An artist statement is a written document that summarises who you are and what your art is all about. As an artist, an artist statement can help introduce both you and your work to potential buyers, as well as to…

Did you ever wonder where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ characters got their names from? Well, your search is complete. Here is a brief introduction of the artists from whom the creators of TMNT took inspiration. Teenage mutant ninja turtles,…

The man, the legend, the iconic artist. Banksy is a name that would raise every art enthusiast’s ears. So, let’s take a look at who he is and how he earned his fame. “Man is least himself when he talks…

An artist, a filmmaker, an author and a philosopher – Delhi based Ashok Ahuja combines the seemingly unconnected elements – text, Mahatma’s philosophy and space to construct an engaging visual experience. The multi-disciplinary artists 8th solo show opens at Satya…

Known for her penchant for heritage, folk and tradition, Bhairavi Modi, with her new collection sets her gaze upon Gujarat’s tribal culture. Set to open at Archer Art Gallery on September 7th, When the Pavari Calls will be her 9th…

Asif Shaikh broke gender stereotypes in the 80s by choosing embroidery as his vocation. Shaikh has been helping artisans in India generate sustainable livelihoods and believes institutes need to take handicrafts seriously. Ahmedabad-based embroiderer Asif Shaikh and our digital media…

In this article, we discuss a few artists who have taken conceptual art to the next level and produced art projects that voiced the environmental issues and effects of climate change. Past three weeks saw the dreaded burning of Amazon…

Siddhartha at his recent exhibit called Come As You Are   From being a dentist in Bhilwara to becoming an artist in Ahmedabad, Siddhartha shares his journey with us, as he leaves a lasting impact through his latest artwork at…

A children’s book about a boy who feels like a girl. And about a child brought up by grandfathers. These are some of the stories published by Tulika Books, who have been making children’s picture books since 23 years. Little…

It was the eve of the Indian Independence Day and I was on this season’s first visit to San Francisco. And unwittingly I discovered these two icons of the Indian mythology and the Indian freedom struggle at the first and…

It’s a pleasant coincidence to see Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) – mostly known as a Painter – being remembered and celebrated in both East and the West after 500 years of his life. While celebration of this landmark about the…

Streaming platforms like Netflix have enabled new cinema to emerge in exciting ways and these often turn out to be great alternatives to mainstream cinema. What makes this phenomenon possible? We explore. I’m 10 minutes into watching Nanette on Netflix…

In an exclusive interview in 1994, on location at the Gufa in Ahmedabad, the celebrated artist MF Husain shared his memories of growing up in Gujarat. His famous paintings of horses were inspired by the Kala Ghoda statue in Baroda:…

Pakistan makes its debut at the 58th Venice Biennale with an installation by London-Karachi based artist Naiza Khan. Backed by an all-women team, Khan turns the venue into a map of the Pakistani Island of Manora. The next six months…

Let’s know Shubigi Rao, who has recently been selected as the curator for the 2020 Kochi Muziris Biennale, for her “exceptional acumen and inventive sensibilities” The format of the art biennale to showcase contemporary visual art, across the world is modeled on…

The annual fundraiser is one of the most talked about fashion events in the world. Here’s why. Every year, the fundraising Met Gala in New York City hosts celebrities from the fashion, film and entertainment industries from across the globe.…

Abhivyakti City Arts Project is giving a platform to budding artists to explore their creativity. The process of making the festival is as interesting as the performances. Read more about how the festival came to fruition here. You may spend…

The Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus during the crucifixion, colourful stained rose windows, one of the world’s largest organs, and various other relics, paintings and sculptures were present in the Notre Dame de Paris during the fire. Do they…

MS University graduate Vyom Mehta is an emerging name in the contemporary art scene of Gujarat. Known for his ‘Asura’ series, Mehta is now out with a host of artistic forms made by instinct, at his latest show at 079…

The new National Salt Satyagraha Memorial at Dandi captures the spirit of the historic Salt March that led to India’s independence. 48 international artists depict life-size sculptures of the 80 revolutionaries who marched alongside Mahatma Gandhi. “With this, I am…

Team CY ventures out to receive feedback from the creative community of Ahmedabad, with the purpose to gauge the acceptance and efficacy of it’s work as a hyper-local culture media. Has CY really added value in augmenting the demand for…

Esteemed Indian designer, scenographer and art curator Rajeev Sethi has been serving marginalised as well as urbanised sector with his innovative designs for decades. During his lecture at India Design Confluence, he addressed budding designers & artists and explained on how…

Starting from a village and reaching to prominent art destinations, sculptor Ratilal Kansodaria’s life is an inspiring journey of ambition and hard-work. Free from any inhibition his sculptures walk on the thin line that divides reality and fantasy. While he…

Nayana Soparkar’s ‘Echoes of Innocence’, her solo sculpture show, is a delightful tribute to the joy and innocence of childhood. The show will have on display 100 clay sculptures, which are akin to a moving anthology of childhood memories.  In…

Ahmedabad is set to receive a Diwali gift in the form of a brand new culture space, 079 stories. Envisioned by art lover Purva Damani and designed by Khushnu Panthaki Hoof and Sonke Hoof, 079 stories will be a one-of-its-kind…

Do art shows sell? Is there a ‘gallery culture’ in the city? Are Amdavadi artists optimistic or discouraged? Does the city support art? As Ahmedabad witnesses a rising number of art events, we investigate these questions through interviews with experts…

This 15-year-old student of Ahmedabad International School is coming out with her first solo show ‘Evolving Enigma’ this June. Know about the young talent Muskaan Shah’s journey into the world of emotions through vivid colours and abstraction. When one reads…

While games are a surefire stress-busting recreational choice, who knew that they can also awaken the creativity in you! Come, find out which games to download to get the creative juices flowing. From the crude and basicSnake to the thrilling…

In the journey of Kadia, an artist with over 4 decades of work behind him, we discover the essence of art – what it means to express one’s deepest feelings by combining mediums, to transform canvas into art. We bring…

We rendezvous with one of the foremost creative families in the city to find out what inspires a father and his sons to pursue their distinctive art and design. Mr Amit Ambalal, the patriarch of the renowned Ambalal family, is…

National award winning painter Paresh Maity is thrusting contemporary art forward with his enormous creations. We met the affable artist at Art E’ Fair 2017 and talked with him about his work, his thoughts and his upcoming solo exhibition in Ahmedabad…

In our second edition of the Artists of Ahmedabad series, we introduce five artists who endeavour to visualise the city of Ahmedabad through the hues and colours of their diverse palette. The common thread that binds them is their fascination for the…

Since Ahmedabad’s recognition as India’s first World Heritage City, it has been proven that the city possesses a living heritage amidst its walls. But who are the people who ensure that these walls are beautifully covered with colours and designs?…

How 21 sculptors are working on a tough deadline of 20 days to carve 26 monumental sculptures to give shape to the vision of the University to let students seek inspiration in Art. Read how this project, unprecedented in many…

‘Creativity’ is today’s choicest term. And yet much mysticism has come to cloud this word over time. Unlike the illusive imagery that accompanies the pronouncement of this word – I’m thinking of hair suspended in a perpetual state of static,…

In Amrut Tabiyar’s story, we discover the vastness and influence of Art in lives of people. It is an inspiring story of letting joy of creation unseat the harsh realities of life. Amrut Tabiyar is a Security Guard at GNLU…

The art of celebrated Modernist Artist and founder member of Kanoria Centre for Arts, Piraji Sagara, is relived at Art 17 this March. Know about his life and creative journey through the words of his friends and family BV Doshi,…

How two NID alumni are shattering menstruation myths and creating a period-positive culture Tuhin Paul was a student of engineering when he made a trip to the coastal city of Diu with his friends. One of the boys had injured…

At Asmita 2017, the show was stolen by the performing arts genre, with street plays and mime performances galore effectively striving to communicate social messages. I was mildly bewildered to witness a volunteer blocking my way, as he insisted, “You cannot…

A recipient of numerous state awards, veteran artist Bhanwar Singh Panwar – here in Ahmedabad for an exhibition on ‘Roop’, i.e. forms and images – speaks about the influence of other artists in his life, and about why art is…

It is a strange and almost enchanting finesse, that Mahendra Pandya rendered harmony to his sculptures – like they were notations to a fine symphony – perfectly carved and meticulously created. Pandya was born in 1926 in the Bharuch district…

Over the past 12 years, she has left a visual imprint in Indian cinema, through works such as ‘The Lunchbox’, ‘Taare Zameen Par’, ‘Sikandar’, the short film ‘Masterchef’, and the play ‘Einstein’. During her college days as an architecture student…

The magenta-pink surface of a factory yard hits an emerald green street in Factory Strike; brilliant vermilion-red railings vibrate against a deep azure sea in Man Eating Jalebi. These aren’t the subtlest color combinations, they are loud and how. Bhupen…

What does one understand when asked to define the premise of Visual Arts? Too broad. Okay lets replace that question with – What all would you and could you include in Visual Arts? Maybe that is still a very subjective…

From religious paintings to calligraphy, psychedelic art, elaborate drawings to portraits of politicians, truck art has come a long way in the country. The truckers of India, consider their vehicle as a kaleidoscope that shows off quotes, colours, and detailed…

Chakraview has been designed by Sumant Jayakrishnan in collaboration three other creative artists from the country: Avinash Kumar, Hanif Kureshi and RutvaTrivedi. Set on the coast of the Thames River, in London’s stately Somerset House, an inspiration of eastern design…

The Design Museum Dharavi (DMD as it is better known) defines itself as an innovative intellectual institute that commemorates the creative possibilities in Dharavi, an aboriginal locality situated in the spirits of Mumbai, India. In February 2016, it was inaugurated, a 3…

India as a nation is synonymous for her well-known Textile Industry that has flourished both formally and informally since time immemorial. The prominence of this media was such that it became a part of culture. Based on the inspirations of…

While the Marvel versus DC debate rages with yet another set of superheroes and superwomen that are brought to life by expensive CGI, we at Creative Yatra thought it would be worthwhile to go back to our very own desi…

Frida Kahlo’s art and personality are potent illustrations of matter trend. This piece is an observation upon how Kahlo’s progress and effect from early twentieth-century Mexico City became critical aspects in her forming her persona as an independent artist and celebrity.While many considered her…

If only VanGogh or Chagall could paint your picture. Now, in Prisma, they can. I am always the one, who is troubled by the pressure of clicking a good photograph. This further increases anxiety when I am putting something out…

The Sotheby’s Institute of Art recently launched its inaugural programme in Mumbai through a three-day educational course this September. With October 18 marking the beginning of a vibrant week that will see the celebration of Indian art in London, Yamini…

Mayadhara Sahu Odisha-born artist Mayadhara Sahu is inspired by a sense of loneliness that living in a big city. He creates artworks that take him back to his village. Sahu admits “When I went to Bhubaneswar for my further studies, I…

Graphic Artist and Designer Orijit Sen’s nude work titled ‘Punjaban’ was flagged and pulled down(and later restored) from Facebook last year. This was followed by another work titled ‘She came in through the bathroom window’ because they “violated” Facebook’s “Community…

A place where traditional marries the contemporary and where nature flirts with concrete is one that is bound to hold attention. Perhaps opposites do attract. And, in a city like Udaipur, they meet to celebrate various unions. As I have…

For many people, the world of art might seem a bit queer and unapproachable – intimidating, even. To help bridge this communication gap, Ajay and Swati Piramal have thrown open the doors of their private art collection in Mumbai. A…

To be a student at Baroda’s MS University in the 60’s under the tutelage of stalwarts like KG Subramanyan and NS Bendre, meant that one was living in the midst of a major movement in the Indian art world –…

Siddhartha Kararwal: The Pandora head of his Paracosmic self- Part 1 There is an element of Pandora to Artist Siddhartha Kararwal’s work and it comes much from his paracosmic self. While installing his much talked about piece “Denture Venture” at…

Every year art enthusiasts gear up for a festival like no other – the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai. Earlier this year, the event held 600 programmes across 12 days and drew over 1.5 lakh people. The best thing…

To many of us Rabindranath Tagore is a Nobel Laureate, poet, playwright, novelist, philosopher and a musician; very few of us know Rabindranath Tagore as the Artist – and one of National and International significance as far as the Pre-modern…

He one of the first known Artist-Curators in the country, GQ Man of the year, the co-founder of the Kochi Muziris Biennale and also the co-curator of the first edition – that is Bose Krishnamachari for you – flamboyant, warm and an…

The Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group have shared a very special relationship with the city of Ahmedabad, giving widely to the nascent yet vibrant scene in the city and helping it grow as one of the strongest art precincts in the…

The elusive illustrator behind “Of Ink and Yellow Memories,” Neelakshi Rathore, talks about drawing as a means to remember, the benefits of keeping a sketchbook, and the inward versus outward worlds of a creative. Sketch of Mcleodganj, 2015 Most people…

What stands out in a long list of Biennales and Art dos is the London Design Biennale 2016 that opens this week; now that’s just one of the feathers in wears on its hat. Architects and designers from 37 countries…

Early this year, The Met Breuer, Madison Avenue between March 18 and June 5, exhibited the Indian artist Nasreen Mohamedi’s retrospective, representing a devotion to eastern art for the museum, and on the other hand protecting the painter’s eminence in a…

The first edition of the London Design Biennale will take place at Somerset House this September. The first of its kind event brings together 37 countries showcasing their best in innovative design under the theme of “Utopia by Design.” Somerset…

Gujarat has had a very peculiar relationship with the arts, one that is based on curiosity, diversity and collective learning. The state altogether, since centuries now has developed its own aesthetic experience spanning visual arts, architecture and literature developing its…

Nature has inspired many an artist but not everyone knits stories from life around. Not every artist weaves a tale from happenings that involve him. And surely, not everyone paints a canvas where you may want to hop in and…

To Mani Da, With Love! Chapter 3 : The Writer   The river Ganga speaks: “Yet between the rocks and sea I laugh and live/ Rubbing the ribs of earth, holding the sky/ In the tiny mirrors of my glassy waves./ And in…

In the year 1950, a 28-year-old man sailed across the Indian Ocean “to see the works of Cezanne” in Paris. As destiny would have it, Paris for him was ‘love at first sight’. He went to the opera, watched the…

To Mani Da, With Love! Chapter 2 : The Artist KG often spoke of his learning from “Aban patua” (Abanindranath Tagore); “He taught me,” said KG, “to write an image, to picture a story.” This is many ways connects to…

A friend’s mother was mentioning Bharti Kher’s famous Indian elephant, to me. She described it in great detail on our way to a museum, in South Delhi. She elaborated, talking about this piece (that I had only seen in photographs…

Chapter 1 : The Teacher Some people live for others to believe in themselves. KG Subramanyan or Mani Da, as he was fondly called was one such being. There was never a single high point to his career; his entire…

With the invention of the television, photography and the internet, our love of pictures has grown dramatically over the last century. While bibliophiles lament the resultant loss in reading habits today, a medium does exist that bridges this proverbial divide…

We at Creative Yatra, think some of the loveliest illustrations we’ve ever seen have been in books or maybe that’s just the association one makes with great story-telling, so we decided to round up a few of the most beautiful…

‘I don’t comprehend video art.’ These words have glued with most of us. So what is an artist’s film or video? Drawing, Painting and Sculpture have been our traditional mediums for understanding visual art. And People who are not well…

“Art for art’s sake” is the famous translation of a French slogan that saw art as being an autonomous thing that has no other purpose or aim but to be for itself. Philosopher Alain de Botton argues, in the book…

Be it figurative or abstract, there’s one subject that will never cease to be a favourite for this artist. “I will paint Gandhi till as long as I understand,” says Manhar Kapadia about the inspiration behind his paintings. The 51-year-old…

He designs homes like a poet writes poetry. With a tinge of romance, a stream of thought and enough meaning to enable delightful acceptance. Architect Hiren Patel won’t use too many words, he’ll let the wall speak, make the garden…

The ‘common’ makes for conversation, adaptation, adjustments – a constant barter of thoughts, devices and languages in a space of coexistence – the common is an evolving space. This is not to say that it is devoid of any sense…

In this painting of a caged lioness, we get a glimpse into the world of Meena. Ten years old and illiterate, Meena wants to fly, go to school and dance. But she is a labourer working at construction sites. Like…

All our Grandmothers have that exclusive treasure chest, something where they keep their most prized possessions. A trunk they open only on special occasions, something which holds things most dear and precious to them. The opening of the chest is…

Imagine tripping into Lewis Caroll’s ‘Wonderland’ and living it up like Alice in an overwhelming parallel universe. Well, good news is you don’t need to trip down a hole in your backyard but click play on Studio Oleomingus’s game Timruk, a vivid digital game world that…

Who knew that a boy from Indore, will paint the History of Indian Art like Colossus. It was 1937 when M.F. Husain (Maqbool Fida Husain) came to Bombay for the first time. Dazzled, by the urban phenomenon. Bombay was possessed by modernism, institutions,…