Showing posts with label Art Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art Blog. Show all posts

13 Sept 2024

Art News: MAP, Bengaluru Appoints Harish Vasudevan As Acting Director


Harish Vasudevan as Acting Director of MAP
Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru, India announced the appointment of Harish Vasudevan as Acting Director on September 9th, 2024.

Reflecting on the continuing development of the museum from its roots as the first digital museum in India, and the successful opening of its building in Bengaluru in February 2023, the appointment is designed to prepare the organisation for further growth.

In over three decades of experience, Harish has held several leadership roles in multiple geographies, with companies like Ogilvy & Mather as well as IBM. He is also a published author and teacher. Over the last six months Harish has been consulting with MAP on Marketing and Operations.

Besides working with all the Heads of departments across Education, Collections, 
Conservation, Inclusion, Marketing & Communications, Design and Development, Harish 
will be further supported by Dr. Arnika Ahldag, Head of Curation and Exhibitions at MAP.

Commenting on the announcement, Abhishek Poddar, Founder and President of MAP said “As we looked at our plans for the future, we were looking for someone with the skills to develop the organisation, while also strengthening the brand. Harish has just the right combination of expertise and experience to build on the foundation that MAP has laid over the last few years.”

“The first time I entered MAP I fell in love with it. I am honoured to get a chance to lead this fabulous team as we get ready for Phase 2 of MAP’s impressive journey as India’s first new museum to open in a decade.”, says Harish Vasudevan — Acting Director, MAP.

Excerpt from press release 

19 Jan 2024

(Un)Contained a solo exhibition of paintings by Smita Verma



Curatorial Note

‘(Un)Contained’ is an extension of artist Smita Verma’s previous body of work, a nostalgic memoir of her childhood and home in Rajasthan, viewed through a lens of longing and wistfulness. The built environment and the sky, symbolic of hope and infinite possibilities amidst the urban landscape, continues to form the core of her visual schema. Smita navigates the numerous characteristics, complexities and dichotomies of a city as an organic, living entity that expands its physical boundaries over time, and is perceived as a land of dreams and opportunities. Despite being mired in conflicts and anxieties, the city appears as a mirage, a utopian dream, for many.

Painting by Smita Verma, Art Scene India
Long Haul by Smita Verma

Smita attempts to reconcile memories of her childhood with the currency of her life in Bangalore, situating it against a city, with a rapidly evolving landscape. She finds solace in watching the infinite stretch of the sky, an expanse of azure blue shared with loved ones back in Rajasthan, her childhood home - a connect that keeps her centred. Thus, the sky in its varying colours, from a pale cerulean on a clear summer day, a fiery crimson and a golden hue with the setting sun, to an inky black bathed in moonshine, forms the backdrop for each of her work.
 
The meticulously arranged buildings on her canvas belie the chaos that typifies urban planning and life. The comingling of varied styles of painting on a single surface creates a distinct visual vocabulary, a fusion of tradition with contemporaneity. Having learnt Kangra painting from a noted traditional artist, Smita incorporates elements from miniature style of painting in the detailing of the foliage, the clouds, the skyline, and in the blocks of buildings. She also opts for a two-dimensional perspective, at times, which references Indian miniature painting style. In most of the paintings, naturalistic rendering is interspersed with miniature elements and motifs to represent the inherent complexities and the dichotomy of a city’s charm and appeal.


Painting by Smita Verma, Art Scene India
Panorama by Smita Verma

The sharply delineated buildings, stylised at times, but disrupting the horizon in a marked manner, intensify the contrast between the blended hues of the sky and the foliage, acting as a metaphor for the conflicts, challenges and the joy and fulfilment contained within the confines of a city. Several such paradoxes are amplified in the juxtaposition of pictorial elements. Glittering windows in the tall skyscrapers, vestiges of floral blooms and trees around the concrete structures, and the sky in its glorious splendour, recreate an illusion of calm and bliss.

The absence of human figures alludes to the sense of isolation that pervades despite the bustling nature of the city. The silence and stillness is palpable, a moment in time as if suspended unnaturally between the past and future. Winding roads, flyovers, playgrounds and fields, and walkways are lined with foliage and an abundance of concrete structures. Relics of histories appear in the form of old buildings and monuments that are resplendent yet dilapidated; fallen flowers cover a derelict car as an ode to the numerous blossoms that once lined Bangalore roads, lush green foliage adorn the top of the buildings offers a satirical view of the concrete jungle that has now replaced the natural cover. Notions of conflict between man and nature, and the irony of progress amidst ecological deterioration through urban landscapes present the decay in its sartorial beauty.

 
Nalini S Malaviya
Curator

(Un)Contained is on view at Lalit Kala Akademi, gallery no. 3, New Delhi, till 23rd Jan, 2024

11 Dec 2023

Art News: India Art Festival in Bangalore

 

India Art Festival Returns to Bengaluru with its Third Edition, Showcasing an Unprecedented Array of Artistic Talent


The highly anticipated India Art Festival (IAF) returns to Bengaluru for its third edition, from December 14 to 17 at the expansive Palace Ground, Kings Court. This year's edition promises an unparalleled showcase of artistic brilliance, with an unprecedented number of participants, making it the largest and most diverse gathering of artists and galleries to date.

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
Gurudas Shenoy
Boasting an impressive scale and scope, the 3rd Bengaluru edition of IAF is set to captivate the city with cutting-edge contemporary art, presented by over 25 art galleries and featuring contributions from a staggering 400 artists hailing from 40 different cities across India. The festival is a testament to the thriving art scene in the country, offering a comprehensive exploration of various artistic expressions, including paintings, sculptures, photography, ceramics, and installations.

Opening on December 14, the event will serve as a melting pot of artistic diversity, providing insights into the latest trends in Indian and Asian diaspora art. Founded in 2011 by the publishers of the Indian Contemporary Art Journal, IAF stands as the only annual art fair held in three major metro cities – Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bengaluru – having successfully mounted 25 editions thus far.

With a staggering 3500 pieces of art on display at the Palace Ground, IAF caters to a wide audience, welcoming seasoned art collectors and new buyers alike. The eclectic selection includes oil paintings, acrylics, watercolours, original prints, installations, and drawings in myriad styles, covering landscapes, figurative works, abstracts, cityscapes, seascapes, urban and rural scenarios, portraits, nudes, religious art, traditional paintings, murals, Warli art, and much more.

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
Prabhu Joshi
Over the last thirteen years, India Art Festival has been a consistent platform for both
emerging talents and established artists, striving to provide an open atmosphere for contemporary art. In its 3rd edition in Bengaluru, the festival strikes a balance between appealing to seasoned art enthusiasts and actively engaging with a younger generation of tech-savvy art buyers, resulting in a diverse and eclectic selection of art.

This year, the festival is proud to feature the imaginative contributions of young talents, injecting refreshing perspectives and radical visual art voices. The Kings Court at the Palace Ground will host 80 booths, showcasing a total of 3500 pieces of art.

Participating art galleries include Akanksha Art Gallery, Charvi Art Gallery, Shiny Colours Art Gallery, H Art Gallery, SM Art Gallery, Sara Arakkal Gallerie (all Bengaluru), ArtDesh Foundation, Artvista, Beyond the Canvas, Bouquet of Art Gallery, Nitya Artists Center, Studio Pankaj Bawdekar, Studio Monica Ghule, Studio Om Thadkar, The Bombay Art Society (Mumbai), ArteHut, Aura Planet, Eminent Art Gallery, Gallery Pioneer, Pastel Tale OPS Art Gallery, Sudha Art Creations & Uchaan (Delhi-NCR), Gnani Arts (Singapore), Arpitam Kala Mandir (Kolkata), M Narayan Studio (Pune), Pichwaiwala - Narendra Arts & Handicrafts (Udaipur), among others.

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
Thota Vaikuntam

The festival also introduces the Artists’ Pavilion, featuring individual booths by independent artists designed to foster a dialogue between viewers and artists. This multi-level engagement encourages a direct connection between the art market and artists, facilitating open discussions and the purchase of artwork on an open platform. India Art Festival Director, Rajendra, emphasizes the festival's commitment to democratizing 'art viewing and buying,' a movement that has spread across Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bengaluru over the past thirteen years.

This year, the Artists’ Pavilion showcases both unknown talents and established names, with more than 300 independent artists presenting their expressions in the form of paintings and sculptures alongside 100 established artists exhibited by art galleries. The diverse range of subjects explored by these artists encompasses personal experiences to intense narratives.

The 3rd Bengaluru edition of India Art Festival promises not only visual delights but also auditory, visual and cinematic experiences. Eminent artists Ganapati Agnihotri, Kanthraj N, Chintamani G G, Ganesh Doddamani along with musicians Manjunath (Flute), Subramanya Hegde (Sitar), Karthik I S(Mandolin) accompanied by Maruti Prasad (Tabla) will transform the Palace Grounds into a cultural oasis, offering not only a visual feast but also a multitude of fusion shows, live musical performances, mesmerizing live painting demonstrations on 15 to 17 Dec from 3.30 to 5.00pm. A standout feature of the event is the enlightening film "The Eternal Canvas – 12,000 Years Journey through Indian Art," a cinematic exploration of India's rich artistic heritage spanning millennia. This cinematic journey provides a sweeping overview of the evolution of Indian art, from prehistoric times to contemporary expressions. It will be screened from 15 to 17 Dec, from 5.30 t0 7.00pm.   

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
Durga Bai Vyam

The Artists Pavilion, with its fresh face and diverse talent, adds a new layer to the India Art Festival experience in the Garden City. With its mammoth collection of art under one roof, IAF serves as a one-stop mega art jamboree for art enthusiasts, providing a unique opportunity to enjoy art without the need to hop around various art spaces in the city.


India Art Festival will run from December 14 to 17, 2023, at Kings Court, Palace Ground, Gate No.5, Bellary Road, Near Mekhri Circle, Bengaluru, from 11 am to 8:00 pm on all days. The tickets for India Art Festival, priced at Rs.299, are available on BookMyShow.com and at the venue, ensuring a captivating cultural experience for art enthusiasts.


For further details, contact 9820737692


Don't miss the chance to immerse yourself in the vibrant world of contemporary art at this year's India Art Festival in the Garden City!


Excerpted from the press release

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15 Mar 2023

Art News: Wilderness Escapades by Krish Iyer

Reconnecting with the past


Bangalore based artist Krish Iyer presents his recent suite of paintings that reimagine sculptures of Khajuraho temples, which decades ago, had set him on a path of creative expression. Iyer revisited the site recently, which is located in a densely forested region, rich in natural flora and fauna. In the temple art and architecture with its iconographic symbolism and its philosophical and spiritual moorings, Iyer has found a way to reconnect with the past, and re-envision it in his art, in a contemporary context.

Abstract painting 1 by Krish Iyer, Art Scene India
Painting by Krish Iyer

The large format paintings in ‘Wilderness Escapades’ reference these sculptures and the underlying premises, to create a spatial interplay of light, colour and texture to suggest the form, postures and gestures of the stone statues in a quasi-representational style. The artist’s interpretations are moored around the historicity of the temples, their geography - located as it is amidst forested land and wilderness, with their beauty and splendor remaining undiscovered for centuries. And, their subsequent desecration by invaders, all of which weave an intriguing narrative of mystery and mystique, of magnificence and ruin, of worldwide fame and remoteness. The art and architecture of the Khajuraho temples combined with their religious, cultural and historical significance form an intrinsic part of their allure. Numerous stories, philosophies and other intangibles lie beneath the surface of the stones, creating sagas of seduction, lure and enigma.

Krish’s canvases explore these histories, the abstracted notions of human potential, philosophies of living, corporeality of the flesh and temporality of life. The visual semantics are anchored in formal aesthetics, with defined line drawings marking the canvas, while the abstract expressionist approach at later stages lends critical layers of texture, and simultaneously recontextualizes historical content.

Abstract painting 1 by Krish Iyer, Art Scene India
Painting by Krish Iyer

The tactile surface of the works emerges from heavy textures, layers of dripping paint, and several applications of thick acrylic paint using the impasto technique. The palette knife and other tools transform the canvas, to add depth and dimension, to strip off extraneity and to emphasize salient features of the physical form. Transcendence, man and nature (re)union, the cycle of life and rebirth, and joy of living are some of the key principles that are depicted at Khajuraho temples, and it is these that Krish seeks and attempts to portray in his works. The deliberate obliteration of details in the figures, and the structurally accurate forms that replicate their defiled state, are incandescent with the ironies of transience – both natural and as outcomes of anarchist interventions.

Despite the precision of line drawings that form the basis of the works, Iyer’s methodology is essentially non-mimetic. The gradual yet decidedly gestural transformation of the painting surface as a pictorial array of subconscious thoughts and patterns rescinds identifiable characteristics and accentuates the metaphorical import.

After a successful career in commercial art, Krish has returned to painting with this solo exhibition - to pursue subjects and themes that resonate with him. A chance encounter with the Khajuraho temples almost three decades ago, stayed with him through the years and a strange yearning drew him back to them recently. This series originated from the revisit, marked by an innate desire to reconnect with nature, and to allow subconscious thoughts and emotions to surface and transform on canvas. With this exhibition, Krish attempts to break the invisible shackles that have contained his creativity all these years and to realize his inner potential.

Nalini S Malaviya
Art Critic
March, 2023                                                                                                  
 
- Catalogue text

The exhibition 'Wilderness Escapades' continues from March 20-26 at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore. For further details contact 9900094466. Visit Wilderness Escapades (krishiyer.in)



1 Dec 2022

Art News: India Art Festival in Bangalore

India Art Festival attracts over 30 galleries and 400 artists for its second edition in the city



The 2nd Edition of India Art Festival (IAF) in the city starting from December 08 – 11 at the Palace Ground, Kings Court, Gate No. 5, Bellary Road, has grown in scale and size this year, bringing cutting-edge contemporary art to the city, presented by over 30 Art Galleries and 400 artists, coming from 40 different cities across India, Singapore and USA.

Opening on December 08, the 2nd Bengaluru edition of IAF will bring all forms of artistic expressions in the art fair including painting, sculptures, photography, ceramics, installations, offering insights into current art trends in India and Asian diaspora.

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
Aditiraje Bhonsle

Founded in 2011 by the publishers of Indian Contemporary Art Journal, IAF is the only art fair held annually in three metro cities and which has mounted 22 editions so far at Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru.

Whether, it is a seasoned art collector, or a new art buyer who want to acquire the first piece of art, the India Art Festival with 4000 pieces of art across 100 booths, on display at the Palace Ground is a perfect place to fall in love with art. At IAF, the art collectors are spoilt for choices to choose from many mediums and styles - oil paintings, acrylics, water colour, original prints, installations, drawings in myriad styles dealing with varied subjects including landscapes, figurative, abstracts, cityscapes, seascapes, urban and rural scenarios, portraits, nudes, semi-nudes, religious art, traditional paintings, murals, warli art and many more.


The master artists displayed by the galleries include Sakti Burman, Yusuf Arakkal, Lalu Prasad Shaw, S G Vasudev, Laxman Aelay, Gurudas Shenoy, Laxma Goud, Jatin Das, Jogen Chowdhury, Manu Parekh, N S Harsha, P Gnana, Seema Kohli and many others.

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
Yusuf Arakkal

The Artists’ Pavilion with individual booths by independent artists is so designed as to create a dialogue between the viewers and the art maker, and the artist. It also encourages dialogue between the art market and the artists directly. Here the sale and purchase of the artwork is on an open platform and the buyer or collector can approach an artist and the choices are numerous.

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
Vinita Dasgupta
This kind of freedom is rarely possible as both the artist and the buyers benefit from this arrangement. India Art Festival Director Rajendra says, "the process of democratizing ‘art viewing and buying’ initiated twelve years ago in Mumbai sort of became a movement; the growing interest in Indian contemporary art slowly made this movement spread to New Delhi and Bengaluru covering significant length and breaths of our country."

Apart from 200 established artists exhibited by art galleries, more than 200 independent artists are displaying in the ‘Artists’ pavilion’ at the art festival. The subjects broached by the artists vary from personal experiences to intense narratives.

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
Dhyana Das
 'Tripurasundari’, a feminine mystique of the goddess by artist Dhyana Das and Kalyani Ravishankar’s ‘Radha-Krishna’, both blend the nuances of classical paintings and contextualize them within Indian religious sensibilities. 

In another instance, artist Karthik Kamath, Sonali Surana and Tejaswi depicts embodiment of renunciation, Buddha, the enlightened one in his splendid aura with wavy hair curls & the monastic robe covering both shoulders and arranged in heavy classical folds. 

Sunitha Krishna, Smita BP, Kalyani Sinha and Tripti Pandey indulge in an artistic imagery using religious images, cultural symbols and motifs that touches the spiritual chord of the viewers.

Artists Gaurav Dagar, Jyothi Prakash and Prakash Bal Joshi beguile the viewers with their abstract composition using pure forms & colours, whereas artist Muthukrishnan Ramalingam and Rajitha Bonthala chose the middle path of semi-abstract idiom to present their visual stories.

Wildlife, animal and bird paintings is one of the oldest art forms found since ancient times in the cave art. Animal and bird art have come a long way since then in technique and imagination and occupies major part of the contemporary art space in India. Artist Isha Valentine’s symbolic deer with antlers, Priyanka Sehgal’s Sunbird, big cats and elephant by artist Apurba Das, Shakila Ananth and Sudha Anandampillai displayed in the art festival is a fusion of art elements found in Bundi style of traditional art with contemporary times.

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
Akshata Shetty

The black and white paintings displayed in the art festival by Akshata Shetty, Beena Surana, Om Thadkar, Preeti Baliga, and Priyanka Maurya prove that the paintings need not have to be always done in striking colours to create visual splendour! Viewers are bound to be mesmerize by the unfolding visual drama of muted blacks, ash greys, dark flashes, starry whites with harsh shadows employed in the work of Om Tadkar in his galloping white stallion, whereas Priyanka Mauraya’s dreamy flowery land and symbolic portraits of all sorts by Akshata Shetty and Preeti Baliga creates powerful viewing; these paintings can go with entire range of minimalist modern décor & interior to create aesthetic ambience around living spaces. 


Since ancient times to modern times, from fertility goddess to modern-day multitasker, artists have always enjoyed exploring the subject matter of women folk in art. But when the subject is explored by female artists herself, it assumes different significance like artist Geeta Yerra, Parul Sharma and Swati Burde who are exhibiting in the art festival. 

India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
P Gnana
The figurative works by Ravi Verma and Vanita Gupta along with Atul Todi and Jayaram Krishna’s figures emerging through geometric patterns on closer look is an added in attraction for viewers. 

The notion of beautiful and sublime with sharp contrasts of light and shadow is exemplified in the landscapes by Poornima Deepak and Reema Ravindran whereas Deepshikha Bishoyi, Mridul Garg, Pooja Muthuraj, Shankari Kundu, T V Sairam and Vidhu Pillai prefers suggestive style of abstract landscape which focuses more on expressing emotion while still capturing the essence of a landscape. Seena Mani’s cityscape, Aditiraje Bhonsle, and Kasturi Dutta’s flowerscape are different genre in landscape painting in the art festival that would leave a lasting impression on the viewers. 

Among several others noticeable works by master artists, the artists pavilion present a fresh face of India Art Festival at the Garden city. India Art Festival, with mammoth art collection of all sorts of art under one roof is a one stop mega art jamboree for art enthusiasts in this week to enjoy art without getting tired in hopping around art paces in city!

The participating art galleries include Akanksha Art Gallery, Charvi Art Gallery, Green Footprint
India Art Festival, Bangalore, Image for Art Scene India
Laxman Aelay
Art Gallery, H Art Gallery, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Sara Arakkal Gallerie (all Bengaluru), ArtDesh Foundation, Artvista, House of Emerge, Nitya Artists Center, Studio Pankaj Bawdekar, Studio Rustgrey, Studio3 Art Gallery, The Bombay Art Society, thecurators.art (Mumbai) , ArteHut, Eminent Art Gallery, Gallery Pioneer, Nifa Art Gallery, Gallery Vision Art (New Delhi), Pastel Tale & Uchaan (Gurgaon), Gnani Arts (Singapore), Kalabhawan (Agartala), M Narayan Studio (Pune), Pichwai by Beyond Square (Udaipur) and Subodh Fine Art Studio (California, USA) among others.


India Art Festival will be on from 08 to 11 Dec 2022 at Kings Court, Palace Ground, Gate No.5, Bellary Road, Near Mekhri Circle, Bengaluru from 11 am- 8.30pm on all days.


For further details contact: 9820737692



Excerpted from the press release


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22 Nov 2022

Reminiscences by Bharathi S

Recollections: Traveling Through Time

Bangalore based artist Bharathi S. revisits her childhood through paintings that wistfully capture joie de vivre, of carefree days, gone by. The paintings in the new series, ‘Reminiscences’ evoke flashes of vivid memory, of youthful days and simpler times. The kaleidoscopic images depict a fervent memoire tinged with nostalgia and innocence, and of those past moments that were uncluttered and unencumbered from the urgency and stresses of urban life. The works are suggestive of the rich fragrance of imagination and the joy of untroubled days, where time was slower, and perhaps it even stood still, more so, in small towns and villages, where Bharathi grew up.

Her works are akin to photographic film negatives, albeit in color, where masses and forms coalesce and blur, in effortless motion. The colors, as patches of pigments, take shape from a distance, and dissolve once again on approaching closer. Most of the larger paintings have figures of children either playing or watching adults complete household chores – there is an inherent exuberance and dynamism with a heightened sense of motion that is evident. A safe, secluded world is quietly tangible.

An avid traveler, she has been fascinated by clouds – their patterns and how they shift form, disperse, and re-form at times to acquire newer shapes and outlines. Their temporal nature and their transitions, have impacted her perception, in her observations of life and events and their fleeting characteristics. This in turn has inspired the small format paintings, which rely on abstraction as a tool to convey the thematic subjects as they shift forms amidst the colors, and which reemphasize the subtleties of movement and transitions.

Nalini S Malaviya

Art Critic

- Excerpt from the catalogue essay


'Reminiscences' by Bharathi S. continues till Nov 27, at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore

 

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6 Oct 2022

Technology In Museums


Technology can effectively bridge the gap between museums and younger audiences to create seamless experiences that imitate ordinary interactions by adapting and enhancing the same tools that the younger generation uses on a regular basis



In the past two years, it has become increasingly evident that technology plays a very important role in the museum experience. It allows enthusiasts and admirers to stay connected with the world of history and art, whether physically or virtually.

Technology can help bridge the gap between museums and the younger generation since their lives are constantly influenced by the digital world. Museums can create seamless experiences that imitate ordinary interactions by adapting and enhancing the same tools that the younger generation uses on a regular basis. Along the same lines, technology allows museums to boost audience participation by using gadgets that are already in use.

Holographic table at MAP , Image provided by MAP for Art Scene India
Holographic table at MAP 

Technology also helps museums bring to life their ideas and the creative ways in which they wish to engage the audience. For example, the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), one of the first private art and photography museums in Bengaluru, collaborated with BrandMusiq to give the brand a distinct sonic identity through its MOGO or ‘musical logo’. MAP’s sonic identity is inspired by the aim to bridge the gap between the past and the present, the classical and the modern, and the conventional and the contemporary.

These tools make art and history more accessible while making the museum more accessible to people with disabilities such as hearing loss, vision impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

MAP’s involvement in the confluence of art and technology makes for a refreshing change. MAP and Accenture Labs collaborated to create India’s first conversational digital persona in M.F. Husain. The viewers can interact with the artists with questions on his early life, career and family. The usage of speech synthesis software and extensive research on the artist makes for an engaging interaction. 

Husain’s holographic avatar, as part of MAP’s collaboration with Accenture India, Image provided by MAP for Art Scene India
Husain’s holographic avatar, as part of MAP’s collaboration with Accenture India

The virality of different kinds of technology and their reception by the masses help museums understand the kind of devices to use and how they can be made increasingly accessible to the audience. Haptic interfaces, iPads, touch screens, and live screenings are a few such tools that engage the audience and help museums reach out to them virtually without losing their interest.

Kalamkari Prayer Mat, 1850s, Cotton, natural dyes, Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India, TXT.0021, Image provided by MAP for Art Scene India
Kalamkari Prayer Mat, 1850s, Cotton, natural dyes,
Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India, TXT.0021

In another instance of a technology-focused initiative, MAP Academy, the educational vertical of MAP Bengaluru, collaborated with Microsoft to develop the platform INTERWOVEN as a part of Microsoft’s AI for Cultural Heritage initiative. This project is rooted in developing the digital recreation of the histories of South Asia through textiles, making it more accessible and inclusive for a global audience. Viewers sitting anywhere in the world can find connections between artworks and textiles, cultures and histories through this platform. And that really is the magic of integrating the use of technology in the arts and museums. It allows for a wider and more inclusive reach, as well as a greater participation by young audiences; it allows the museum to become an institution of the future. 

Technology can be a great tool for expanding audiences and driving engagement, however it must be used strategically. It’s more about determining what service(s) they are providing, who it will serve, and how the audience will benefit from the experience rather than adopting technology for the sake of incorporating technology.





Guest Post

8 Sept 2022

Art News: Art from Heart 2.0

Avijit Dutta

“Art from Heart 2.0”, a charity group art exhibition



More than 30 artists from all over the country are joining hands for the second series of the charity group art exhibition, “Art from Heart 2.0”, is being organized by Mamta Nath, Founder & Director, The Lexicon Art and Artist Swati Pasari from Kolkata at The Lexicon Art, Connaught Place from Sep 3rd till Oct 7th, 2022.

“The exhibition aims at representing the diverse and rich cultural heritage of India while raising funds to support the multiple community service activities being carried across India by Round Table India. This is the second in series, the first being held online in April 2020 to raise funds for covid victims and their families. Its heartening to witness the art community coming together for such noble initiatives, we are looking forward to continuing with this annual event to be able to touch more lives”, says Mamta Nath.

Some of the most renowned names in the art world are part of this exhibition, viz., Avijit Dutta, Gurudas Shenoy, Madhuri Bhaduri, Niren Sengupta, Seema Kohli, Swati Pasari, Venkat Bothsa and Vinita Karim.

Vinita Karim
“We are delighted to associate with The Lexican Art once again for raising funds for our various social causes. While in 2020 funds were diverted to help Covid victims, this year, we plan to divert them to our long-term Project, “Freedom through Education”. Through this project, we have educated approximately 9 million underprivileged children throughout India and have built one classroom a day, every day, during the last decade”, says Manish Lakhotia, National President, Round Table India.


Till Oct 7th, 2022, 11 am – 7 pm at The Lexicon Art, M 12, Block M, Connaught Place, New Delhi








Excerpt from the Press Release