Curating & Acquisition
Curating
Curating Paintings, sculptures – and previews. Our shows often begin with the artists in attendance and a brief cultural or entertainment programme themed to the show’s concept. Apart from contemporary art, we also source antiquities and rare heritage pieces. We also curate modern and technology-based media such as light installations: either artworks generating or created by light and colour, whether temporary or permanent, site-specific, fixed or movable.
Heritage
Apart from contemporary art, we also source and represent for collectors of antiquities and rare heritage pieces. These include Mysore Tanjore paintings, Tibetan thangkas dating to the 17th century, and original Ravi Varma lithographs from the Ravi Varma Press and works using rarely-used techniques such as wash tempera, notably by Bengal School proponent Ajoy Ghosh.
These also include temple architectural and other artefacts like chariots: we’ll soon hold our first show in this genre.
Acquisition
In 1998, her first portfolio purchase, for the Maini Group, was of Bharti Prajapati, then just beginning and now a reputed, award-winning artist. Today that portfolio’s value has multiplied several times over.
External Curating
We believe art is for everyone. Curating artworks for public spaces expands the scope and the ways artists and art-lovers can connect. Museums apart, the possibilities that a corporate lobby, a hotel garden, a mall atrium, or an airport terminal offer are tremendous: besides, art has proved to positively impact atmosphere and mood in places like hospital waiting rooms. Curating for public spaces brings all sorts of art and all sorts of audiences together, promoting accessibility and awareness, fostering art in the community it serves.
Curating for public spaces brings all sorts of art and all sorts of audiences together, promoting issues of accessibility and perception and fostering art in the community it serves. We’ve been one of the first to begin curating art for residential, corporate and commercial spaces, working with architects, builders and designers leveraging the art industry’s ascendancy and catering to India’s real-estate boom.
While Gitanjali Maini curates these projects, we also consult independent curators whose particular knowledge and expertise maximize a project’s outcome. They include acclaimed artists like Rukmini Varma, Raja Ravi Varma’s great-great-granddaughter, Riyas Komu, also a founder-trustee of the Kochi Biennale Foundation and Sangeeta Abhay, whose works are informed by her Buddhist faith.
We have done projects for Embassy Group, Ozone Group, Bannari Amman, Infosys, Wipro, Godrej Properties among others.
Other Services
Custom Framing
Framing a painting is an art in itself and a service that requires an unerring eye, the perfect framing material and painstaking workmanship. We source framers here in Bangalore, traditional ones in Kolkata, or import the frames from Italy if museum-style framing is required.
Authentication
gallery g ensures that every painting we deal with is properly authenticated and we call on the services of historians and scholars like Rupika Chawla and Choodamani Nandagopal.
Valuation
Aesthetic imperatives aside, estimating an artwork’s market value is a key part of our service suite. Gitanjali Maini is a certified valuer and we compile data from such as peer galleries, fellow curators and consultants, auction houses, collectors and allied market sources to help you make the most informed buying or selling decision.
Restoration and Preservation
Art’s value increases with age but so therefore do the need for proper care: restoration and preservation. Before an artwork changes hands and after, we offer services that ensure it stays in the best possible condition. Here too, we call on the leading restorers and preservation experts both here and abroad such as Joseph Dolderer, Philadelphia, restorer and a highly regarded artist.
Art of Investment
Indian contemporary art has become an indispensable part of the knowledgeable investor’s portfolio. It’s in global demand: the masters and the rising stars – whether Rabindranath Tagore, MF Husain or VS Gaitonde – command prices on equal footing with those of their peers the world over.
Till about the turn of the millennium, it was mainly NRIs who bought Indian contemporary art. Today, in contrast, about 85% percent of its buyers are Indian citizens.
When you invest in art, you become a stakeholder in what’s projected to be a major global force in the next few years. Apart from which are the significant capital gains you could earn: often 100% or more.
Our knowhow and experience facilitate buying and selling to leverage pricing. Our investment advisory extends from assessment, to curation, valuation and authentication, procurement and resale, including storage and restoration where needed.
Ask us how to create an investment portfolio. To understand more on this, drop your mail to archana@galleryg.com.
COMMUNITY, CONTINUITY: THE LARGER CANVAS
Art engages with the community with several ways and we’ve consistently involved ourselves with the larger issues, beyond pure artistic statements.
Our Artists’ Initiative Programme does include community outreach in that up-and-coming artists can access mentorship and facilities that they might otherwise not access as easily.
gallery g has hosted seminars and workshops with all kinds of stakeholders from citizens making their voices heard to international media houses like Thomas Reuters and the BBC.
Our community outreach also extends to mentoring; working with college and school students in the art industry’s aspects and processes: from appreciation of art in its different mediums and techniques, to its exhibition and promotion, in-house at gallery g and forums such as the Kochi Biennale.
For children, we associate with art camps, workshops and the like that introduce them to art’s life-enhancing potential.
We believe in art’s expressiveness and inclusiveness, in not just traditional mediums, but in ever newer ones and that’s what makes gallery g one of India’s most innovative and dynamic resources.
