Galleries for artists' sake

KOCHI: Sreekanth Nambeeshan, an interior designer from Palakkad, is hosting an exhibition in a little known gallery at Nettipadam road in the city. His pencil sketches on temple sculptures are yet to find a proper market. But he has no qualms. "For an artist like me, it took a lot of courage even to exhibit it. I am happy," he says.
The gallery, where his art exhibition is going on, is just a 120 sq feet room.P Jayanth, the proprietor of the gallery is happy that he could give a platform for young talents like Sreekanth. He has got a handful of bookings since he converted his photostat shop into an art gallery in July. "My gallery has been fully booked till December," he says. Senior artists too are approaching him for exhibitions, he says.
Some of the senior artists too are enthused by the opportunity that the small galleries give them to reach out to the common man. Shashi Warier, a noted mural artist who has his own art gallery and school, says, "A mural objet d'art of mine, since it is done in my small gallery, would cost definitely much less than a piece you see in any a bigger AC gallery. There is no third-party profit involved, if someone buys it from the artist's own galleries."
But Sajjive Balakrishnan, a cartoonist from Kochi who entered the LIMCA book of records for drawing maximum number of caricatures in one minute, is skeptical of the advantages offered by small galleries. Artists usually cater to a niche market of connoisseurs, who are mostly interested in artworks from known artists, he says.
Small galleries, a trend in the West, should come up in metropolises like Kochi, believes senior artists like T Kaladhran, who owns his own gallery in the city. He also pointed out that some other senior artists feel that small galleries are used by newcomers having no concrete idea of what art is and exhibiting their works will hamper the interests of genuine artists.
"As long as there are walls there will be a demand for art, so why compromise for a mere imitative print when you can have in possession an original piece of art from an artist," asks Kaladharan.