Art Mela 2011 at State Gallery of Fine Arts

The State Gallery of Fine Arts (SGFA) – Hyderabad had organised a five-day ‘Art Mela’ from June 26th 30th 2011. This event was conducted for the first time by SGFA and has attracted around 100 artists who have submitted their works in various media ranging from figurative, floral, abstracts, native, decorative and a lot more.

Apart from the art mela, there were other events in the gallery space. Whilst the art mela posters promised a host of events un-related to art such as tattoo shacks and chat stalls…. thankfully, there were none. We all were relieved that it was only about art.

The inauguration was a solemn affair. Like always, this ceremony gives everyone a wonderful opportunity to interact with some artists and therefore there is a face to place, whenever we see a nice artwork.

There were around 6000 paintings on display, certainly a lot to look and choose from. For a serious art browser it would take 2-3 days to go through the piles of mounted and unframed artworks on canvas, paper, wood and other media. Each artists was allotted a display table (with a table number) wherein their art works were stacked. The artist name was not displayed. And we wonder why!

The event went smooth. People frequently dropped in to check out the artworks.

Since most of the works were un-framed, on paper, etc.,  There was a great danger of artworks getting spoilt. The artworks were simply kept on the display tables, ready to be handled by anyone and everyone. Many artists were not satisfied with the display arrangements and tried to display their works against the walls.

But come rain or shine, the show must go on. Beyond this initial hiccups and disappointments, there were some really great works amongst the heaps. Some of the works were stunning.

Understandably, since this was an art mela, many chose to display their old works… as most of their paintings were a clear departure from their style which is now more pronounced.

Here are some of the works at the gallery:

Some native artworks in brightest of colors.

Some abstracts of mine, unframed.

Some striking floral abstracts which I had dug out from under a heap. Who is this artist?

One day in the life of the SGFA art mela.

This first-of-its-kind show ended well. Some artists sold their artworks. Some artists made new friends. And some artists learnt a bit more about the art of art events.

If you had been to this show as a participant or to see the artworks, do share your experience with me.