Find Your Way: The India Art Fair Guide
Given that works of international artists are not regularly exhibited in galleries and museums in India, the IAF offers that occasional opportunity.
On view, this year, is the monumental 320 x 1320 cm woma block work titled Water Lilies by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. At the neugerriemschneider booth, it draws from French painter Edouard Manet’s meticulously crafted gardens, and is the first viewing of this version by Ai Weiwei, rendered in vibrant colours for India.
The Berlin-based gallery has juxtaposed it with Israeli artist, dance composer and notation specialist Noa Eshkol’s textile work Folk Dance with overlapping circular and semi-circular arcs, and Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s Unseeing the Blind Spot in stainless steel.
While Galleria Continua also has the Chinese artist’s works, the central wall at the booth has a stainless steel Anish Kapoor Magenta Pink and Red Wine satin that represents his engagement with colour. Also at the booth are Paris-based Eva Jospin’s silk thread embroidered intricate forests.
Water Lilies by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei at the neugerriemschneider booth. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
Making its debut at IAF, Galerie Geek Art from Japan has, among others, artist Kaneko Tomiyuki’s Great Tiger: Pacifier of Fire and Wind in mineral pigments, Japanese ink, transparent watercolour.
As part of the launch of its Villa Swagatam residency programme, the French Institute in India, meanwhile, is presenting Franco-Cameroonian artist Barthélémy Toguo’s installation titled Water Matters, made in collaboration with artisans of the embroidery school Chanakya School of Craft and its creative director Karishma Swali. Contemporary Australian indigenous artist Sarrita King has a solo at the fair, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is presenting Irish artist John Gerrard’s digital work Western Flag (NFT) to reflect on the history of oil consumption in the US.
