ALL EYES ON ART

Art Chennai returns for its third edition with auctions, installations and photofests on environment and heritage

The third edition of Art Chennai promises to be bigger than before, with over 75 artists and 35 events spread over nine days. The festival will have exhibitions, workshops, installations, conferences and public art. Art Chennai 2014 is in collaboration with Stella Maris College and IIT, Madras and will focus on environment, conservation and heritage this year.

“The growth of a society is reflected by the growth of art. This year, we will have the first ever photo fest, an auction, large installations at multiple public locales in order to target a large and diverse audience. That makes this festival the only exclusive and inclusive art fest,” said Sanjay Tulsyan, convener, Art Chennai, at a press conference about the event.

Girish Shahane, the art director pointed out the highlights of the show and said, “This year it is about history and environment. It’s not just built heritage but everything connected with the history of the city — cultural, economic and so on. And this in a city known for its tradition and culture. Since performance art is also an important form of art we will have many events focussing on that as well.”

Some of the highlights of the festival, which will take place between February 8 to February 16, are:

February 8

The Trees and The Skies, which will be a collaborative project between three artists, students from Stella Maris college and artists from Ability Foundation. This project will go on till February 16 at Stella Maris College.

Auction Preview of Modern and Contemporary Indian Art will take place at Hyatt Regency between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The proceeds from the sale will go to charities supported by the Rotary Club of Madras.

February 9

Raghu Rai’s India, a photo exhibition will be held at Gallery Veda on OMR. This will be on for three months.

At 12 p.m., Couriouser and Couriouser by The Karuppu Art Collective will take place at the Cholamandal Artist’s Village. The registration for the auction begins at 6.30 p.m. and the auction begins at 7.30 p.m. at Hyatt Regency.

Febuary 10

Reflections on Grace: International Photo Fest, in collaboration with Delhi Photo Festival 2013 will be on till February 23 at IIT, Madras

Parvathi Nayar’s show ‘The Ambiguity of Landscapes’ is on till March 12 at Gallery Veda.

February 11

Signals. Signposts. Voyages 4 from the Madras Movement. Artists Nandagopal, Muralidharan, C. Douglas and Palaniappan will participate in this event. It will be on till February 28 at Sarala’s Art Centre.

February 12

Vintage Vignettes, a retrospective exhibition on Chennai curated by Girish Shaane, will be on at Marina Beach till February 16.

February 13

Installation – Shop Lifting by Mithu Sen at Express Avenue. This will be on till February 26.

Bright Noise is curated by Girish Shahane. Participating artists are Anita Dubem, Asim Waqif, Charmi Gada Shah, Jitish Kallat, Madhuban Mitra, Manas Bhattacharya, Manish Nai, Nandan Ghiya, Navin Thomas, Prajakta Potnis, Rashid Rana, Rohini Devasher, Sahej Rahal, Vibha Galhotra and Vivan Sundaram. This will be on till March 8 at Lalit Kala Akademi.

February 14

Art Assemblage, an exhibition of visiting galleries by Akar Prakar, Ashvita, Exhibit 320, Gallery Art and Soul, Gallery Open Eyed Dreams, The Guild, Project 88 and Galerie 88.

February 15

Deep (skin) Skin Deep: A proposition in Art, Textiles and Fashion curated by Mayank Mansingh Kaul and Bootlegger’s Addendum by Sahej Rahal at Park Hyatt from 5.30 p.m. onwards.