Inter-gallery art shows gain ground

KOLKATA: Inter-gallery art shows are growing in numbers. While this phenomenon was around earlier also, the incidence of galleries joining hands to put up exhibits has now gone up. A team effort helps galleries to reach into their competencies and stitch together cross-country shows in a more effective manner.

���No doubt, there have been more inter-gallery shows than 7-10 years back. This scenario has followed a trend where the overall volume of shows has ballooned. Collaborations are unfolding even more where one gallery is keen on staging a show of an artist or group of artists who is attached to other gallery. After all, every gallery sports a portfolio of artists. Thus, when there is a crosscity tie-up , a gallery normally comes up with a catalogue of artists,��� an art market source told ET.

All this helps in commercial success of shows. When a Mumbai, Delhi or Chennai gallery gets drawn to fielding an exhibit of a Kolkata artist, they will approach a Kolkata outfit. It will be the other way round when a Kolkata gallery is interested in artists based in other cities. ���Artists associated with a gallery, have full trust in that gallery. Thus, one doesn���t face any hurdles on that count. The features of collaboration are, of course, thrashed out between the two galleries,��� the source said.

A collaborative arrangement among galleries brings together a healthy stock of works from one city to another. At the same time, two galleries can share their expenses and profits and, thus, optimise on their investments. The clients of a gallery, too, experience a degree of freshness as they are exposed to a clutch of artists with whom they may not be quite that familiar. The participating artists, in the same breath, can enjoy a feedback and response which is different from what they have seen before.