JOIN USFrom Raja Deen Dayal to Anjolie Ela Menon, the art lovers can see all stalwarts as well as the new talent with the biggest art fair, United Art Fair (UAF) 2012.
The art exhibition featuring more than 500 artists, handpicked from across the country, will showcase around 2000 works of art cutting across various visual art genres including painting, sculpture, print making, photography, video, digital art and other art mediums.
The fair will provide an international platform for budding Indian artists to display their talent amidst art dealers, exhibitors and impresarios, from all over the world. Annurag Sharma, director, United Art Logistics Pvt Ltd, conceived this fair in 2010. “It took two years of preparation to launch the project and this is a unique model. The second edition of the fair is going to focus on South East Asia and Europe besides showcasing promising Indian artists,” he informs.
Johny ML, project director of the fair and curator of UAF shares, “We travelled all over India and found that the young artists needed patronage. UAF is all about collapsing the monopolies developed in the art scene during the boom years. We are taking artists to the patrons directly. The fair is an interface of creativity and commerce,” he adds.
Exclusive attractions of this fair will include a special section on Raja Deen Dayal; ‘Mind the Gap Now’ a section featuring upcoming artists curated by Johnny ML; a ‘Masters Corner’ showcasing the work of artists who have been sources of inspiration to many, which will include names like Akbar Padamsee, MF Hussain, Anjolie Ela Menon, Krishan Khanna, J Swaminathan and Ram Kumar among others.
There will also be a ‘Sculpture Park’ which will have large scale works of internationally known sculptor K.S.Radhakrishnan,Subodh Kerkar, Sidharth and Balan Nambiar along with promising artists Megha Joshi and Neeraj Rawa.
Along with these, there will also be book launches and four seminars - Photography Today, Photography Today presentations, Curatorial Practices and Art and Adminstration.
Annurag informs that 28 September has been marked as Dissenter’s Day. “On that day, anybody having a different idea and even a critic of the fair can come and speak to the public from our seminar platform,” he explains.
But the USP of the fair remains its concentration on the artist. “Since the fair is artist-driven, it won’t involve any gallery in its proceedings. We aren’t averse to galleries but we want to highlight the artists. During the boom years we were mindlessly buying and selling. Our aim was profit. But now to promote art, profit cannot be the only driving force. We need to attract more and more collectors to the scene,” he says.
In short, if you are interested in art, you can safely turn to UAF which will be held at Pragati Maidan, Hall no 12 from September 27- 30.