Indian folk artists are fully at home in World Art Dubai
Vidisha's Creations gallery portrays long forgotten Folk and Tribal arts. Kamal Kassim/Gulf Today
Raghib Hassan, Staff Reporter
World Art Dubai (WAD) returned to Dubai’s World Trade Centre on Thursday. The 4-day art event will conclude on March 12. It is the region’s largest contemporary art fair; it has returned with more than 4,000 artworks, plus 300 renowned galleries and talented solo artists from more than 50 countries worldwide.
WAD is set to welcome more than 10,000 art lovers to enjoy a packed schedule of live art performances, interactive workshops, compelling talks, and more. It is place where the world’s art - and artists and art lovers - come together. Walking inside the WAD campus can make you feel you have been transported into a completely different, unimaginable and colourful world.
You will be amazed to see so much of creativity at one place! Artists from around the globe look busy, interacting with aficionados, talking about their artworks or taking selfies with their admirers, fans and groupies, wearing ever-broadening smiles on their faces. The popularity and success of the event can be understood from the fact that many visitors had already arrived in the morning itself much before the event started.
Flocks of school children, under the guidance of their teachers, sauntered about in the hall, admiring the artworks that graced the event. They looked excited to see so many creative geniuses under one roof! They were literally awestruck. Or should one say “artstruck”? You can stroll inside the hall, admiring the magnitude of creativity and while strolling, you are sure to come across Vidisha’s Creation gallery. It will definitely force you to stop, look and admire.
Colourful frames adorning its walls will make you stop and look at those frames and their contents. Each frame is a story in itself. To know them, you will have to meet Vidhisa Pandey and her team of energetic and talented artists. Vidisha’s Creations portrays long forgotten Folk and Tribal arts on Dubai’s international platform. It is headed by Dubai-based Indian folk artist, Vidisha Pandey. She has been resident in Dubai for almost a decade, with a passion to popularise Indian folk art in the UAE and around the world.
Trained in Mithila art, Vidisha is well-respected and admired in art circles. Her passion for Indian art and craft is quite palpable. A team of extraordinary artists under the leadership Vidisha, like Arti Bhatia, Ami Sanghavi, Lakshmi Subramani, Jaya Phulwani, Rajasekharan Swamikutty, Anita Jain, Bini Menon, Pari Sanghavi, Sangeeta Parashar, Swarnali Das, Amrita Bhaitia, Uma Nanthini Gurushev, Yogitha Ganesh and Poonam Chauhan, have joined together for the cause to make Indian art get its due around the globe.
They want the world to know the depth of Indian art. That’s one of the reasons they have assembled at WAD.They hail from different parts of India, bringing their own forms of art with them. Heading her team of artists, Vidhisha looked extremely happy and contended with the response. Sharing her overflowing emotions with Gulf Today, she said: “I am happy to see the response from the people so far.
Though it is just the beginning, I expect more positive feedback during the weekend.” We are promoting different forms of art which comes from different States of India and there are 15 artists participating in the event, she added. Talking about her galaxy of artists, she quipped: “We don’t have only artists in the team - we also have many top professionals who are participating in this event. They all have joined to promote Indian folk art and they all are passionate about it.”
Describing the composition of her team, she said: “We have Dr. Sangeeta Parashar participating in the event, who is a skin specialist. She is a great artist, too. One academic scholar is also a participant. We have an architect too in our team plus so many women in our gallery who are doing very well in their own field but have creative genes in them as well. So they joined us to showcase their creative side.” Praising the sole male artist, Rajasekharan Swamikutty, in her gang, she said: “He is a great artist from Kerala.
He is very humble also. His artworks are really great.” Praising her group, she said that “we are increasing our numbers day by day. At the moment, we have many artists. Hope this number will increase with the passage of time.” Uniting so many artists under one roof is definitely not an easy task. It requires lots of effort and energy. Talking about this, she said: “Bringing so many creative people under an umbrella is indeed a challenging task. But my artists are very cooperative and they all are passionate about their goals.”
Artist Swamikutty looked extremely happy to be there. Talking about his journey, he said: “I have been in the field of art for almost 30 years, practicing in Kerala. This is the first time I am participating in the Dubai event.” Giving a nod to Vidisha, he said that “she is a great artist and a great human being. She has inspired me to come here and I am sure I will come next year, with much better work.” Vidisha had words of praise for WAD. “We have so much of exposure here,” she said. “We get to meet lots of local and global artists. We also interact with many art admirers. It is wonderful to be to here.”
