Art has no boundaries, it is for everyone. Firmly believing in this adage, Bengaluru-based Kreative Minds is back with its popular fine art show titled ‘Esthetique 2022 – My Style My Art’. It was inaugurated on 17 June 2022 and is a three-day fine arts exhibition taking place at Art Life Gallery in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The inauguration ceremony was well-attended by a number of eminent guests and was followed by a sitar recital by Subrata De,a renowned international sitar artist. On the occasion, The Daily Guardian Review caught up with Amrita Tiwary, artist, curator, and founder of Kreative Minds, for a candid chat about the program.
Excerpts:
Q. How did you enter this field?
A: I have had an interesting journey as an artist and entrepreneur. I spent my childhood in Jamshedpur, which is also known as Steel City or Tatanagar. After completing my schooling here, I moved to Kolkata for my higher studies and did my graduation in BBA from Jadavpur University. However, I yearned for a creative vocation and so I pursued my passion by completing a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Pracheen Kala Kendra.
Q. Tell us about this exhibition? How did it come about?
A: ‘Esthetique 2022 – My Style My Art’ is taking place in Noida. It gives me immense pleasure to start this year’s offline exhibitions in the city that has so much love and passion for art and culture. We are looking forward to having many art lovers and admirers join us for this three-day fine arts exhibition at Art Life Gallery.
The artistic lineup is also fantastic. It includes Rritu Goel, Amrita Tiwary, Keerthana Reddy, Vandana Kashyap, Jawaharlal Nanda, Ramya Krishna Swamy, Tanusree Nath, and others. In this exhibition, we have approximately 45 artworks on display, made by eight artists. All these artworks are in different mediums, showcasing the varied styles of these artists.
After a gap of two years, we are doing our first offline exhibition and are extremely excited about this. We hope to conduct many more art exhibitions at a national level soon.
Q. What was the curatorial process for choosing these artists?
A: For any and every exhibition, we decide on a theme. When the artists submit their artworks, we focus on shortlisting them based on certain factors. These include things like adherence to the theme, size of the painting as per the specifications provided, etc. Then we have a selection panel, which goes through the submitted artworks for selection. We look for uniqueness and original work above everything else.
Q. What’s next on the cards for you?
A: Once the exhibition is done, we are planning to add these artworks to our website for the promotion of these artists and their works. We are also planning to have a national tour, where we travel to different cities and host exhibitions and workshops for all art lovers and those who are interested, and other upcoming artists.
At Kreative Minds, we are always busy. We are also setting up to host an online exhibition for juniors within the age group of eight years to sixteen years. For this, kids will be given a theme and specifications. After that, we plan to host one more Esthetique exhibition in the months of September-October in Bengaluru.
Q. Tell us about the wonderful sitar recital that happened on your opening day?
A: Shri Subrata De is a well-known name in the field of sitar. He represents the Bishnupur Gharana of Hindustani classical music and is an able disciple of Pt. Manilal Nag. Subrata has not only earned his reputation as a performer, but also as a cultural ambassador of India, propagating Indian culture in its purest form all over the world. He has also served as Sitar Guru at the Bangkok Centre of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). He also works for cultural exchanges between India and foreign countries through concerts, lecture demonstrations, and facilitating exchange programmes. He is also looked up to by young artists for getting suitable opportunities and mentoring to showcase their talents at appropriate stages through his organisation ‘Swaranjali’. At the launch, Subrata delighted the audience by showcasing the nuances of the Bishnupur Gharana style.
Q. What more can we look forward to at Kreative Minds?
A: Kreative Minds recently started a small wing dedicated to website design and maintenance under the name Kreative Developers. We design websites for our clients from scratch, based on their requirements. Our main motive is to understand the product/service of our clients’ businesses and showcase that on their website. We recently made and designed a website for a fashion design company in Mumbai called Swa.Daze and we are regularly monitoring it too. We have undertaken several projects along these lines and are either designing and maintaining or just maintaining and updating our clients’ websites.
Noor Anand Chawla pens lifestyle articles for various publications and her blog www.nooranandchawla.com. She can be reached on nooranand@gmail.com.