Pune-based art gallery Vida Heydari Contemporary (VHC) is all set to take part in the India Art Fair, leading event in New Delhi exhibiting contemporary art. The fair will be taking place from Thursday, 28 April to Sunday, 1 May 2022, at NSIC, Okhla, New Delhi.
The Next Edition by Katayoun Karami
VHC, founded in 2020 is helmed by Iranian-Canadian curator and gallerist Vida Heydari, who has endeavoured to create a platform to celebrate work by local and international artists, while also highlighting the culture of Pune. Known for positioning art and the artist’s voice at its core, values of the India Art Fair align with that of VHC, which will be displaying its exhibits from India and Iran at Booth No. A6 at the fair, for all to marvel at.
The booth will display artworks by renowned Indian and Iranian artists, namely, Farbod Elkaei, Kambiz Sabri, Katayoun Karami, Khosrow Hassanzadeh, M. Pravat, Pooya Aryanpour and Vaishali Oak, allowing you to experience contemporary art through a unique perspective. To build on the excitement, artists M. Pravat and Khosrow Hassanzadeh will be present during the fair.
Bringing together local and international artists, the booth will display a melange of vibrant colours, mediums like sculptures, paintings, fabrics assemblages and a lot more making this experience a memorable one!
Speaking of VHC’s participation in the fair Vida Heydari said, “India Art Fair’s commitment to increase audiences for the arts within India is also the crux of VHC’s intentions of promoting artists and connecting them to art lovers. VHC is excited and honoured to be part of the fair.”
Artists taking part in the fair include prominent Indian and Iranian artists, a few of whom will be exhibiting their artworks for the first time in India. Farbod Elkaei, a conceptual artist born in Tehran, Iran, encompasses socially-themed projects, based on contemporary communal experiences in his art practice. With artworks that explore the unique relationship between colours, nature and geometry, Elkaei’s paintings and sculptures juxtaposed natural landscapes, mainly mountain ranges, with colourful geometric scenes.
Winner of Emirates Airlines Skywards Future Artists Competition 2011, Kambiz Sabri from Tehran, Iran is also one of the artists at the fair. Sabri has held various solo exhibitions and participated in more than 150 group exhibitions in contemporary art museums and galleries around the world. He has won prizes from the 3rd Sculpture Biennial and the 2nd Sculpture Symposium of Iran. He also has been a judge and a member of committees of several Biennials and art competitions including the Tehran Sculpture Symposium 2016 and the 7th Tehran Sculpture Biennial. In December 2015, one of his sculptures was selected and installed as part of the permanent collection in the garden of Asian Art and Culture Museum in Chiayi, Taiwan alongside Yayoi Kusama and Hiroshi Senjus artworks.
Conceptual artist, Katayoun Karami known for her socio-personal projects will also be part of the fair. Karami’s art practice engages with socio-personal projects based on collective community experiences through mixed media. Her exhibitions have been held at various galleries around the world since 2002.
Present will also be one of the most distinguished artists from his generation, Khosrow Hassanzadeh, known for “glamorizing the worthless” by making large paintings on neglected packaging cardboard, a practice he began as a young art lover. His work has been exhibited in numerous national and international venues, including over thirty solo exhibitions, and is part of permanent institutional collections such as Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA), The British Museum, KIT Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam), LACMA museum and more. Experience his vibrant Silk Screen and Mixed Media tiles at the art fair.
One can also look forward to artwork by M. Pravat, a recipient of the ProHelvetia artist residency in Switzerland who uses architectural forms and materials in his art through a fractured lens. Pravat’s intricately carved panels are a work of art one should not miss. He is a member of the Layout collective along with artists Navid Tschopp, Susanta Mondal, and architect S. Boka, and their projects have been exhibited in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2012), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (2013), INSERT (2014), the Colombo Biennale (2014), and in non-institutional sites in Delhi and Zurich.
Part of the fair would be Iranian artist, art instructor and university lecturer Pooya Aryanpour who explores the roots and intricacies of Iranian culture dabbling in everything from painting to sculptures. His sculptures and sculptural installations, while rooted in the very traditions and thought processes involved in his drawings and paintings, appear as large recognizable forms that engage the viewer in an interactive and performative act by transforming his drawings into intricate ‘Ayine-Kari’ (mirror work) and projecting them into the space.
Last but not the least, Pune-based talent Vaishali Oak, has been working with textile as her primary medium of expression since 1997 and has developed a unique style that draws from a local quilting practice called Godhadi. Inspired by early memories of sewing with the women in her family as a way of preserving and extending the life of the cloth, Oak’s fabric assemblages have evolved. She was awarded Junior Fellowship in Visual Art by the Indian government in 2000. These experiences shaped her understanding of the technique and encouraged her to create abstract works. Experience artwork that is larger than life at the India Art Fair, New Delhi.
About Vida Heydari / Vida Heydari Contemporary Art Gallery
Established in 2020, VHC is Pune’s newest contemporary art gallery. VHC celebrates art by partnering with artists, promoting their work and connecting them to art lovers. The gallery showcases works by local and international artists, and through its collateral programs aims to contribute to the cultural fabric of Pune city. VHC endeavours to create a platform to encounter and engage with relevant contemporary art practices from around the world.
VHC also celebrates the art of fine cuisine with its restaurant. The experience of engaging with art is enhanced by the cuisine on offer, where the restaurant serves as a space of encounter, conversation and reflection.
VHC was founded by Vida Heydari, a curator and gallerist with over 14 years of diverse experience in the global art world. She has worked with accomplished Indian, Iranian and Chinese contemporary artists and has also consulted for various private and public collections.
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