The Art Katta's Lankan mission

by Dilshan Boanage

Kaustubh Bankapure	Kavita

The Art Katta is an Indian initiative for art activism aiming to promote the work of Indian painters. Finding its initial ground for showcasing in the city of Pune, in the state of Maharashtra in India, this forum for art promotion has now come a long way to even hold its first every 'international exhibition' which is set to unveil tomorrow at the Indian Cultural Centre in Colombo. The man behind the scene of Art katta and its exhibition here in Sri Lanka is Kaustubh Bankapure.

In an interview via email he shared with us some insights about this project and his vision for expansion of Indian art.

Question: Can you tell us about your own background as an artist?

Answer: Let me clarify, I am not an artist. I am an applied theatre practitioner based in Pune and my wife Kavita is an artist. Kavita, a qualified GD Art (Applied) professional turned to painting after she left her job as a graphic designer. Her interest lies in playing with colours that helped her to explore the world of abstract. Studying under the guidance of Ajay Dalvi, Kavita has developed her interest to pursue her career as a painter.

She is also interested in using various different mediums such as canvas, paper, wood, papyrus, wall, cloth and glass to explore the endless possibilities in abstract painting. She works as a freelance artist and painter after getting a sufficient work experience as a designer and teacher from some renowned organisations such as, Acme Communications India, Gadre Infotech, DCad and Alliance for Global Education.

Concept

Q: How was the Art Katta project conceptualised?

A: The Art Katta is an initiative to promote Indian artist's work especially lesser known and amateur artist's work. Founded in Pune in January 2013 the Art Katta has started a venue based art display at one of the leading restaurants in Pune and received tremendous response both from the artists and from the art collectors. The venue based art display helps both artists and art collectors to come together with convenience. Till the date the Art Katta has hosted and managed 14 solo exhibitions. Along with the rolling exhibitions at the restaurant art gallery the Art Katta is also planning artists meet, workshops, lectures and demonstrations on regular basis.

Q: What is your capacity in this project and how do you see your future involvement in realising the goals of the project?

A: As an extension to the rolling exhibitions, the Art Katta has decided to take selected art works in the different parts of the world and the first international exhibition is planned in Sri Lanka. This is the first international exhibition organised by the Art Katta and it generated incredible response from the artists from all around India. The exhibition is supported by Indian Cultural Centre and Inter Act Art in Colombo. The mission of this exhibition is the development of the artists' creative expressions by providing an opportunity to display their work with a unique manner to rediscover their own identity and we strongly believe this can be achieved only in the form of exhibitions where audience can react on the work and artists can get a benefit from them. There will be more than 30 selected artworks on display by various artists in India and we are expected to receive a good response from the artists, visitors, art collectors in Sri Lanka.

Q: Art Katta is about helping Indian artists promote their work. Do you see the project's goal as a one way track or do you see potential for the forum to develop for non-Indian artists to also showcase their work in India through the Art Katta enterprise?

A: Of course, though we focus on Indian artists, the art cannot be restricted to the geographical areas. One need to explore a lot to learn more and we are looking forward to create various opportunities to help this exchange at different levels.

It will take some time but a few years down the line we would like to see the knowledge pool through which anyone can get benefited from either Indian or International artists.

Q:How do you see the future of the Art Katta as an Indian initiative for art activism internationally?

A: The art scene in India is very promising but it is very scattered. As a matter of fact, we as an organisation are very young and thus like to create various events to connect artists all over India on a priority basis.

What we observed in the last year was that there are very good artists in India in small cities but they don't get any opportunities.We are encouraging small town artists to create good art work and we will take all efforts to take it on national or international platform. We believe in collaborations and we are trying to create collaborations within India and with international organisations. But we will be doing some international exhibitions and we are getting ready for our second international exhibition. The details will be out soon.

Reason

Q: You are preparing to inaugurate the Art Katta's very first 'India International Art Exhibition'. But what is the reason to hold it in Sri Lanka if it is an 'India International' exhibition?

A: The motto is to take Indian art outside India and we will be taking it to various countries. Sri Lanka is a beautiful country. Though it is small it is culturally very rich. The third Colombo Art Biennale is on its way and people have already experienced this two times in 2009 and 2012. Indian International Art Exhibition contains not only Indian work but also modern figurative and abstract artworks created by Indian artists.People in Colombo have already experienced the art on International level and thus we are sure that we would get good response from people in Sri Lanka. We thank the Indian Cultural Centre in Colombo and Inter Act Art Black Box Theatre for their support.