Barbed wire to blue indigo, Indian art shines at Art Dubai

With M F Husain becoming the first Indian artist to have broken the Rs 100 crore barrier in March, it was fitting that his works created a buzz in the only other place he called home. At this year’s Art Dubai , DAG curated a solo booth of his works that showcased not just his trademark horses but also his versatility.

While Husain shone brightly in the Modern masters section, Indian contemporary art , too, proved that it could draw collectors, not just in India but across the world.

Priyanka Raja, founder of Experimenter which started in Kolkata and has since expanded to Mumbai, said the gallery had its best opening day in Art Dubai's almost two-decade history, selling over 80 per cent of their presentation in the first hours to institutions and private collections in the US, Europe and West Asia.

Experimenter was one of 11 Indian galleries which had booths at the fair that has set itself apart from other global offerings with its mix of grit and glamour. Where else will you see Palestinian artists, whose works tell stories of displacement and grief? Or a cutting-edge digital section that shows you new ways in which art and technology can intersect? “At most fairs, you see the same works and the same people but not here,” points out Art Dubai’s executive director Benedetta Ghione.

Though its many skyscrapers have their windows tightly shut and almost no one is drying their chaddi-banians on the balcony, Dubai still feels like home to visiting Indians like me. Familiar faces, a familiar khichdi of accents and flavours, and even in the curated environs of an art fair, themes that resonate.

At the booth of Gallery Espace , artist Ishita Chakraborty uses barbed wire as a metaphor for the struggles and challenges of migrants while veteran and eternally playful Manjunath Kamath creates a fictional language while referencing temple art, Yakshagana plays and Indian epics.

Right opposite was Blueprint12 which dedicated an entire booth to the works of textile artist Kaimurai whose indigo hues have a deeply meditative quality. “Though I live in Bengaluru, I have spent many years in Chennai and Carnatic music has a deep influence on my art,” says Abhishek Ganesh who goes by the name Kaimurai. Though Blueprint12, a gallery from Delhi, was a first-time participant at the fair, it almost sold out Kaimurai’s works.

Within hours of the VIP preview opening, several works had been snapped up at Shrine Empire’s booth as well. And these were not the usual ‘pretty pictures’ that sell well with buyers who want artworks that go with the décor rather than raise uncomfortable questions. One of the highlights of the booth was work by the self-taught artist duo of Baaran and Moonis Ijlal who captured the stories of women who lived through the partition of 1947.

Shrine Empire, co-founded by Shefali Somani and Anahita Taneja, like many of the Indian galleries showed not just Indian artists but from across South Asia. And this wasn’t their first time. Long before demand for Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi art took off, the gallery has been championing artists like Anoli Perera and Tayeba Begum Lipi.

Mumbai gallery Jhaveri Contemporary’s booth showed how diverse and rich South Asian art is. There was Ali Kazim from Lahore whose brushwork reminds of the finesse of miniature paintings, Sri Lankan Lionel Wendt’s photographs, Marseille-based Vasantha Yogananthan’s Ramayana-inspired works and much more.

And the exchange went both ways with global galleries showing Indian artists. One of them was Galleria Continua from Paris, which has had a long relationship with Indian artists such as Subodh and Shilpa Gupta as well as British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor, and shows them at many international fairs.

But there was more outside the fair too. Imagine getting to plonk on a humble charpai in hipsterized Alserkal Avenue, one of Dubai’s buzzy art districts where the trendy come to down matcha smoothies and avocado toast. Except that this was no ordinary cot but a vital piece of Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi’s installation supported by an Indian gallery and the Dubai-based Alserkal Arts Foundation. Nada Raza, director of Alserkal Arts Foundation who put together the show, says the exhibition came together through sheer serendipity.



“Nature Morte gallery had been waiting for the opportunity to support a major international exhibition for Imran. Imran happened to be in Dubai more often because of his cultural Golden Visa. So, it’s an Indo-Pak collaboration amongst old friends who’ve had the opportunity to find a generous home at Alserkal Avenue. It’s a real Dubai story,” she says.

The layered charpai work resonated not only with the artsy crowd but also with the workers installing the show, most of whom were South Asian migrants. “When we were done installing, the crew spontaneously gathered round and asked for a photo with Imran bhai. I then found two of the installers looking carefully at the photographs together and having a pretty intense discussion," says Raza, adding that she also found people just sitting on stools that are part of the installation to grab a moment of respite.

Walk a few metres into Ishara Art Foundation’s space and there was Mumbai artist Shilpa Gupta with her first solo in West Asia, reminding you of the arbitrariness of border walls with these evocative lines: ‘I tried very hard to cut the sky in half, one half for my lover and the other half for me, but the sky kept moving and clouds from his territory came into mine…’ Gupta’s work might be spare relying largely on lines and maps to question how nation-states exert control. In a darkened room, microphones recite the lines of silenced and dissident poets. ‘Hum Dekhenge’ by Faiz Ahmed Faiz floats through the air, an anthem of protest that reminds you that tyranny can be fought in many ways.