Kala was closed.
So, somehow, I ended up at Shack Coffee Co in Shahpur Jat. One thing led to another and I found myself in Shacoco, a really small gallery run by them.
I like these accidental discoveries. You walk in without expectation and suddenly find yourself looking at work that makes you stop.
The exhibition featured works by Aira Shetty, a young artist working with gel sticks on paper. The works are spontaneous, colourful and raw. There is a directness in the way she approaches the paper. Figures, faces and fragments appear through layers of colour and line, almost as if the hand has moved before the thought has had time to intervene.
The wall text describes the works as self portraits dealing with large emotions, self perception and identity. Looking at them, I could sense that tension between the apparent simplicity of the image and what sits beneath it.
Crutch Portrait particularly stayed with me. There is something restless in the drawing, in the way the figure is constructed through repeated marks and colour. Crayon Tin Can has a similar quality, with the body almost becoming a collection of gestures, lines and colour rather than a traditionally described figure.
What also stayed with me was the space.
Shacoco calls itself a “gallery for bootstrappers”. There is something rather appealing about that idea. It is a small space doing something that matters, giving young artists an opportunity to put their work out into the world and allowing people to encounter it without the elaborate machinery that can sometimes surround the art world.
I really appreciate these small yet significant contributions by young curators and entrepreneurs. Creating a space, taking a chance on an artist and putting the work out there may seem like a small act, but this is also how an ecosystem grows.
I ended up acquiring a couple of Aira’s works.
It was entirely unplanned.
I had gone to Kala. It was closed. I went for coffee instead and came across a tiny gallery and an artist whose work I had never seen before.
That is one of the pleasures of looking at art.
Life is strange. You never really know what is around the corner.
Brought together by: Varleen Kaur and Abhishek Rai