The much-awaited first Art Mumbai, recently held at Mahalakshmi Racecourse was elegant, exciting with several great art pieces. This initiative envisioned by Dinesh Vazirani, of Saffronart, Conor Macklin, director Grosvenor Gallery, London, and Nakul Dev Chawla of the Chawla Art Gallery brought together artists from different cities of India, the Middle East, London and New York with global perceptions to create a wonderful four day long art experience. 53 galleries and over 300 artists participants broke down all barriers that exist between sculpture, art, installation and fashion as they celebrated all aspects of creativity to generate a new synergy. Mumbai’s has been deeply connected to the arts from being the home of Jamshetjee Jeejeebhoy School Art or JJ School of Arts to the famous Progressive Artist’s Group. It was only natural that this vibrant city would support a new visual language that would capture the emergence of Indian art with its typical vitality.

The captivating images that instantly seized the viewer’s attention when entering were the sculptures and installations. Phaneendra Nath’s rainbow colored stainless steel butterfly, Harsh Durugadda’s sandstone sculpture Pyramidal Love, Dhruv Mistry’s spatial stainless steel figureto Arzan Khambatta’s moving sculpture Learning to Fly in stainless steel were like illusions that instilled excitement when viewing. A sense of rediscovery continued on encountering several sculptures that reflected spiritual and traditional India in a modern mode like Anjolie Ela Menon’s Lingham in Murino glass, Shantihi Swaroopni’s exquisite seated pensive woman, Thota Vaikuntam ‘s Telengana colorful women, Vibha Galhotra ‘s artwork using ghungroo bells, Manjunath Kamath ‘s uniqu sculpture of quotes, Navjot Altaf huge oversized blue figures and the incredible Meera Mukherjee’s large bronze. This monumental four‒sided sculpture Balance composed of cast bronze panels requires special mention as it is one of her largest pieces in Bas relief reveals a man seated cross‒legged, holding a weighing scale, or balance. On the opposing side, two women are seen walking amid foliage, balancing pots on their heads, depicting a typical rural scene in India, and infusing the mundaneness of daily chores with a wonderful and joyous spirit.

When question about his criteria choosing galleries and artist Dinesh Vazirani said “We send out applications and then choose based on the over view and presentation of the galleries.  We try to include galleries that present a cross section of Indian art and artists. Art Mumbai will be a yearly art fair.”  

On display were compelling and rare works by well known artists like Amrita Shergil valuable portrait of her husbands eldomseen, Ganesh Pyne’ large warrior with a bow and arrows in his inimitable style, one of MF Husain’s Raj series with the oppressors mounted on a huge elephant beholded by the Indian Royalty. FN Souza’s unusual landscape captured the blue sky, mountains, lake and hamlet, the well known Jamini Roy’s Yashoda and Krishna; VS Gaitonde’s abstract painting that always wins with his subtle strokes.

A spectacular Raja Ravi Varma’s famous Kadmbari was presented in a large room with clever lighting focusing on just the painting. Several galleries carried magnificent SH Raza and Krishen Khanna ‘s art.
In Paresh Maity’s large yellow and brown Sunset in Provence scenery, the artist has captured the light with his white strokes, Anju Dodiya’s cerebral women pensive and conscious of their feminism in exquisite colors.

Rekha Rodwittys’s breathes life in the image of Freda Kahlo with the stroke of her brush, Sujata Bajajs latest abstract works Atul Dodiya’s unusual bench, and a retrospective of Jogen Chowdhury allowed us to enter their world of illusion and fantasy.

For some galleries like Shireen Gandhi’s Prescott Chemould Mumbai was the focus. From Mumbai centric photographs to Pushpamala’s N’s Phantom Lady -2 featuring her as a stuntwoman and a lead actor. Added to this was Gigi Scaria’s photograph with the Bandra-Worli incomplete sealink as the background.

“As the Art Mumbai opens its first edition, for me was such a great breather where I could see works, meet and chat with friends and share my work.

Foundation presentation at the fair was also something of good value, with well-programmed conversations at the fair. It is yet another promising venue for all the arts to be presented, Gallery Nature Morte, presented two of my works one from the older series of work – “Life on Mars” which highlights the unknown landscape of Mars taken by NASA sent rovers and creating this absurd possibility of interplanetary life. 

And the other work is from my new series of work “Remains of Time”, which is looking at the changing landscape of the earth, where man made construction are sprawling all over the natural habitat and changing the whole ecosystem”

Observed Vibha Galhotra
Some of the artworks spoke to a wide variety of contemporary concerns like the migrants, plight of the Dalits and the forced displacement were also addressed in some of the artworks. On the heels of the pandemic it was natural that the plight of the migrants stayed foremost in the minds of several artists like Assam based Sudpita Das who had created little figures sculpted in paper denoting a line of migrants walking …this definitely resonated the predicament of the migrants who had to walk for miles to reach their destination. Influenced by the stalwarts of Shantiniketan like Rankinker Baij renowned for his Santhal family, Das examines the fragility of human existence, and expresses aspects of life and the human spirit on a most profound level.

That the forced migration of 1947 still haunts is evident in Arpita Akhanda’s Ami Utvastu Noi or I am not a refugee in her black and white photograph of herself sitting holding a camera like her grandfather while a river that flows between Bangladesh and India cuts through, She has enclosed this vulnerable piece in a typical mat frame.

Being a Dalit Rajyashri Moody’s understanding of her community runs deep. She created Ukadala depicting ceramic pieces each representing food articles creating a vision of a thali. Historically, in the past ukadala referred to the leftover food served the next morning. However, very often the impoverished Dalits did not even have any food, such was their predicament.

GR Iranna said, “It was a great experience to be part of the Art Mumba Besides India Art Fair in Delhi We need more fairs like this India. It was very professionally assembled and great effort was made to get buyers. Most of the galleries did very well.”

It was wonderful to see the KNMA retrospective of the talented Vivan Sundaram, paying a tribute to his recently departed artist. There were drawings, photographs of yet another legendary artist Amrita Shergil, assemblage, sculptures and installations. Sundram’s social, environment and political commitment were evident through these works.

“The first edition of Art Mumbai was very exciting for artists, art connoisseurs and the whole art fraternity in general as an art fair of this scale was being held in the city of Mumbai for the very first time. It was really exciting to see so many artists, painters; sculptors among many others get together to discuss thoughts and ideas in this cultural extravaganza. I must congratulate Dinesh and Minal Vazirrani and the entire Saffronart team for their tremendous effort for the success of the fair. I unveiled the series on South of France, Provence at Art Alive Gallery booth. I encountered the mystique of European light in 1993 on my first visit to France and I was so enamoured by it that I tried to reciprocate the tranquility and the beauty of Southern France on my canvas, deliberated Paresh Maity.

Contemporary and folk came together in Art Mumbai. In today’s milieu’s colossal quest for modernism it was a treat to encounter a 10th-century stone Akashi Yakshi seated on mount, a pleasure to view Buddhist sculptures and Pichwais. The art on view were multifarious narratives, that stirred the imagination. Art Mumbai was a visual experience and several of the art works were firmly entrenched in the mind’s eye that the viewers took with them.

“The Art Mumbai inaugural edition was a great introduction to Mumbai for our gallery. We are glad to have participated and look forward to being there next year, ”comment by Anubhav Nath Director, Ojas Art ,a pioneer of folk art, said it all.