Upcoming artists flock to fair seeking exposure

CHENNAI: The sketch is done but artist S Mohana Sundaram will fill the canvas with colour later. “Now there are many visitors so I will finish it tomorrow,” says Sundaram, a participant at ‘Paalam’ a social art fair that was inaugurated at Spaces on Friday.
There are half-done sketches and canvases with splashes of colour as artists try to work between film screenings and workshops at the three-day fair.But there are also bold acrylics, fluid watercolours and fine bronze sculptures, all works of the 25 participants, mostly art students and upcoming artists.
Sundaram has figurative works featuring couples in love, while C Pandi Selvam tries to bring out the grandeur of Chettinad houses through his acrylics featuring doors and window frames. “I am from a village near Chettinad and I want to show people that the place is not all about food,” says Selvam. Artists like V Ravindran makes warriors and peacocks in bronze while C Mullairajan searches for used cellphone covers and metal balls to use in his mixed media works.
“This is a great way to get exposure,” says artist Francis Leon, whose colourful acrylics got a fair amount of attention on the first day. As the public gets to know the lesser-known artists from across Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka and Orissa, it helps them overcome the constraints of exhibiting in a gallery. “Twenty five of us are showing our works here. For the next couple of days, we don’t have to pay for the space unlike exhibiting in a gallery,” says Leon.
Artist and art educator Kamala Ravikumar says that most participants are not comfortable talking about their work or marketing it. “Here they can freely interact with visitors and potential buyers and not worry about paying commission to galleries,” she says. The art fair, which is on till January 22, is being organised by curator Meena Dadha of Prakrit art gallery with the help of artists Thejo Menon, Kamala Ravikumar, Gita and Thara Ganesan.