

Talk Art features more than 700 members,40 galleries from across the world,art connoisseurs,buyers etc. “Galleries from the city too are a part of the community. It is a very positive step towards making art more accessible to people,” says Bachawat.

In two months,the site has come as quite a breath of fresh air to the art community in the country. “I have received a lot of requests from galleries outside India for exchange programmes. We are on talks to host their artistes and get our artistes abroad,” he adds.

Apart from that Aakriti also would introduce a new feature to their site which enables people to submit their works,which after a process of screening will be up on their website for public view and criticism.