India`s art fair ropes in big global galleries

The Indian Modern and Contemporary Art Fair 2009 will be bigger this year.

New Delhi, May 22: The second edition of the Indian Modern and Contemporary Art Fair 2009, the sub-continent`s official art fair, will be bigger, better and more global this year with 16 international galleries, 64 speakers and 25 media partners from across the globe.The three-day fair will be held during August 19-22 at the Pragati Maidan, the capital`s trade and exhibition hub.

The foreign galleries will include the prestigious Lisson Gallery from Britain, Aicon Gallery and Thomas Erben Gallery from New York, Arario Gallery from Beijing, Gallery Christian Hosp and Anant & Rao Gallery from Berlin, 1X1 Art Gallery from Dubai and HB Galerie from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, said Neha Kirpal, associate director of Hanmer MS&L, which hosts the art fair. "The spread of exhibits is also bigger this year with special sections devoted to video art, installations and a sculpture park," Kirpal told reporters here. An installation project, "The Purple Wall Project", a curated section featuring works by contemporary Indian artists conceptualised by Gayatri Sinha, will be spread across the venue that will take up 4,500 square metres of space - up from 1,400 square metres in 2008. "The Indian art market has grown by 830 percent over the last decade despite the downturn that slowed down growth in the last quarter of 2008, compared to China whose market has grown by 730 percent," Kirpal said, quoting the journal Artprice Statistics. The Indian art market is valued at $400 million and is growing at nearly 35 percent annually. The run-up to the fair will see an awareness seminar in June and a monthly newsletter on the Indian art market that will be on print this month, managing director of Hanmer MS&L Sunil Gautam told reporters. "It will also be supported by the auction house Sotheby`s and the Lalit Kala Akademi, the official arts body of the Indian government," Gautam said. IANS