Gallery Suburb

“The idea was to bridge the gap between North and South Mumbai,” says Birgit Zorniger,general manager,Taj Lands End. She makes it clear that one of the primary aims of the event is to bring suburban Mumbai into the city’s art scene. Owner of Lakeeren Art Gallery,Arshiya Lokhandwala,agrees with her. “There is a huge untapped audience in Bandra and the suburbs,” says Lokhandwala. In 1995,she opened her gallery in Vile Parle and for eight years,ran the gallery in the suburb,familiarising her with the audience there. In 2009,she reopened the gallery in Colaba.

The artwork displayed during the weekend have been handpicked by the galleries themselves. Some of these works are from among the galleries’ collections,while others were created especially for the show. “We have all had complete freedom to decide what will be exhibited at the show,” says Sree Goswami,the owner of Project 88. From among the works that Project 88 has contributed to the event are those by the Los Angeles-based artist Sandeep Mukherjee and the Los Angeles and Mumbai-based Neha Choksi.

Even though this event brings multiple galleries under one roof,it has not been designed as an art fair. “All of us sat down together and decided what to show because it’s a free flowing space — there aren’t separate stalls for separate galleries,” explains Goswami.

The Garden View,a hall that lies adjacent to the poolside and is usually used for conferences,cocktails or other such relatively small gatherings,has been transformed into an art exhibition space by the architect Rooshad Shroff.