Art

As art becomes big business, it is not surprising to find art galleries springing up everywhere in Bangalore; but when one finds a gallery that is somewhat different, it is rather intriguing! I met young Veena Narsasetty, an artist and sculptor, who was exhibiting for a show at a gallery called ‘Swasti’. The unusual thing about the gallery is that it is funded and run by Health Care Global, an organisation that runs an oncology hospital in Bangalore. Health Care Global (HCG) is about five years old, and has seven hospitals all over India. Dr. Bhagya Ajaikumar, wife of the…

Ananya initiated the ‘Hadu Hakki’ project with the aim of introducing and encouraging learning and appreciation of Carnatic music among children. Supported by a grant from the India Foundation for the Arts, ‘Hadu Hakki’, a series of 19-episodes were aired through all the All India Radio stations of Karnataka, last year. The series were designed as simple interactive sessions to present the children with an overview of Carnatic music and were accompanied by articles for children in Ananya’s monthly magazine ‘Ananya Abhivyakti’. As a fitting finale to this, Ananya now presents ‘Hadu Hakki Habba’, a festival that aspires to encourage…

An interesting photographic exhibition is on from 3rd October to 15th November at Café Fresco’s on Cunningham Road. Titled ‘Stone Theater’, the exhibition displays photographs of a different kind by Magali Couffon de Trevros. These beautiful images not retouched or reframed, but just printed on aluminum sheets. It is hard to believe that these are photographs of stones, sand and water bodies around them and the aluminum sheets add to the earthy effect of the theme.Magali is French by origin, and has been in Bangalore for about 6 years and in India for 15 years. Trained as a graphic designer,…

Tucked away in a narrow lane a little off the bustling MG Road, is the Indian Cartoon Gallery, the first of its kind in the country. An initiative of the Indian Institute of Cartoonists (IIC), the gallery was created as a space for both amateur and professional cartoonists to exhibit their work. Says V G Narendra, veteran cartoonist (with dailies like the Kannada Prabha), whose brainchild the IIC is, “we already had a Cartoonist’s Association for Karnataka, but through the IIC we wanted to promote interaction between cartoonists from across India.” He adds, “The gallery is a perfect space to…

Urban Changes photo exhibition, 19th August 2008. Pic: Deepa Mohan.If any city can claim to have changed drastically in the past few years, it will surely be Bangalore. The city’s constantly changing skyline speaks volumes for the social and economic changes that have seen Bangalore morph from a pensioner’s paradise to India’s IT capital. It was thus fascinating to see the photographs at the ‘Urban Changes’ exhibition which captured the spirit of a redefined city, among others. Organised by Max Mueller Bhavan at IndiraNagar, at the culmination of the Bangalore Walks programmes of Bangalore City Project, the exhibition highlighted the…

An unremarkable, crumbling old house in a calm corner of Basavangudi is the venue for unusual artistic performances. Every Sunday evening, the spooky house opens for an hour long performance of Rasaloka, a novel classical theatre in miniature art form. Ganga River descending from Sky (pic: Monideepa Sahu) Artist Deepika Dorai of Bimba the Art Hut has recreated with her own hands a miniature rendering of a cosmic moment frozen in time. Since the past three years, she has added the storytelling element in a formalized theatre like setting to bring the special moment to life. "I want to share…

In the basement of Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore is a long narrow room. Unlike regular Saturday mornings, on 17th May 2008 the room is bustling with activity. In one end of the room, members of INTACH Chitrakala Parishath Art Conservation Centre (ICKPAC) are busy packing their materials in cartons. Madhu Rani, who heads the initiative, tells me that they are getting ready for their trip to the Thiruvarur temple scheduled for the forthcoming week. An oil painting on canvas “Goddess Saraswathi” by artist S.K.Ayya, was received at our centre for restoration. The painting was in an extremely bad condition and it…