Back in 2018, Art Exposure first opened its doors with a small space near Triangular Park. Six years later, the platform introduced the city to its sprawling new address at Lake View Road, with its inaugural exhibition, Miracle of Absence, on September 26. My Kolkata brings you a glimpse of this new gallery — aimed at bringing a fresh perspective to both contemporary and modern art.
What grips you from the moment you walk in is how well-crafted the space looks. “Soon after we started in 2018, we started doing shows in Mumbai and Delhi, and realised the need for a bigger space in Kolkata. We knew that we wanted perfection, and it took us almost a year to find this place,” said founder Somak Mitra.
The two-floor setup has been founder Somak Mitra’s dream for six years Art Exposure
However, the Lake Terrace space is currently only operating at half its capacity. “We also have the floor below, which should be ready to open in two months. As someone who works with both modern and contemporary art, the thought always was to have these two floors, where we can parallelly run dedicated programmes of both. Together, it will be a staggering 7,000 sq ft, all dedicated to art,” beamed Mitra.
T. Venkanna took six months to craft this piece titled ‘Sea of Desire’. “This painting shows the endless nature of desire, and how, if you let it consume you, it will never be fulfilled,” said the Hyderabad-based artist Soumyajit Dey
Curated by critic and curator Gayatri Sinha, Miracle of Absence draws from Mirza Ghalib’s famed couplet, ‘The miracle of your absence is that I found myself while searching for you.’ The space epitomised the love that Ghalib experienced for Kolkata during his two-year stay in the city, which he heavily documented in his letters. “I lived in Kolkata during my college years, and I feel that this city needs more energy and representation of contemporary thought. The exhibition has voices not just from Bengal, but the entire country,” said Sinha, who runs the Delhi-based art collective, Critical Collective.
The exhibition has brought together the work of 12 artists from around the country: Abir Karmakar, Amitava, Anandajit Ray, Baaraan Ijlal, Buddhadhev Mukherjee, Chittrovanu Mazumdar, Gigi Scaria, Mithu Sen, Ratheesh T., Ricky Vasan, Shambhavi Singh and T. Venkanna. Their creations delve into a multitude of spaces — from the precarity of life to the expression of desire, and even human waywardness. “Through this exhibition, we explored the different kinds of presence and absence. Someone like Amitava examined it through abstraction, while Mithu Sen sensitively explored violence, and Chittrovanu Mazumdar looked at the metaphysical,” Sinha added.
This piece by Delhi-based artist Shambhavi Singh, reminiscent of her grandparent’s village, was curator (in pic) Gayatri Sinha’s favourite piece. “The depiction of elements of nature remind me of my visits to our ancestral village in UP,” said Sinha Soumyajit Dey
Having put up shows with a modern style for a long time, Mitra’s desire was to open the new space with a cutting-edge contemporary show. With Miracle of Absence, the idea was to create an exhibit that pushes boundaries and broadens the ecosystem. “Mumbai has a very strong art fraternity, with over 20 acting galleries. For us, even if we make sales, the struggle has always been to get people into galleries,” he confessed.
Art Exposure aims to change this with shows that engage with a school and college-going audience, building a culture of art appreciation in the city’s youth. “When we were in school, there was no culture of going to a museum or gallery. This won’t change overnight, but I do think we will get there,” he hoped.
Abir Karmakar came down from Baroda to present ‘Walls’. “In 2016, I painted a wall based on a room in Bhuj, and set it up in Kochi. This project involves painting the history and interiors of a space, and setting it up somewhere else. I brought ‘Walls’ from Baroda and Dum Dum to Art Exposure,” he smiled Soumyajit Dey
For now, the space has its calendar in place for the coming year, with new shows every two months. There will be a mix of contemporary and modern shows, with a focus on artists like Jogen Chowdhury, Somnath Hore and Suruchi Choksi. “I don’t want to reveal everything just yet, but stay tuned for something nice,” grinned Mitra.
Miracle of Absence is open to the public till November 30.