Artists have often come forward to support social causes. But when artists come forward to support fellow artists, the event has to be special. 40 leading contemporary artists from across India and South Asia have donated artworks for a unique fundraiser by and for Khoj International Artists Association that will be held this Sunday at Gallery Nature Morte, Neeti Bagh from 5 p:m onwards.
Khoj is a non-profit art space which was founded 14 years ago by a core group of artists and since then Khoj has facilitated some of the most adventurous and cutting edge art practices across India and South Asia. It is not surprising, therefore, that the who’s who of the contemporary art world – Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher, Manu Parekh, Reena Saini Kallat, Sarnath Banerjee, Anita Dube, Sumedh Rajendran, Gigi Scaria, Manisha Parekh, Anjum Singh and other supporting artists such as Vivan Sundaram, Raqs Media Collective and Ram Rahman – have willingly come forward to donate their art to raise funds for a large scale revamp of Khoj Studios in Khirkee Extension.
The new space, funded by the proceeds from the fundraiser, will be used to enhance the facilities for artists working at Khoj Studios. The new space will have a living small hostel for artists, a cutting edge media lab for sound and editing, a library, an experimental project space theatre and a cafeteria to be designed by Ambrish Arora of Lotus Design.
Says Pooja Sood, Director, Khoj International Artists Association: “In the last 14 years, Khoj has invited artists from the Global South and Euro America .to interact with artists from across India. Over 300 Indian and 400 artists from Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Korea, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Germany, France, Thailand, Iran, Iraq, Palestine have been through Khoj thereby allowing for a truly international understanding of art practices within artists in India. Now we need to consolidate our work premises for an even larger artist-to-artist contact within Khoj and hence this fundraiser. Our artists have generously donated excellent quality works that are available in lieu of donation at unbelievable and affordable prices.”
No wonder then, this event is a great opportunity for young buyers or individuals looking to start a collection, as Khoj is offering fantastic works at great prices. Titled A Gift for Khoj, the collection has been divided into three limited edition portfolios:
The first edition is a photography portfolio which contains 12 original signed prints of photographs by artists Amar Kanwar, Anita Dube, Anay Mann, Atul Bhalla, Avinash Veeraraghavan, Ayisha Abhraham, Bani Abidi, Gigi Scaria, Ram Rahman, Raqs Media Collactive, Surekha and Vivan Sundaram along with certificates of authenticity. There are 25 editions in total and each edition is available for Rs. 3 lakh.
The second is a portfolio of 11 small-sized sculptures, each in an edition of eight by artists Anita Dube, Anjum Singh, Arun Kumar HG, Kiran Subbaiah, Krishnaraj Chonat, Manisha Parekh, Masooma Syed, Sakshi Gupta, Sandip Pisalkar, Sumedh Rajendran and Susanta Mandal. Each sculpture is priced at Rs. 50,000.
The third, and perhaps the most exciting set of works, is the drawings portfolio that contains 18 original drawings by artists Adip Dutta, Aditya Pande, Archana Hande, Ashim Purkayastha, Debnath Basu, Gargi Raina, Hema Upadhyay, Imran Qureshi, Jagannath Panda, Madhavi Parekh, Manisha Parekh, Manu Parekh, Paula Sen Gupta, Prajakta Potnis, Reena Saini Kallat, Rohini Devasher, Sarnath Banerjee and Vasudha Thozur along with certificates of authenticity. There are five portfolios in total and each portfolio containing 18 drawings is available for Rs.8 lakh.
It is well known that Khoj has organized over 50 international residencies and numerous talks, exhibitions at Khoj studios over the past 14 years across disciplines such as art, architecture, performance, photography, new media, sound, science and socially engaged practices within the Khirkee community and in public spaces. Post the fundraiser, with which the new enhanced space is going to be built over a period of two years, Khoj is set to broaden its horizons even further.
Poonam Goel is a freelance journalist and has covered the arts for over 15 years. She contributes on visual arts for various newspapers, magazines and online media. More about her on Story Wallahs. Write to her @ poonamgoel2410@gmail.com