Art exhibitions, whether international, regional or local attract hordes of people who seek to explore the artists’ thoughts and reflect more making them go beyond self-centric worlds to the society outside.

Art is truly a time-traveler that teleports people to another epoch of time the way songs and books do.

This function of art is universal whether artists are exhibiting their wares in National Gallery London, Tate Modern, Copenhagen, Palermo, Sicily, Serpentine Sackler, Glasgow festival or in South Delhi.

For art lovers, every day is fresh in terms of trends, techniques, methods and reminds them of the faster pace with which world is changing and how art can be a catalyst in such changes.

As a person, who has done some paintings, I find art as a change agent. Personally, it makes me calm, compassionate by knowing that how important it is to feel first before creating something.

I find the quote by Anni Albers that “art makes you breathe with a different kind of happiness” quite inspiring.

Art helps to explore the social reality

In today’s society, art is addressing a big problem. The majority of people are not able to connect with the problems of others and unable to do something about it.

By turning attention to art, as a creator or art lover, people can feel and get a perspective. Such a feeling itself is a great step.

In my creative efforts, the quest is to kindle that feeling in the viewer’s mind and soul.

Artists through artifacts share what is not seen upfront in this world. Often the reality is masked or hidden, as a result, we often see more fake stuff trying to dominate our views and thoughts.

In paintings, the basic effort is to convey an honest reality that is sharable to scholarly persons as well as to the common man with a message that “we can make a change in the world” through art.

I started painting 4 years ago, mostly as a hobby, and I now recognize it will be my future and artistic persuasion will be my vocation.

For paintings in exhibitions or art shows, I choose themes that resonate with realism.

In a recent Delhi exhibition, I presented a work that was like a lighting a torch to medieval India when the so-called modernization was nowhere. It was the nostalgic old India.

As for themes, artists have the freedom to pick themes or topics depending on the creative freedom they can offer. The choice of a theme depends on many factors--emotional attachment to the potential for inspiration.

In the paintings of Amrita Shergill, Raja Ravi Verma themes such as self-portraits, still life, country life are plenty. In the modern era, techniques can change but those themes are still appealing.

Many young artists do look up to past masters and use themes that were used by artists of earlier generations.

Before concluding, I like to repeat how important the role of art in life. This applies to artists as well as art lovers. Art can make a human being feel the vibrancy of life and be socially responsible too.

Little India Foundation’s Impressive Art Show 

Meanwhile, our Culture Correspondent reports that the successful art show held by the non-profit Little India Foundation based in New Delhi at the KECSS Art Gallery has been remarkable for the variety of themes and the participation by a goof number of artists.

The three-day exposition attracted impressive participation from artists across India. The KECSS art gallery in South Delhi’s Greater Kailash attracted thousands of visitors.

The participating artists displayed their paintings and artworks in a range of themes. Supporting upcoming artists is one of the causes dear to LIF.

KECSS art gallery of 350 sq ft had 40 artworks on display.  Solo and group artist shows were also part of the event.

As far as artists are concerned, the opportunity and venue to exhibit artwork is a challenge on which established artists also face struggle especially in cities like Delhi.

“For promoting artists, Little India Foundation has launched Artist Card membership to help artists in developing a viable portfolio of their own,” noted Saleem Khan, founder, and CEO of Little India Foundation.

The artist card membership entitles free access to gallery space to showcase artworks, art workshops, and social media campaigns and also art-related certification programs. This is an exclusive program of LIF.

“Many artists have enrolled for the annual membership program and came forward to support the club. This is a limited membership program backed by membership cards,” said Suman Arya, Managing Director, LIF.

According to Saleem, the best part of LIF art exhibitions has been the solid platform it is giving to upcoming artists, promoting social causes and delivering benefits to artists from the sale of artworks and other ancillary opportunities.

Already many artworks have elicited queries from buyers and some have been bought over by art lovers in India, Dubai, Singapore, and Canada.

Some of the artists who exhibited their paintings at the expo included Aditi Site. Avani, Bhumika Singh. Chetna Aeron, Harman Kaur, Jyoti Saxena, Monika Sharma, Moushumi Chowdhary, Ritu Jain, Ruchi Agarwal, Ruchika Kamal, Shambhu Karmakar, Simple Chhabra, Vaishali Verma, Swati Sahu, Pankaj Khare, and Ravindra Nakod.

*Bhumika Singh is a Delhi-based artist with many paintings to her credit.