India Art Festival 2013 - Conversations

Kamini Sawhney is the Curator of the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery at the CSMVS. In her role as a curator she has helped bring to the public realm a series of exhibitions structured around the collection. These include ‘Voicing a Presence: Women Artists in the Jehangir Nicholson Collection’, ‘Nothing is Absolute: A Journey through Abstraction’, and ‘Mohan Samant: Paintings’. Apart from exhibitions, she has been instrumental in organizing several events, workshops and seminars shaped around these shows, to help audiences better understand and relate to the thoughts and ideas presented through them and to ensure people stay connected with the gallery. She has been associated with the CSMVS (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya) for the last 5 years, where she studied the course on Museology and Art Conservation, and then went on to be a consultant for the museum helping to set up the museum store. In her earlier role as journalist and television anchor, Ms Sawhney was the Bureau Chief of NDTV, Mumbai. Prior to this her first television stint was with Doordarshan, where she was trained at FTII, Pune and then at the Central Production Centre, Siri Fort. She has reported from all over India as well as internationally, covering news from Brazil, Australia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand and Indonesia.

Reena Saini Kallat lives and works in Mumbai. She graduated from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai in 1996 with a B.F.A. in painting. Her practice spans painting, photography, sculpture, video and installation often incorporating multiple mediums into a single work. One of the recurrent motifs in her work is the rubber stamp, used as an object and an imprint, signifying the bureaucratic apparatus. Her work has been widely exhibited across the world in venues such as Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Kennedy Centre, Washington; Saatchi Gallery, London; SESC Pompeia and SESC Belenzino in Sao Paulo; Goteborgs Konsthall Sweden; Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; Arken Museum in Denmark; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo; Casa Asia, Madrid and Barcelona; ZKM Karlsruhe in Germany; Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney; Hangar Bicocca, Milan; Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai; IVAM Museum, Spain; Busan MOMA; Kulturhuset, Stockholm; Chicago Cultural Centre amongst many others. She was the recipient of the ZegnArt/ Public Award, Milan (2012) for which she was commissioned to realise a large sculptural installation for the facade of the Dr. Bhaudaji Lad Museum, Mumbai.

Matthieu Foss formerly lived in France, where he was part of the founding team of Paris Photo fair in 1997. He worked with several French galleries and contributed to art and design projects in France, the United States and China. Since moving to India in 2005, Matthieu has played an active part in India's art world by setting a high standard for its budding photography market. He is the director of Matthieu Foss Gallery since 2007 and has collaborated with several Mumbai and Delhi galleries to host exhibitions and projects in various art spaces. Over the past few years he has worked towards opening the Indian art market to photography and raising appreciation for photography as an art form; along with creating awareness about Indian photography abroad. Matthieu Foss Gallery has pioneered by relentlessly representing and promoting lens-based works by young and emerging artists. Matthieu is co-founder of Mumbai's first international photography festival, Focus Festival Mumbai.

Kiran Rao is a film director and producer based in Mumbai. Her association with films began after a Masters from Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi in 1998. She has worked on around ten feature films such as Lagaan, Monsoon Wedding, Taare Zameen Par and Peepli Live in different capacities, and her debut feature was Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries) which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010, had a theatrical release worldwide in 2011. She is a Producer on the television show Satyamev Jayate, and she presented Anand Gandhi's debut feature ‘Ship of Theseus’ in 2013, ensuring the film's India-wide theatrical distribution. She is currently working on developing another feature film project, as well as creating an art-house theatre and cultural space for cinema in the city.

After spending a decade in the corporate sector, Arundhati joined IFA as its first fundraiser in 2000 and assumed office as the Executive Director on June 1, 2013. Her expertise lies in the areas of organizational strategy, resource mobilization, programme management and evaluation. Arundhati has received recognition from several quarters for her work in the non-profit sector. In 2010 she received the Global Fundraiser Award from Resource Alliance International, the same year IFA won the 'India NGO of the Year' award. Arundhati was also selected as one of the top three leaders in the city of Bangalore under the 'Lead India' campaign of The Times of India in 2008. She sits on various Boards, Advisory Panels and consultations including those of the Beyond Sight Foundation, the Archive of Indian Music, the Seagull Foundation for the Arts, India Theatre Forum and Barapani. She is an advisory friend of Marg Humanities/ Humanities Underground. Arundhati has an Economics degree from the Presidency College, Kolkata, a post-graduation in management from the Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad and is a recipient of the Chevening Gurukul Scholarship for Leadership and Excellence graduating at the London School of Economics. She has a Masters degree in classical dance and is a published poet in Bangla.

Mortimer Chatterjee received his Masters in the History of Indian Art and Architecture from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Having worked in the UK with an important collection of Indian photography as well as Christies auction house, Chatterjee moved to India to pursue his interest in Indian modern and contemporary art. Over the last decade he has been responsible for maintaining major art collections including the Taj Group. His recent projects have included a co-authored publication on the art collection of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research along with an exhibition of that collection at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai. In 2003 he and his wife, Tara, began Chatterjee & Lal. Today based in Colaba's art district of Mumbai, the gallery's program is focused both on the work of emerging artists and historical material. Over the last nine years, the gallery program has formed an important node in the city's maturing art scene. In addition to the exhibiting of work within the confines of the gallery, Chatterjee & Lal has also organised a number of projects that have utilised non-traditional spaces within the city. Chatterjee lives and works in Mumbai.

Pheroza academically groomed herself with a Bachelors degree in Education, a Masters in English and French, a second masters in philosophy and recently, a Masters in Ancient Indian Culture. In 1971, she made an entrée into the then evolving Indian Art market by establishing Cymroza Art Gallery. Around 1986, Pheroza simultaneously embarked on a detailed study of prints and drawings of British Landscape Art and Portraiture in India. The outcome of this was the publication of eleven works, which she has co-written/co-edited. These include, “Scenic Splendour: India through the Printed Image”, “A Pageant of Prints”, “Under the Indian Sun” and “Bombay to Mumbai – Changing Perspectives”. Her interests in the history and sociology of the Parsee community saw its culmination in the publication of the definitive work, “A Zoroastrian Tapestry: Art, Religion & Culture”, which she co-edited with Firoza P. Mistree. Her interest in the arts is wide-ranging and includes a specialised knowledge of modern Indian painting. She is closely connected with like-minded bodies involved with the promotion of Indian Art, such as the Museum Society of Bombay, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum and the National Gallery of Modern Art. An active nature conservationist, she is the President of the National Society of the Friends of the Trees

Nancy Adajania is a cultural theorist and curator based in Bombay. She was Joint Artistic Director of the 9th Gwangju Biennale, Korea. She recently taught the curatorial practice course at the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Austria. She has written and lectured extensively on art and the public sphere, and transcultural art practices at Documenta 11, Kassel; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Transmediale, Berlin; Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Former West Research Congress, Vienna, among other venues. Her essays have appeared in numerous books and anthologies, among them, 'Globalism before Globalisation: The ambivalent fate of Triennale India' in Shanay Jhaveri (ed.), Western Artists and India: Creative Inspirations in Art and Design, The Shoestring Publisher, Bombay. As Editor-in-Chief of Art India, she developed a discursive space for emergent new media and public art practices. Adajania was co-curator for the exhibition Zoom! Art in Contemporary India at Culturgest Museum, Lisbon, curated Avatars of the Object: Sculptural Projections, The Landscapes of Where, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Your name is different there, Volte Gallery. She is the editor of the monograph Shilpa Gupta and co-author of The Dialogues Series. She was research scholar at BAK/Basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht.

Mustansir Dalvi is Professor of architecture at the Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai. His research is published in 'New Architecture and Urbanism: Development of Indian Traditions' (INTBAU), 'Buildings that shaped Bombay: the Architecture of G. B. Mhatre'(UDRI), 'Quiet Conversations: the architecture of Kamu Iyer'(MPC/NCPA), 'Mulk Raj Anand: Shaping the Indian Modern' (Marg), and is the author of 'The Romance of Red Stone: An Appreciation of Ornament on Islamic Architecture in India' (Super Book House). He has also been published in the Journal of the Indian Institute of Architects, the Journal of the Indian Society for Technical Education, the Journal of Italian Design, Architecture+Design, Architecture: time, space and people, Indian Architect & Builder, Art India, Domus, Domus India, Marg, the Economic & Political Weekly, the Indian Quarterly, National Geographic Traveller, Time Out Mumbai, the Mumbai Reader, and Spade. Mustansir Dalvi writes two columns on urban issues in Time Out Mumbai and Firstpost.com, where he observes and critiques the unravelling urban fabric of Mumbai in its present post-planning avatar.

Kaiwan Mehta (Mumbai. 1975) has studied Architecture, Literature, Indian Aesthetics and Cultural Studies. He is a theorist and critic in the fields of visual culture, architecture and city studies. He is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore, through the Manipal University. Since March 2012 he has been the Managing Editor of Domus India - the architecture, design and visual culture magazine. Mehta authored Alice in Bhuleshwar: Navigating a Mumbai Neighbourhood (Yoda Press. New Delhi, 2009), a book which takes the reader for a walk through the streets and the past of buildings in the 'native town' of colonial Bombay, reading their histories and excavating their memories, while continuing to negotiate their present context. He has developed, and teaches courses in Art, Criticism and Theory at Jnanapravaha (Mumbai) as well as Architecture Theory (at Arbour: Research Initiatives in Architecture). In September 2013 he was elected as the Jury Chairman at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany for the fellowship cycle 2015-17; the Akademie is a public law foundation that offers interdisciplinary and international fellowship program for artists and scientists,and is considered one of the five best artist residency programmes internationally. He is currently also Chair - Committee for Undergraduate Education at ISDI (Indian School of Design and Innovation) - Parsons Mumbai.

Dr. Manisha Patil is an art historian and painter. Presently Professor, Art History at Sir. J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, she has been in the field of art education since 1984, with a long stint of teaching at Sir. J .J. School of Art and Govt. Chitrakala Mahavidyalaya, Nagpur. Dr. Patil has a B.F.A. in Painting from Nagpur University and M.F.A. followed by Ph.D. in Art History from M.S. University, Baroda; her doctoral thesis being on 'Illustrated manuscripts and paintings from Digambara Jain bhandaras of Vidarbha'. She has contributed to art publications such as India magazine, Art News and Views, Art Journal, Chinha, Sesquicentennial catalogue of J.J. School of Art, Nehru centre Great Masters catalogues, and Shilpakar Charitrakosh. As Dean of Sir. J.J. School of Art, Dr. Patil initiated the conservation project of the vast body of paintings in the art school collection. Her seminar participations include 'Fields of Legibility, Anthology workshop on Art writing, Mohile Parikh center and Asia Art archive, Mumbai, 'Abstraction in the Mumbai context', seminar by JNAF, CSMVS, Mumbai and U.G.C. Seminar 'Theorizing India's Pre modern Visual Culture,' Issues of Caste, Class, Gender & Sexualities' Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda. Manisha has had several major shows in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.

Dilip Ranade was born in 1950, in Maharashtra. He holds a diploma in Drawing and Painting from the Sir J.J. School of Art. Mumbai, in 1971. In 1984 he received an Indo- US sub-commission grant to study Museology. He has presented several slide lectures on Portraiture and the Techniques of Diorama Making. He is currently the Exhibition Consultant at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Mumbai. He has held several solos as well as participated in group exhibitions including, ‘Rekhavishkar’, Guild Art Gallery Mumbai & Sudarshan Art Gallery, Pune,2011; ‘Humor, wit & Satire’, Gallery Threshold, New Delhi,2011; Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai ( 1972,1978,1980 & 2004) Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai, ( 1979,1981,1996,1999 ,1906 & 2004) Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai, 1999; Total Museum, Seoul, 2003.solo- ‘Shifting The Logic-Drawings show (1977-2007)’, at Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai, Threshold Art Gallery, New Delhi and Galerie 88 Kolkata, 2007; ‘Shimmer of the self ‘, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai 2011.’The Decrypted Self’, 2012 at Threshold Art Gallery, New Delhi. Translated the catalogue: The Crafting of Reality- Sudhir Patwardhan : Drawings by Ranjit Hoskote into Marathi titled 'Rekhachitravichar' in 2012. Received award 'Balshastri Jambhekar Anuvad puraskar 2013' for the book Rekhachitravichar.

Gieve Patel is a well-known painter and writer. His paintings are in important public and private collections in India and in other countries, including The National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal; the Jehangir Nicholson Collection, Mumbai; the Museum of Modern Art, Menton, France; the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts, USA; and others. He has published three books of verse and has written three plays. His occasional writings on various aspects of contemporary Indian art are held in high esteem. He works out of his studio in Mumbai.

Sudhir Patwardhan was born in 1949. He graduated in medicine from the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune. He moved to Mumbai in 1973 and worked as a Radiologist in Thane from 1975 to 2005. His first one person show was held by Ebrahim Alkazi's Art Heritage in New Delhi in 1979. Since then, his work has been seen regularly in exhibitions in India and abroad. A monograph on his work, 'The Complicit Observer' and another book on his Drawings - "The Crafting of Reality" both written by Ranjit Hoskote, were published in 2004 and 2007 respectively. A monograph in Marathi, written by Padmakar Kulkarni was published in 2005. Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jaysankar have made a film on the artist, along with the work of the poet Narayan Surve, titled 'Saacha'. Patwardhan's works are in the permanent collection of NGMA Mumbai and Delhi; Roopankar Museum, Bhopal; Jehangir Nicholson Gallery, CSMVS Museum Mumbai; the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, USA, and many private collections. The artist lives and works in Thane, near Mumbai.

Baiju Parthan is an Indian contemporary artist working simultaneously with the traditional media of painting as well as digital technology-based installation art. He is one of the early exponents of new media art in the Indian contemporary art scene and has exhibited extensively in India as well as major art centres across the globe. Born in Kerala in 1956, Baiju Parthan has an academic background. Along with acquiring degrees in Painting, Botany, Philosophy and a Post-grad diploma in Comparative mythology, he has also done studies in computer game level design at Pratt Institute, Manhattan, USA. Essentially, Parthan's work is about world views or cosmological narratives that are on collision course affecting and transforming each other and the resulting ontological fallout felt and lived by us all. Parthan's specific area of interest is the overlap or collision between scientific/technological description of the world and the traditional/metaphysical description of the world. The artist lives and works in Mumbai, India.

Zasha Colah is interested in cultural sovereignty, and the way art addresses injustice and legal frameworks. Her curatorial work researches instances of collective imagination under situations of political exigency, political and philosophic motivations for choreography; and under-represented art historical narratives. She co-founded blackrice in 2008 in Nagaland, and the Clark House Initiative in Bombay in 2010, after studying art history at Oxford University and curatorial studies at the RCA, London. She was the curator of modern Indian art at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation at the CSMVS museum and was head of Public Programs at the NGMA in Bombay.

Rahaab Allana is Curator of the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts in New Delhi, and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in London. He is a graduate in Art History/Archaeology (M.A.) from School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and  is the author of Inherited Spaces, Inhabited Places (2005), a volume on World Heritage Sites. He is the Guest Editor of Marg publications: Aperture and Identity-Early Photography in India (2009), Depth of Field: Photography as Art and Practice in India (Lalit Kala Akademi, 2012) and currently guest editing the India Photography Reader, Vol. 1, entitled 'Movements'. In 2011, Rahaab Allana began India's first theme-based Photography Quarterly and exhibition forum, entitled PIX. The first issue was launched in Feb.2011, and the current issue is a Special one dedicated to Gender, due to be launched in 2 weeks in New Delhi at the Goethe Institut.

Suresh Jayaram is an artist, art historian, arts administrator and curator from Bangalore. He is the Founder, Director of Visual Art Collective/1.Shanhtiroad Studio an international artist’s residency and alternative art space in Bangalore, India. He is currently involved in art practice, urban mapping, archiving, curation and arts education. His keen interest in environmental and urban developmental issues influences his work. He taught Art History at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat, the College of Fine Arts in Bangalore and later went on to become the Dean from 2005-2007. He obtained his BFA in painting from the College of Fine Arts, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat 1990 and MFA from M.S. University, Baroda in 1992 in Art Criticism. Some of his significant work has included- 2012- Curator for Colombo Art Biennale 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka 2011- Research, curated exhibition and compiled monograph for the ‘Krumbiegel Project’ -A public history/art project that included research, documentation and exhibition that looked at the life of Gustav Herman Krumbiegel a German horticulturist and urban planner of significance in South India. 2010-Curator for ‘Sethusamudram Project’ – 3 year collaborative art project initiated by Theertha International Artists Collective, Colombo, Sri Lanka and 1.Shanthi Road Studio/Gallery, Bangalore, India that seeks to collectively develop and envision programmes to engage with and address the highly complex and variegated history and emotions surrounding the relations between India and Sri Lanka.