Working this Sunday?

The recession has somehow led to people thinking they cannot look at art if they cannot buy it,and the Sunday brunch at the gallery is a bid to shake things up and dispel the dull air that has befallen the art-going junta.

“We constantly get pleas from clients to stay open on Sundays. So we have decided to start with a bang and get everyone willing to keep their shutters open this Sunday,” says Shireen Gandhy. Her gallery Chemould Prescott will set things rolling with an artist walk with L N Tallur. Art critic Nancy Adajania will talk to Tallur on his solo,Placebo,that opened yesterday.

Coming up in April,Chemould will host a Pushpamala exhibition of recent photographs,showcased in the gallery which will be done up as an old film theatre.

“The idea is to get everyone interested. We will try to keep it going for a couple of months after which it will become a bi-monthly event,” says Mortimer Chatterjee. His Chatterjee & Lal will be one of the galleries which have pooled in their resources to get things rocking.

“We are all going to remain open on Sundays,as a collective. Our clients and art enthusiasts can come to the neighbourhood to check out as many as 20 galleries on the same day. It’s already a common practice in the West,” says Ranjana Steinruecke of Galerie Mirchandani & Steinruecke. The gallery will keep their solo show of Amsterdam-based artist Aji V N open for Sunday viewing.

Farah Siddiqui—whose gallery Farah Siddiqui Contemporary Art (FSCA) recently joined the Radio Club Art District — is part of the Sunday crowd. They will stay open this Sunday with a show of young artists,who are part of the group called Common Room. “This is a good time to look at budding artists whose prices are affordable,but more importantly whose work is radically different from the prevailing art practices,” says Siddiqui.

Already the National Gallery of Modern Art,the Prince of Wales Museum and on many occasions galleries like Abhay Maskara’s Warehouse and Anupa Mehta’s The Loft have been staying open on Sundays. “Brunch on a Sunday is already an established trend that many like to attend,” says Mehta. The Sunday Brunch hosted by her at the Trident last week for the 1X1 show saw a good turnout.

This is gallery owners’ way of saying the show must go on.