Nitin Bhayana: New rooms with views

BUSINESS CLASS/ More galleries come up in a crowded art market

Almost every week I receive invitations to a dozen art shows and, most recently, an invitation to the opening of at least one new gallery somewhere in the country.

In the last few years, scores of galleries have mushroomed across the major metros. And for most collectors sifting the wheat from the chaff has become a major problem.

Without doubt, most people are familiar with names such as Vadehra, Pundole, Espace, Sakshi and Chemould which continue to go from strength to strength. However, a new and interesting breed of younger dealers from diverse backgrounds is slowly but surely making a name for itself in the art world.

Mumbai-based Aditya Ruia switched from collecting to dealing in contemporary art three years ago. Ruia, a scion of the Phoenix Mills family is known to have a keen eye for minimalism and abstraction. He initially collected works of Mumbai artists such as Mehli Gobai and Prabhakar Kolte and has set a similar vision for his gallery.

He is currently showing Manisha Parekh, Sheila Makhijani and Yashwant Deshmukh. Later in the year he will show graphics by Delhi-based Ashok Ahuja, sculpture by the avant garde N Rimzon and is also scheduled to have a solo show of Bose Krishnamachari.

Ruia has also become stronger in the resale trade of the Progressives even though he continues to show mainly abstracts. His fabulous, century old bungalow redesigned in the 1930s provided an ideal setting to a show of Amrita Shergill for which he collaborated with Mumbai-based Chatterjee & Lal.

Mortimer Chatterjee and Tara Lal, both worked for Bowring's earlier. The couple has chosen its entry into the art world with much thought and deliberation. They organised the charming show with Memorabilia from the last years of Shergill, together with simple but stunning drawings from the artist's last sketch book.

Chatterjee and Lal have, since then, partnered with Farookh Issa of Phillips Antiques, the legendary dealers on Mumbai's Regal Cinema circle and will shortly be opening, a rather small but enchanting space, in the Phillips compound which will be called Phillips Contemporary.

Chatterjee and Lal have chosen to deal in a few but very serious artists. Their first show of the late minimal artist Nasreen Mohammadi will launch the new space in September. It will be followed by a solo show of Vadodara-based Jeram Patel and later Sudarshan Shetty and Pamela Singh to name a few. Also part of the programme are some cutting edge artists who will have their first shows at the gallery.

Back in Delhi, the only entrants who have made quite a success of themselves are the fashion designers turned art dealers Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna.

The duo, who started a small gallery with fashion and art collaborations at the ethnic Ambavatta complex in the confines of their successful shop H2O, have since opened a plush space, designed by Chennai-based Vikram Phadke in Delhi's posh Golf Links.

Their Palette Art Gallery continues to show a healthy mix of artists from all generations in their group shows. Palette has been instrumental in opening the art world to the Delhi society and has successfully converted many of the so-called Page 3 serious party-goers into serious collectors. They are certainly the ones I would watch out for in the coming years.

The art world is getting rather crowded with too many galleries and collectors and ironically very little quality work to sell. However, there still remains a very good market for a well-conceived, professionally managed gallery with a vision and a great space.