It has BEGUN!! I left home by my lonesome (Dad dropped me to the station no biggie) to go to my first gallery hop with my new friend Jai.
Getting on the Virar local even on a week day at non-peak hour can be pretty daunting, at one point I found myself straddling an unsuspecting uncomfortable 4th passenger on a seat that can comfortably only seat 3 while I made way for others to get off the blasted train.
Soon upgraded to 4th passanger status, I rested my one butt cheek on that shiny seat, put on my headphones and let Whitley allow my mind to drift.
What a nice way to begin my initiation into the art scene in Bombay - we start the hopping at the Chemould Contemporary Art Gallery, an exhibition titled Aesthetic Bind | Floating World. This is a beautiful airy space and the curator Geeta Kapur was very amiable when explaining the reasoning behind the artists/works chosen to be displayed. Since this was part of a tour I got to take a few pictures though I'd recommend heading to the website and taking a looksey for yourself, it would be better than anything my camera phone may have achieved.
Second on the list was the infamous Jehangir Art Gallery - the featured artwork was more on the traditional side of things with a number of paintings and sculptures depicting deities and freedom fighters. The upside to this art gallery (for me) is it's closeness to Cafe Samovar which is a food loving art lovers haven.
Third was Project 88, a beautiful neat space that housed the delectable work of Sandeep Mukherjee. The exhibition is called Traces and Tears and I would highly recommend giving it a twice over.
Next place (Fourth) was the simple and unpretentious Mumbai Art Room, a small intimate space that made me feel very much at home. The exhibition featured the work of Scott Myles - titled 'The Meaning of Return'.
Fifth was Sakshi Gallery featuring the fearless and brutally honest work of Krishen Khanna, a very prominent Indian artist. On one of the walls adorning his art was a poem titled - The Voyage of Migration. Had I known that I would not be able to find this poem anywhere on the interwebs, I would have stood there and written the whole thing out it was SO beautiful and so close to home.
Sixth and last on the list but not least by any account was Chatterjee & Lal - the exhibition is titled Voices from the Chamber and features a slew of artists who work very cohesively together. My favourite from this collection is Nityan Unnikrishnan whose drawings/paintings are very evocative and captivating.
The Gallery Hop is something that Jai does every Thursday and I'm told it can sometimes be combined with a bit of a food hop as well - because strolling through all those galleries can certainly work up quite the appetite.
If this is something that may interest you, shoot me a message and I'll give you more information.
Here are pictures of the doors of the galleries we visited today - :)
