Cutting corners: Tao art gallery turns 18 with a show featuring 50 artists

Check out works by youngsters and veterans at the month-long exhibition.

“Every art student knows this gallery. They see its iconic window and want to display here,” says Kisalay Vora.

He’s referring, of course, to the giant glass pane you cannot miss if you are driving through Worli and past the Tao Art Gallery. All this month, the space will be celebrating its 18th anniversary, with a show titled No Corners. On display will be works by a mix of young and veteran artists, in tribute to the gallery’s open-door tradition.

“The idea is to give creative freedom to the artists and celebrate art itself,” says co-curator Sanjana Shah, also the daughter of founder Kalpana Shah. “For our anniversary show, we wanted to do something out of the box. Since corners are part of every canvas, with ‘No Corners’ we wanted to push the envelope.”

A total of 50 artists from across India are participating, including Brinda Miller, Jayasri Burman, Bharti Pitre, Ali Akbar Mehta and Manu Parekh.

Studio Space by Mumbai-based Kisalay Vora features props found in artists’ studios – pins, thread, cloth – on a circular canvas.

Miller’s series, Nostalgia of Light, features oval-shaped antique objects sourced from Chor Bazaar. “Very few galleries have reached this milestone. The show has come beautifully together and it’s interesting to see how artists have worked with the theme for the anniversary,” Miller says.

Mumbai-based Kisalay Vora’s work, Studio Space, plays with props found in artists’ studios – pins, thread, cloth – on a circular canvas.

“I feel like a child in a candy store when I think of Tao,” he says. “The gallery hasn’t lost its sheen over these years as it keeps reinventing itself.”

It has been transformative for Kalpana too, she says. “It changed my life; transformed me from a homemaker to an entrepreneur,” she says. “Tao made my life colourful and changed many other lives too, all of which I’m grateful for.”