Park Street opened its doors to a multi-disciplinary art gallery that aims to engage Calcuttans beyond culinary art and immerse them in fine arts. Situated at Celica Park, the 12,000sqft space will start new dialogues on art and conduct workshops bringing artists from across India and the world. Spearheaded by Jishu Bhowmick who had a keen interest in art from a young age, Gallery Art Frequencies also intends to rekindle Park Street’s history and love for art. “In the early 1950s on Park Street stood Artistry House, the iconic art gallery where luminaries of the art world exhibited their work along with budding artists who then went on to become stalwarts of the Indian art scene. So we wanted to utilise this space and start an art gallery just like the city had earlier,” said Bhowmick who was a private banker before starting the gallery.
Bhowmick, who is also a tabla player, lists another reason for starting the art space. “We have an online platform called artshoppy.com, which is India’s first online platform where buyer-seller trade takes place. I started it in 2016 and it serves as a platform where senior artists to budding ones displayed their artwork. This is an extension of the online platform because post-Covid people want a physical existence,” adds Bhowmick who has plans of opening Gallery Art Frequencies in other states of India.
The interiors of the gallery have been kept white so that the artwork becomes the main focus.
The inaugural exhibition of Gallery Art Frequencies titled Gods on Canvas traces the changing patterns, dialogues and methodologies of 19th-century Bengal art. The exhibition explores the translation of the religious and mythic subjects from the initial medium of tempera to the luminous medium of oil paint brought in by the rapid changes and influences ushered in by the European diaspora in Bengal.
Jishu Bhowmick, founder, Gallery Art Frequencies