In Full Bloom | Verve Magazine
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July 19, 2013

In Full Bloom

Text by Wyanet Vaz. Photograph by Ryan Martis. Location: The Guild Art Gallery.

Veeranganakumari Solanki, an independent curator and art writer, has stirred up the field with new talent. With innovations in the pipeline, her role as a successful emerging curator can be credited to her global outlook and understanding of local flavours

Art smart
Postgraduate in Indian Aesthetics, and Art Criticism and Theory. Participant of the first Gwangju Biennale International Curators course and recipient of the first Illy Sustain Art Curator’s prize and the 1st Annual ALICE Public’s Voice Award 2012 for Best Emerging Curator.

Key shows
Myth Reality: Constructing Culture at The Guild, Mumbai, The Contemporary Sultanate at the Kutub Haveli Serai, New Delhi, The Contemporary Renaissance at Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy and Spell of Spill: Utopia of Ecology at Palette Art, New Delhi

First lessons
Researching, creating and experimenting with ideas along with taking up challenges creates a common link between artists from different backgrounds, cultures and nationalities. Working in various mediums is what creates exciting discoveries, and can be explored through curating.

Curatorial eye
Something that is different, and will not let you be – but then again let you be. The concept of creating new margins, new thoughts, new forms, fresh perspectives and unknown ideas in known realms. But, a few things that I do keep in mind when curating is making sure each work translates the concept of the show, has its own space, speaks for itself while maintaining a dialogue with the other pieces of art.

Curatorial philosophy
The third eye. The artist, the audience and the curator are the three most important levels of interaction in any exhibition or display. The third eye is that of the curator – to provide new insights and interpretations to the audience. A curator is a link between the artist’s ideas and the viewers’ perceptions. It is mandatory that the viewer is made to consciously engage with the exhibition to make it a remembered one – by appealing to the space, through interactive works and responses. My curation should in a way be able to convey the concept of the artist, within the context and space, but without overshadowing the viewer’s subjective point of view of the works.

My kind of art
I’ve worked with and studied Indian art from the ancient and modern all the way to the contemporary. So, I’m not sure whether there is a ‘my kind of art’, but yes, definitely something that makes me think beyond what I see. Which is probably the reason why I end up working with younger contemporary artists, because of the excitement of constantly discovering something new!

What’s next
Forms of the New Aesthetic which is a performed conversation with Remen Chopra at the Arezzo Biennale in Italy, Barbed Floss, a group show of five artists from Bangladesh at The Guild and Citizens of Time with emerging Indian artists at the Dhaka Summit 2014.

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