Web increases art base

We tell you about an art exhibition in town that got its artists from an online art portal

Adding to the Capital’s art scene is an exhibition called Collective Metamorphosis, which is currently running at Gallery Nature Morte.

HT Image

The show aims to take Indian contemporary art to mainstream collectors at easy and accessible rates. But the journey for this particular exhibition started a year back when Kapil Chopra, a working professional and an art collector, along with curator Peter Nagy and collector Swapan Seth, started an online initiative called bestcollegeart.com. The site was started to increase the collective art base in India.

“There are more than 12,000 art students in India, but not even five get an opportunity to display their work at art galleries,” says Chopra. “On our site, we provide the artist an opportunity to upload five of his best works and get a buyer for them,” he adds.

Another interesting feature is that each artist can give a price to his art work, ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 99,000. These prices are then reviewed by an able curatorial team. Each work has a shelf life of six months. Within a span of 10 months, the site has become one of India’s largest selling art gallery, with over 200 works sold and 700 works from over 150 artists uploaded on the site.
And now, in the current exhibition, Chopra has chosen five artists from the site and presented their work in the show.

“My only message to all the artists was to do what they do best and not confine them with a theme,” says Chopra.

Each artwork is pieced between Rs 50,000 to Rs 3.5 lakh.