DELHI PREPARES FOR 6TH EDITION OF INDIA ART FAIR

1 02 2014

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6th Edition of India Art Fair brings the best Indian and International contemporary art
with 91 exhibiting booths and 1000 artists.
An expanded specially curated Art Projects programme will span the outdoor and indoor fair space with 24 large scale installations and space specific works in a variety of mediums India Art Fair announces the first edition of a Mentor and Protégé programme. A philanthropic arts initiative to provide and sustain artistic aspirations to the Indian art world New Delhi – India Art Fair, India’s premier modern and contemporary art fair, is pleased to announce its 6th edition from 30th January – 2nd February 2014 (with a VIP Preview by invitation on 30th January) at NSIC Grounds, New Delhi. YES BANK is Presenting Partner for the 6th Edition of India Art Fair. Since its founding in 2008, India Art Fair has grown to be an epicenter for art in India, with a global reputation for being one of South Asia’s leading art fairs. This year the art fair will include 91 exhibiting booths and 1000 artists in the general exhibition area and solo projects. It will also include a video project, art bookstores, assortment of book launches, children’s workshops, curated walks
and a curated art projects section with 24 large scale installations. The key highlights of the fair also include an engaging Speakers Forum with 30 world renowned speakers and a city wide Collateral Events programme. The fair also hosts a tightly curated VIP Programme, in collaboration with public institutions, galleries and private art organizations, for visiting collectors and museums.
India Art Fair has played a key role in exposing galleries from across India to a variety of individual and institutional buyers from across the country and the wider world. It has been visited by 400,000 people from over 60 cities over its five previous editions. This edition of the fair will take place in the heart of South Delhi, inside a custom-built tent spanning more than 20,000 sq. metres, designed by a highly-regarded Indian architectural firm.
In addition to the participation of leading and emerging contemporary galleries, an extensive Art Projects programme spanning the outdoor and indoor fair space will be a major focus of the fair this year, presenting a range of work from high profile Indian and international artists. Among the rich selection on offer, projects include the installation Aura by Subodh Gupta, a video-art project curated by Bhavna Kakar, the sculptural project Agalma by artist Anjana Kothamachu, and artist Riyas Komu’s unique project involving the creation of a Collectors Room. Other projects include L N Tallur’s sculpture Path Finder, Anindita Dutta’s sculpture
based performance work and Chintan Upadhyay’s iconic shrine Lost Soul.

PRESS CONTACTS: India: Amrita Kapoor |New Delhi | + 91 9818058964 | amrita.kapoor@flint-pr.com
International: Camilla Purdon |London| +44 203 4632086 | camilla.purdon@flint-pr.com
This year’s fair has also attracted leading jeweller NIRAV MODI who will be presenting a collection of exquisite custom made designs inspired by motifs from the Mughal miniature school of art, encrusted with precious gems and priceless diamonds. For the first time the art fair will have participation from museums Mark Rothko Art Center Latvia, and also The Himalayas Art Museum in Shanghai as part of a major delegation of Chinese collectors attending the fair with a view to stimulating Indo-Chinese cultural
exchange between collectors and museums.
Another first for 2014, India Art Fair announces the inaugural edition of a new Mentor and Protégé Program. It is a philanthropic programme that will seek a gifted young artist from India and connect them with an artistic master for a year of creative
collaboration in a one-on-one mentoring relationship. In its first edition the Mentors will be Dayanita Singh, world-renowned
photographer artist and Jitish Kallat, one of the most prominent figures of Contemporary Indian Art. Through this initiative India
Art Fair will keep with its tradition of supporting individual excellence.
Through its engaging Speakers’ Forum (free of charge to the public), visitors will be able to hear some of the best minds from diverse fields within the visuals arts. Highlights from the roster of speakers include Budi Tek (the Chinese-Indonesian entrepreneur, art philanthropist, and collector), Philip Dodd (Chairman of Made in China), Chris Dercon (Director Tate Modern London), Homi Bhabha (Critical Theorist and Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Language, and the Director of
the Humanities Centre at Harvard University), Bharti Kher (Artist) and Jeebesh Bagchi (Member Raqs Media Collective).
To foster growth and encouragement for this intellectual body of the fair, the Speakers’ Forum has received support from Forum Partner JSW Steel and Academic Partners Goethe Institut, Critical Collective and Pro Helvetia.
“The Indian art market has seen a considerable uplift over the last couple of months, and as we prepare for the 6th edition of India Art Fair there is a renewed level of confidence in the market, from both the buying and selling perspective. India Art Fair has a hugely
exciting programme ahead, with 91 booths and 1000 artists participating from galleries across the globe. When we consider the scale and scope of not just the art fair but the way the larger scene has evolved since we started, we certainly have come a long way as an emerging market and continue to have the most promising years still ahead of us for both modern and contemporary art.”
Neha Kirpal, Founder and Director, India Art Fair.
“YES BANK recognizes the enormous growth potential in the field of Art, and we are continuously striving to facilitate a responsible attitude to Indian and global Art, by introducing synergistic corporate interest, support and patronage through corporatization of Art.
We at YES BANK are proud to be the Presenting Partner of India Art Fair and endeavour to spearhead initiatives which can foster creativity and promote the development of Art in the long run.”
Rana Kapoor, Managing Director & CEO, YES BANK Limited
Attachments: Industry endorsements for the 6th Edition of India Art Fair.
About India Art Fair: India Art Fair is a trademarked event property owned by Seventh Plane Networks. Its Founding Director
Neha Kirpal launched the fair in 2008, and has been instrumental in steering the fair’s unprecedented growth over 6 years into becoming the premier destination for art in the region. In 2011, Neha Kirpal divested a stake in India Art Fair to two new strategic partners; Sandy Angus (Chairman of global exhibitions group Montgomery Worldwide which has launched several art fairs around the world) and Will Ramsay (Founder of PULSE Art Fairs, and Affordable Art Fairs). Mr. Angus and Mr. Ramsay are also co-founders
of the Hong Kong International Art Fair and bring in their global expertise in exhibitions and events, and the support of a truly global network to India Art. For the 6th edition, YES BANK will be Presenting Partner. YES BANK’s association with India Art Fair is part of the Bank’s Retail and Wealth Management initiative. India Art Fair is also supported by ABSOLUT as Associate Partner, and other partners are Panerai, Le Meridian and Conde Nast India.

The sixth edition of India Art Fair, India’s premier fair for modern and contemporary art, launched today at NSIC Exhibition Grounds in New Delhi.

The day began with an inaugural Press Conference hosted by India Art Fair’s Presenting Partner YES BANK and attended by an audience of over 100 national and international journalists.  The event featured presentations from Neha Kirpal (Founder and Director, India Art Fair), Shireen Gandhy (Director, Chemould Prescott Road), Philip Dodd (Director, Made in China) and Sandy Angus (co-owner, India Art Fair and founder, Art14, London and ArtInternational, Istanbul).

The fair opened to a host of VIP guests from across India and the wider world, a reflection of the fair’s global spread of exhibitors including new galleries from Barcelona, Cologne, Lisbon, Madrid, Istanbul, Israel and Paris.

On surveying the packed aisles, it was hard to think of a single person from Delhi’s thriving art scene who was not present at the event, including high-profile collectors such as Sangita Jindal, Poonam Bhagat Shroff, Pinky Reddy, Arjun Sharma, Malvinder and Shivinder Singh and Shalini Passi.  The glamorous Vernissage also drew an array of celebrities including Suzanne Khan, fashion designer Manish Malhotra, and Bollywood icon Sonam Kapoor, all keen to participate in India’s premier art event.  

Reflecting the fair’s concerted effort to reach out to and engage with the wider community of international cultural consumers, galleries also commented on a notable influx of new collectors from India’s tier-two cities, as well as corporate collectors, institutional buyers and museum representatives from around the globe.  Significantly, a number of international delegations were in attendance, including collector groups led by Philip Dodd (Chairman, Made in China) and Viscount Linley (Chairman, Christie’s UK).

Many galleries including Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi), Scream (London), Jhaveri Contemporary (Mumbai) and Art Chowk (Pakistan), reported strong sales and commented on a tangible sense of positive energy from visitors and collectors alike.
 

“It has been a fantastic first day at India Art Fair.  We are thrilled to have sold 60-70% of our booth in the first three hours of the fair.”
Priyanka Raja, Director, Experimenter

“India Art Fair has helped in cultivating the domestic art market and democratizing the art space.  It has certainly put India on the international contemporary art map.”
Lekha Poddar, collector and founder, Devi Art Foundation

“We are sincerely happy to return once again to India Art Fair, where we are presenting a solo booth of works by celebrated artist Nalini Malani.  Year after year the fair opens up new opportunities to meet and engage with a remarkably diverse collector base, not only from Delhi but also from around India as well as further afield.”
Patrice Cotensin, Director, Galerie Lelong

“It is always a great pleasure to attend India Art Fair.  The fair gives the best, most comprehensive experience of contemporary Indian and international art, and provides a global platform for art aficionados to rub shoulders with artists, critics, curators and experts.”
Sangita Jindal,collector and chairperson, JSW Foundation

“The enormous impact of India Art Fair cannot be underestimated; it has galvanized the Indian art scene and opened up an incredibly exciting array of opportunities for galleries, collectors and artists such as myself.”
Jitish Kallat, artist

“What a superb welcome! The number of people positively responding to Art Chowk, not just as the first Pakistani gallery at India Art Fair, but to the work itself, has been overwhelming. The organisation of the fair has been at the highest professional level and we are delighted to be exhibiting here in India.”

Camilla H. Chaudhary, Director, Art Chowk

“I have been coming to India Art Fair for the last three years and have witnessed the transformation of both the fair and the city.  India Art Fair provides a point of momentum for the contemporary scene in Delhi, and the fair goes from strength to strength to strength – in the quality of the work and the quality of experience.” 

Aaron Cezar, Director, Delfina Foundation

Attached images (from top):

• Sonam Kapoor
• Wayne Warren, TAG Fine Arts
  
• Neha Kirpal and Zainab Jafri, Art Chowk
  
• Sangita Jindal (JSW Foundation) and Leena Kejriwal
  
• Lorenzo Fiaschi, Gallery Continua
  
• Derya Demir, Galerie Non and Layla Heller
  
• Dayanita Singh
  
• Everything ends and Everything matters by Anindita Dutta
  
• Pinky Reddy, Collector
  
• Suzanne Tarasieve, Director, Gallerie Suzanne Tarasieve
  
• A model displays NIRAV MODI

http://www.indiaartfair.in
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PRESS CONTACTS: India: Amrita Kapoor |New Delhi | + 91 9818058964 | amrita.kapoor@flint-pr.com
International: Camilla Purdon |London| +44 203 4632086 | camilla.purdon@flint-pr.com