As the India Art Fair returned to New Delhi last week for the first time since the pandemic, it affirmed a shifting trend in the Indian art market. While collecting had previously been the purview of moneyed collectors chasing blue chip names, the pandemic offered nascent enthusiasts the opportunity to explore the art world virtually, make personal connections with the artists themselves, and even purchase art on a budget.
As such, the fair’s programming made a concerted effort to reach out to new and young collectors, and likewise, galleries purposefully trained their spotlights on emerging artists and overlooked Indigenous art forms.
Established collectors are following this lead, and supplementing their blue chip collections with young, local talent. The effort to support the work of young artists, especially those who practice native forms, responds to the shifting socio-political climate in the country. As conservative right-wing sentiments are on the rise, and cultural diversity is under threat of erasure, patrons feel a responsibility towards uplifting liberal voices and preserving the country’s artistic traditions.
While these efforts are evident in the movements of well-known collectors like Kiran Nadar and Abhishek Poddar—who have made their collections available for public viewing—the buying habits of their younger cohorts are especially telling of this trend. These folks see themselves as patrons of their own artistic revolutions, spotlighting work that is in danger of being lost, and uplifting the voices of the artists of the day. We spoke to five collectors demonstrating this tendency in the Indian art world.
Visitors at India Art Fair 2022 © India Art Fair
Krupa Amin
Age: 40
Occupation: Founder and director of Space Studio, an independent non-profit arts organization
What’s in the collection: Amin’s collection includes works by NS Harsha, Bhupen Khakhar, Reena Saini Kallat, Bharat Sikka and Atul Dodiya. Her first piece was a commissioned work by Prajwal Choudhury, who was in the final year of his Master’s programme in visual art at the time.
Distinguishing factor: Amin tends to buy multiple works by the same artists, as she enjoys following the evolution of an artists’ career. The artist she most strongly favours is Shilpa Gupta, whose 2012 light installation Where do I end and you begin is in Amin’s Mumbai home.
Where she shops: “I have a personal relationship with gallery owners, so it’s nice to get a first-look at what they have,” Amin said. She also makes it a point to visit the artists themselves, at their studios, so she can learn about their process and better understand the story behind their work.
Fun fact: Amin began her career at Citibank, but left after two years to pursue an art history course at Sotheby’s. She worked at erstwhile auction house Osiaan’s and Bodhi Art Gallery before founding Space Studio in 2006.
Kunal Shah
Kunal Shah.
Age: 41
Occupation: Interior architect
What’s in the collection: Shah’s collection spans more than 100 paintings, photographs and sculptures, and includes work by Tanmoy Samanta, Jitish Kallat, Dayanita Singh, Jahangir Jani, Varunika Saraf, and Zarina Hashmi.
Distinguishing factor: Shah makes it a point to purchase work by unrepresented artists, many of whom he connects with on Instagram. “I prefer collecting artists from our time,” he said, “because their art speaks of our time.”
Where he shops: Galleries like Mumbai’s TARQ, Jhaveri Contemporary, and Chatterjee and Lal, as well as New Delhi’s Nature Morte. In addition to attending art fairs around the world, Shah also frequents graduate shows at art colleges.
Fun fact: While he was interning with interior designer Rajiv Saini, Shah worked on the interior design for the home of artist couple Jitish and Reena Saini Kallat. When the project wrapped, Kallat gifted Shah one of his paintings—it was the first work of art that Shah would own.
Pooja Singhal
Pooja Singhal.
Age: 47
Occupation: Founder of Pichvai: Tradition and Beyond, an atelier that seeks to revive the 16th century devotional art form
What’s in the collection: Singhal has a collection of about 150 pieces which include works by Zarina Hashmi, Nasreen Mohamedi, Akbar Padamsee and Jogen Chowdhury, and photographs by Roger Ballen, Dayanita Singh and Umrao Shergill.
Distinguishing factor: Singhal’s collection sees a coexistence of the traditional and the contemporary. Even in her pichvai gallery, Singhal will intersperse the devotional paintings with more conceptual works, for instance, an Asim Waqif sculpture made of recycled car parts.
Where she shops: Singhal has bought work from Pundole’s, Sotheby’s New Delhi’s GallerySKE, Photo Ink, Nature Morte, Gallery Espace and Vadehra Art Gallery, Mumbai’s Chemould Prescott Road and Jhaveri Contemporary, and Kolkata’s Experimenter.
Fun fact: Singhal comes from a family of businessmen, but was raised to have a strong appreciation for the arts. Her mother had close relationships with artisans and contemporary art gallery owners alike, a duality that Singhal continues to reflect in her work as well as in her collection.
Siddharth Somaiya
Siddharth Somaiya.
Age: 32
Occupation: Angel investor and founder of beauty brand Organic Riot
What’s in the collection: Somaiya owns work by over 50 young Indian artists. The collection includes work by Vishwa Shroff, Sameer Kulavoor and Manjit Bawa, with recent additions of recent art school graduates Anila Govindappa, Jayeeta Chatterjee, Aditya Rajput, and Richa Arya.
Distinguishing factor: Somiaya makes it a point to support up-and-coming artists, and even purchased work from his peers when he was a student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “Living artists need the most patronage,” he says, “I have seen a lot of talented people slip through the cracks, and I just want to do my bit to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Where he shops: The gallery Somaiya frequents the most is Mumbai’s Tarq, but he is also a client of Mantissa Art, Jhaveri Contemporary, Sakshi Gallery and Lakeeran Gallery.
Fun fact: Somaiya was instrumental in setting up the “Immerse Art Festival” at Somaiya Vidyavihar University, one of the institutions owned by his family. The festival offered a platform to art school graduates who hadn’t had a chance to showcase their work in a physical space because of the pandemic.
Mandira Lamba
Mandira Lamba.
Age: 41
Occupation: Founder of contemporary art gallery Blueprint.12
What’s in the collection: Lamba gets her love for art from her father, who was an avid collector himself. Her collection includes work by Gond artist Jangarh Singh Shyam, Warli artist Jivya Soma Mashe, Baiga artist Shanti Bai, and Madhubani master Mahasundari Devi.
Distinguishing factor: Since 2013, Lamba has been actively honing a collection of Indigenous art. She hopes to complete her collection of Madhubani masters by acquiring a work by Sita Devi, and recently bought a 18th century bronze breastplate worn by performers of the theyyam performance tradition of South India.
Where she shops: Lamba purchases art through private collectors, art advisors, and has also made purchases through the auction house SaffronArt. She also visits artisan communities on her travels. All of her pieces are meticulously researched and have a strong provenance chain.
Fun fact: In 2017, Lamba launched the Inherited Arts Forum in collaboration with Exhibit 320, and worked with the U.N. to offer a platform to Indigenous artists from around the country.