<p>In the last few years, Bengaluru has seen more galleries wind up operations than new ones opening their doors. Paradoxically, with the city growing exponentially in size and population in recent times, there is a greater need for art galleries, and more so in areas situated away from the central business district.</p>.<p>One such entrant is the Gallery Dtale Archist, which opened a couple of months ago, as a centre for contemporary art, design, and technology, in Whitefield. In its inaugural exhibition, the gallery featured artists such as Astha Butail, Pooja Iranna, Sudarshan Shetty, and others, many of whom showed their works in the city, either for the first time or after a long gap. The credit goes to the artist, curator and co-founder of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Bose Krishnamachari, who also happens to be the artistic director of the gallery.</p>.<p>Their current exhibition brings together a group of “archists” — Bapi Das, Dia Mehhta Bhupal, Lekha Washington, Martand Khosla, Pors & Rao, Ravikumar Kashi, Sneh Mehra, Sunil Gawde, and Sumedh Rajendran. “At Gallery Dtale Archist, we aim to embrace new perspectives and foster meaningful conversations,” says Bose Krishnamachari, who believes in curating art exhibitions which bring together innovative and interesting work, sans a theme. He elaborates, “This exhibition highlights the transformative power of collaboration and creativity in addressing the complexities of our times.”</p>.<p>Bapi Das, one of the artists featured in the exhibition, has shown his works earlier at the Kochi Biennale. He is a self-taught artist who draws from his life and experiences as an autorickshaw driver in Kolkata. His work focuses on the yellow-and-green autorickshaw as a recurring motif to encapsulate and present stories of the city, while also drawing from his memories.</p>.<p>He layers and combines ordinary objects and images seamlessly to create tableaus of daily life, using the tiniest of rice grains, sugar sprinkles, and ants, along with larger motifs such as discarded plastic tea cups, auto rickshaws with lit headlamps, to celebrate and paint the complexities of the urban fabric.</p>.<p>Lekha Washington is an artist, designer, and performer known for her concept-driven products and experiences and has exhibited wall-mounted works. 'The Dot: Blind Blue' (2012) doubles as an innovative yet functional piece for seating. Martand Khosla, a Delhi-based architect, presents laser drawings which depict the chaos, and systemic patterns inherent in urban landscapes.</p>.<p>The deep indentations, marked by laser, capture the aftermath of hyper-urbanisation. The red metal sculpture at the entrance, ‘A City Hides Its Secrets Well’, is an unfinished hemisphere with domestic objects which are balanced precariously, symbolic of the ambiguity in creation and annihilation intrinsic to the process of urbanisation.</p>.<p>Pors & Rao are known for their innovative robotic puppeteering in contemporary art. Their animated installations often explore themes of intangible human emotions and behavior, and subconscious patterns of observations and response. Combining research, and technology with art and aesthetics, they present a range of drawings and animated works that bring objects to life.</p>.<p>Bengaluru-based Ravikumar Kashi presents his books and other paper pulp and handmade paper works. He explains, “In works like ‘In the Beginning’ and ‘Visceral Paths’, I’m invoking skin, veins, membrane, materials that allow substances to effortlessly move in and out. The tactile and delicate nature of paper suits this, especially when the result also alludes to organic forms, and offers a visceral experience.</p>.<p>The forms themselves are created by using Kannada alphabet forms, alluding to the primacy of text while suggesting language as a membrane which connects and separates.” The ‘Shroud of Bapu’ is a fascinating body of work that explores notions of absence. The bodily frame of Gandhi is a metaphor for the absence of Gandhian ideologies while retaining and alluding to his name.</p>.<p>The exhibition is on till Jan 10, 2025.</p>.<p><em>Dab Hand is your art world lowdown. The author is a Bengaluru-based art consultant, curator and writer. She blogs at Art Scene India.</em></p>
<p>In the last few years, Bengaluru has seen more galleries wind up operations than new ones opening their doors. Paradoxically, with the city growing exponentially in size and population in recent times, there is a greater need for art galleries, and more so in areas situated away from the central business district.</p>.<p>One such entrant is the Gallery Dtale Archist, which opened a couple of months ago, as a centre for contemporary art, design, and technology, in Whitefield. In its inaugural exhibition, the gallery featured artists such as Astha Butail, Pooja Iranna, Sudarshan Shetty, and others, many of whom showed their works in the city, either for the first time or after a long gap. The credit goes to the artist, curator and co-founder of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Bose Krishnamachari, who also happens to be the artistic director of the gallery.</p>.<p>Their current exhibition brings together a group of “archists” — Bapi Das, Dia Mehhta Bhupal, Lekha Washington, Martand Khosla, Pors & Rao, Ravikumar Kashi, Sneh Mehra, Sunil Gawde, and Sumedh Rajendran. “At Gallery Dtale Archist, we aim to embrace new perspectives and foster meaningful conversations,” says Bose Krishnamachari, who believes in curating art exhibitions which bring together innovative and interesting work, sans a theme. He elaborates, “This exhibition highlights the transformative power of collaboration and creativity in addressing the complexities of our times.”</p>.<p>Bapi Das, one of the artists featured in the exhibition, has shown his works earlier at the Kochi Biennale. He is a self-taught artist who draws from his life and experiences as an autorickshaw driver in Kolkata. His work focuses on the yellow-and-green autorickshaw as a recurring motif to encapsulate and present stories of the city, while also drawing from his memories.</p>.<p>He layers and combines ordinary objects and images seamlessly to create tableaus of daily life, using the tiniest of rice grains, sugar sprinkles, and ants, along with larger motifs such as discarded plastic tea cups, auto rickshaws with lit headlamps, to celebrate and paint the complexities of the urban fabric.</p>.<p>Lekha Washington is an artist, designer, and performer known for her concept-driven products and experiences and has exhibited wall-mounted works. 'The Dot: Blind Blue' (2012) doubles as an innovative yet functional piece for seating. Martand Khosla, a Delhi-based architect, presents laser drawings which depict the chaos, and systemic patterns inherent in urban landscapes.</p>.<p>The deep indentations, marked by laser, capture the aftermath of hyper-urbanisation. The red metal sculpture at the entrance, ‘A City Hides Its Secrets Well’, is an unfinished hemisphere with domestic objects which are balanced precariously, symbolic of the ambiguity in creation and annihilation intrinsic to the process of urbanisation.</p>.<p>Pors & Rao are known for their innovative robotic puppeteering in contemporary art. Their animated installations often explore themes of intangible human emotions and behavior, and subconscious patterns of observations and response. Combining research, and technology with art and aesthetics, they present a range of drawings and animated works that bring objects to life.</p>.<p>Bengaluru-based Ravikumar Kashi presents his books and other paper pulp and handmade paper works. He explains, “In works like ‘In the Beginning’ and ‘Visceral Paths’, I’m invoking skin, veins, membrane, materials that allow substances to effortlessly move in and out. The tactile and delicate nature of paper suits this, especially when the result also alludes to organic forms, and offers a visceral experience.</p>.<p>The forms themselves are created by using Kannada alphabet forms, alluding to the primacy of text while suggesting language as a membrane which connects and separates.” The ‘Shroud of Bapu’ is a fascinating body of work that explores notions of absence. The bodily frame of Gandhi is a metaphor for the absence of Gandhian ideologies while retaining and alluding to his name.</p>.<p>The exhibition is on till Jan 10, 2025.</p>.<p><em>Dab Hand is your art world lowdown. The author is a Bengaluru-based art consultant, curator and writer. She blogs at Art Scene India.</em></p>