Arnika Ahldag, Brinda Miller, Veerangana Solanki
This talk sheds light on three major upcoming art events in India: the opening of the Museum of Art & Photography in Bengaluru, the 23rd edition of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai, and the 5th edition of Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa. Scheduled to open between the end of this year and early next year, all three programmes will bring to light heterogeneous forms of expression in art, presented through different lenses.
Helmed by MAP’s Arnika Ahldag, in conversation with KGAF’s Brinda Miller, and Serendipity’s Veerangana Solanki, this session will delve into the three events as sites of art production and engagement, expanding on the curating sensibilities involved, the creative processes at play and providing a glimpse behind the curtain of what to expect!
Chief Curator, MAP
Arnika Ahldag is the Chief Curator at the Museum of Art & Photography, in Bengaluru. As an art historian her interests cover the representation of labor in Indian contemporary art, institutional critique, exhibition histories and archives. She holds a PhD from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and an MA from University College in London, UK and Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany. She co-founded the Feminist Syllabus, as part of the workshop series Pact of Silence, How to break it, a programme for intersectional feminist discourses in the arts.
Hon Chairperson, Kala Ghoda Association
Brinda Miller studied Textile Design at Sir J.J. School of Art in 1979. She also studied drawing and painting at the Parsons School of Design, New York in 1989. Since 1982, Miller has showcased her work via 16 solo exhibitions and has been part of several group shows and art workshops in India as well as internationally. Miller has been with the Kala Ghoda Association almost since its inception, currently holding the position of an Hon. Chairperson. She is involved in the beautification and heritage restoration projects in and around this now famous art district of Mumbai, which hosts the only major multicultural festival in India — the iconic Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. She is an art advisor and mentor to several NGOs and other not-for-profit art organisations. She is also an education consultant at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly Prince of Wales Museum), Mumbai.
Curator, Serendipity Arts Festival 2022
Veeranganakumari Solanki is an independent curator and writer based in India. She is interested in the way interdisciplinary forms and creative practices merge to create dialogues in public and private spaces and the convergence of images across disciplines. Further, her research and practice consider how historical and contemporary thought inform exhibition-making and artistic practices. Solanki was the 2019 Brooks International Research Fellow at Tate Modern and a resident at Delfina Foundation. Currently, she is the Programme Director at Space Studio, Baroda, a core team member of Art Chain India and teaches the Curatorial Practice MFA course at Kathmandu University. She will curate Future Landing: The Arcade at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2022.
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