Priyasri Art Gallery- The art of making art an art.

How many of you are aware of the art scene in India or for that matter the world? You have vague memories of reading about Leonardo da Vinci, Salvadore Dali, Jamini Roy, M F Hussain but otherwise you cannot tell a mural from a fresco. A sketch and portrait always confuses you. Was that block printing or an oil painting? You think papier mache and origami are the same.Art exhibitions?- Are we even allowed to go in there? Art is a distant dream, impossible to fathom.- Are those the precise thoughts that run across your mind when you hear the word ‘art’?

Well we have some good news for you. Priyasri Art Gallery might just be the answer for you. Here is what they have to say on art and which we are sure you will love to hear it.

Priyasri Patodia the founder of the same, had beautifully addressed the issue when she said

“At Priyasri we believe that “Art” is for everyone. It is sacrilegious to add a mythical value to it and stamp it for the elite. Our efforts have been to build bridges and reach out to the wider audience. We are working towards Installation in public spaces and have also conducted a pilot program at a Municipal (Govt) school in Mumbai “Art and creative thinking” with the help of veteran artist Akbar Padamsee. While students are familiar with fields such as medicine, law, engineering and education our goal was to give them a peep into creative fields like fine arts, creative writing and theater.”

It was founded in 2003 by the young and dynamic proprietor Ms Priyasri Patodia , at a time when unlike the countries in the west, people out here did not have a working idea about art as an investment and still regarded it as a luxury and an expensive fancy of the elite. Other than the art aficionados , there used to be very few who had the heart to venture into the art business. But since the past nine years the gallery has been unfailingly hosting annual shows for most part, the fresh graduates from Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda, providing the much needed platform for their creations.

Priyasri Art Gallery as advocated by the founder Ms Patodia has been “extremely responsive to the evolving language of art and is nurturing a gamut of artistic practices and expression along with some bold experimentations.”

It also provides an artist’s studio facility in the art hub of Baroda, India with its AQ@Priyasri artist studio since 2003 and has recently launched a studio dedicated to the art of printmaking earning another feather in its cap. Currently they have spaces at Mumbai and Varoda where they have been regularly showcasing upcoming talents as well as established artists. They mainly plan to reach out to the smaller towns and cities to create an awareness among the general populace about art.

Speaking of awareness Ms Patodia did point out that there has been a shift in the approach compared to the earlier scenario. People have become more aware about the various nuances and forms of art . It is no longer about paintings only, and encompasses a greater variety of creativity and expressions like sculptures, photography , ceramics etc etc. And true to their promise, It has attempted to showcase each medium of art with élan, be it Ceramic, Photography, Sculpture, Installation, Video, Graphic Printmaking, Paintings or Drawing and that which can be testified by the various projects it has been associated with.

The awareness is now seen even in the acquisitions. Earlier , a recommendation by a curator would have been just fine for a sale, but the buyers today are more well informed. They research, study well, observe, rely on their own senses and finally make a choice.

Hence Priyasri chooses with care. Things are not about instincts only. They demand a high degree of commitment and passion from their artists rather than them seeing it as a passing hobby. When art is such an investment and also a representation of where you stand in the competitive arena, one has to choose with care. She admitted to observing not only, the talent and style while scouting for new talents , but the over all temperament, the professionalism and intrinsic personality of the individual, after all you create what you basically are , and which requires quite a lot of effort and time. Working with an artist is not just a one time random show, but in fact a journey towards a greater purpose, an experience and a long time commitment. Scouting for talents do take up a considerable amount of time and she has traveled the length and breadth of the country for the same , but at the end of a satisfying end achieved, it is worth all the trouble

Priyasri Art Gallery has held exhibitions by renowned Indian modernists such asAkbar Padamsee, K.G. Subramanyan, Jogen Chowdhury and Paritosh Sen and presented shows by contemporary artists such as Jagganth Panda, Arunanshu Choudhury, Nikhileshvar Bharua, Jagganath Mohapatra, Alok Bal, Sarika Mehta,Chirag Patel and Hrishikesh Biswal.

As their news letter reports ,in the past eight years it has hosted some impressive shows and here we would like to put ad verbatim of their impressive list of achievements.

-{“Glaze and Glare I&II” with Daroz, Jyotsna Bhatt, Vineet Kacker and several other ceramic artists.

A group show “Tangible I&II” was about the sculptures of masters like Himmat Shah, Shankho Choudhury, Chintamoni Kar, Sarbari Roy Chodhury, Nagji Patel, K.S. Radhakrishnan, Latika Katt and young masters like Riyas Komu, Karl Antao, Vinod Patel, Chinmoy Pramanik and others.

Drawing An Act of Art I&II showcased drawings by masters like Kishen Khanna, Jogen Chaudhury, K.G. Subramanyan and young contemporary artists like Bose Krishnamachari, T.V. Santosh and several others.

The photography show “Post-Visual World” featured works of Pablo Bartholomeo, Hema Upadhya, Atul Bhalla, Chirodeep Chauodhury, Shahid Dattawala, Avinash Veeraghavan.

A collaborative experiment in audio visual art “Many in Body-One in Mind” by Priyasri Patodia, Srinivas Mangipudi, Enith Perez and ‘Dissolve’ by Srinivas Mangipudi, a film on interpretation of life based on the exchange between music and painting was Priyasri Art Gallery’s response to the rising significance of the alternate languages of art.

Transgress was curated by Priyasri Patodia – another experiment with an iconoclastic attempt to liberate the paintings from the confines of canvas and evolve into distinctive signatures for objects around us. Artists such as Jagganath Panda, M. Pravat, B.V. Suresh, and others were a part of this show.

Indian Portraiture,2009- was a Dialogue Between Prabhakar Kolte(Veteran Artist) and Jayaram Poduval about Portraiture. Participating artists were Bikash Bhattacharya, Kishen Khanna, Jogen Chaudhury, Akbar Padamsee, Sunil Padwal, Bose Krishmnachari and Abir Karmarkar.

One of their most ambitious projects “Contemporary printmaking In India” with 79 artists including Jyoti Bhatt, P.D. Dhumal, Pallianiappa Ramnathan, Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Anupama Sood, Walter D’Souza, George Martin, Baiju Parthan, George Martin and Om Surya will commence by the end of the year.” }

Some of their upcoming shows are as follows and we would certainly recommended you to visit them and experience the vastness and endless possibilities of Art as a passion.

ASSEMBLED

Portfolio – Summer 2012  

 

Show on till – 30th June 2012 | 11 am to 7 pm

 

Venue : AQ@Priyasri-The Artist Studio, 

              10th Floor, Ramakrishna Chambers,

               Alkapuri, Vadodara, Gujarat.

Showcasing around 300 art works with 55 participating artists.

With the coming month, the gallery shall be hosting a solo show of the great master Akbar Padamsee, with his latest oil on canvas.

P R I Y A S R I  A R T G A L L E R Y
42 Madhuli
4th Floor
Shiv Sagar Estate
Next to Poonam Chamber
Dr Annie Besant Road
Worli
Mumbai 400018
Tel/Fax 022 24947673
+91 9323582303
priyasriartgallery@gmail.com,artgallery42@gmail.com,www.priyasriartgallery.com

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