Gallery Veda’s Preeti Garg on India’s art potential
In our photo essay from Gallery Veda in Chennai, we present artistic highlights and curator insights.
Launched in 2014, PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In the earlier 805 posts, we featured an art festival, cartoon gallery. world music festival, telecom expo, millets fair, climate change expo, wildlife conference, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, and jazz festival.
Based in Chennai, Gallery Veda is unusual in the arts community. It runs two spaces in the same city, one at Rutland Gate 5th Street and another at the Park Hyatt hotel.
“We try to balance both spaces with themes that will connect to the audience instantly,” gallery co-founder Preeti Garg tells YourStory. She is now working on an upcoming contemporary art show in December.
Exhibitions held at the gallery since 2012 include Luminous Enigmas, Once Upon a Time, Reverence, Confluence, Tree of Life, When Evening Calls, Value Beyond, Euphoria, and Talks with Nature. Gallery Veda has also featured its artworks at the prestigious India Art Fair, Chennai Photo Biennale, Venice Biennale, and Kochi-Muziris Biennale.
Gallery co-founder Sanjay Tulsyan is the director of Tulsyan NEC Ltd. Though immersed in the world of steel bars, Tulysan has appreciated art right from his early days. As an art collector, he has also been actively driving the Art Chennai shows.
Garg sees a lot of potential for Indian art. “People are becoming more aware of the different ways in which they can include art in their lives,” she observes.
“Artworks bring different emotions to light," she says. People are now expressing themselves through art in a lot more ways than before, both as artists and art buyers.
The art ecosystem in India has become more creative and diverse in the past few years. “The number of mediums has grown, and there is scope to develop this skill with creativity that is explored to the fullest,” Garg adds.
She co-founded Gallery Veda with a mission and vision to foster a better understanding of the art world. “It seeks not just to curate and bring out the best of art forms, but also to educate its visitors,” she affirms.
“To live up to this mission, the gallery organises shows that reach out to the general public and gives them an opportunity to learn about art. We help them understand and appreciate art,” she says.
She also offers tips for aspiring artists. “Begin by working with a few mediums that you are very good with. Eventually, you must develop a distinctive style of your own through your creativity, Garg signs off.
Now what have you done today to pause in your busy schedule and harness your creative side for a better world?
(All photographs were taken by Madanmohan Rao on location at the gallery.)
Edited by Swetha Kannan
