With Covid-19 restrictions still in place at many public places, including art galleries and institutions, a new online art platform aims to satiate the need of enthusiasts and connoisseurs to view exemplary artworks. Called ‘In Touch’, the collaborative platform started by galleries coming together, offers digital exhibitions including many artists.
Some of the galleries include Shrine Empire, Tradition and Beyond, Vadehra Art Gallery from Delhi, among others in India and Dubai. Roshni Vadehra, Director, Vadehra Art Gallery informs that the ‘In Touch’ platform was set up in early lockdown days in 2020, as an initiative for galleries from India and Dubai to collaboratively present virtual exhibitions.
“We found that collectors and other audiences responded favourably to the idea of a collaborative platform where they were able to view works by different galleries, especially given the absence of physical exhibitions and art fairs.” Talking about the chief highlights of the platform, over the last few months, Va d e - hra informs that new galleries have been added “and some have dropped out because of other commitments.
The art presented by all galleries, very often solo projects, has been of great quality and given the collaborative nature of the project with collective sharing of PDFs and the common website, galleries have found new collectors with this kind of synergy.” Shrine Empire is showing Baaraan Ijlal’s works from her personal diary titled Locust Eaten Moon: Diary Entries 2020.
According to Shefali Somani, Gallery Director, “We have presented Sangita Maity, Neerja Kothari, Khushbu Patel, Samanta Batra Mehta on this platform in the past. We work with our gallery artists on showing solo presentations or in some cases two or three-person presentations that come together conceptually.” The gallerist has well adapted to online format. “Each gallerist presents the works of the artist/ artists they are showing, talks about the artist’s practice, the concept behind the works.
We plan to continue future editions in the same format,” says Somani. Talking about the Covid situation she says that ‘In Touch’ is beneficial both for art collectors and artists. “As this is a collaborative platform, it has given wider visibility to artists especially during the lockdown periods. Most collectors are not moving out of their homes and are happy to view works online,” she says, adding, “The platform has familiarised the works of our artists to younger collectors. The sales have also been beneficial to the artists in this difficult time.”