Shrine Empire

It was such a terrific experience to speak about Prameya Art Foundation at a global platform. World Art Foundation’s conference which was held at The Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens was a closed door event for leading foundations across the world to meet, share and learn from each other.

We were excited to present our not for profit initiatives over the last 6 years in front of 200 leading foundations, curators and patrons.

Prameya Art Foundation is now the member of WAF. Thankyou .art.foundations for giving us this opportunity.

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2nd WAF Global Conference 2023
Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens, Greece.
14 – 15 November 2023

Prameya Art Foundation has been invited to be a part of a closed door conference on 14th and 15th November 2023 at Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens, Greece. Our co-founder Anahita Taneja will be speaking on Art Foundations’ Partnership Models: Opportunities & Limitations with some leading institutions from around the world. The esteemed panel in this session will discuss establishing sustainable partnerships with longevity, financial viability and coherent values.

World Art Foundations (WAF) was created in 2014 by Peter Deckers and Helena Stork. WAF is the only network exclusively dedicated to private art foundations, whether they are created by individuals, artists or companies. They have a growing membership of over 250 Art Foundations, spanning the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

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Our directors Shefali Somani and Anahita Taneja are featured in LUX magazine's latest issue under ‘Leaders and Philanthropists’.

As the gallery shortly turns 15, they both speak extensively about their journey. Initially heading two different organisations, a shared vision for nurturing similar practices and a passion for fostering an art ecosystem brought both our directors together. They discuss their cross cultural partnerships with different art organisations in South Asia, their initiatives to promote emerging artists, curators and art writers and on promoting artists who work with contemporary socio-political issues in the South Asian context.

Check out the bio for the link to the article.

Reading Salon at Shrine Empire featured in Architectural Digest. Thankyou .narrative for this wonderful feature. Come visit us for some great art, books and coffee. ❤️ To read more go on to the link in bio.

Posted • Designed by nori narrative (.narrative) in a palette of concrete and wood, the Reading Salon at the Shrine Empire () offers a break away from the art gallery, while staying connected to the art on display.

In 2018, Anahita Taneja () and Shefali Somani () set about converting a basement in New Delhi’s Defence Colony into an art gallery. As co-founders of Shrine Empire (), they had been active since 2008, and already had a varied group of artists in their roster. From pencil sketches to textile art and metal sculpture, the new location would need to do justice to a range of mediums.

The subterranean space didn’t give them much natural light to work with, but a small skylight allowed some sun to filter in through the day. White walls and bright lights made up for the rest, and Shrine Empire soon became one of the most notable galleries in the city. Over the years, Taneja and Somani witnessed how audiences interacted with artwork–how they spent due time in front of each piece, considered it, and even discussed it with the other patrons at the gallery. Art, they discovered, was stirring up conversations, and those conversations needed their own space. “We wanted to launch a space where we could invite artists to do a book launch, or a poetry reading, or do an event to popularise an exhibition,” explains Somani. Under the incisive design of nori narrative, Shrine Empire created an extension to the main gallery. The Reading Salon invites audiences to stay, read, interact and engage once they’re done walking through the show.

Read more at the link in bio

Photography: Avesh Gaur (.gaur)
Words: Avantika Shankar

Shefali Somani and Anahita Taneja, directors of Shrine Empire and consultants for the second edition of HELLO! India Art Awards are featured in HELLO! India's latest art issue!

They talk about the importance of fostering a community around art and what they're doing to bring ambitious voices from across South Asia to the forefront.

In continuation with our commitment towards artists who work with publishing projects as part of their practice, Prameya Art Foundation is thrilled to have been invited to present a selection of artists' books from India over the years at Focal Point, Sharjah Art Foundation. This project will be brought to New Delhi soon.

Thankyou for making this possible ❤️

Like cupping water with their hands

Curated by Anushka Rajendran 

25th - 27th November 2022 | Sharjah Art Foundation, Bait Obaid Al Shamsi

 
Bhupen Khakhar | Bhupen Khakhar, 2001 (Katha) ; Bombay Underground Zines (Aqui Thami and Himanshu S.) | Zines (various titles) (Bombay Underground) ; Chandan Gomes | In this World of Dew, 2011-15 (Photoink) ; Dayanita Singh | Myself Mona Ahmed, 2001 (Scalo) ; KG Subramanyan | Selected titles of children’s books and essays (Seagull Books) ; Khirkee Voice | Various editions (KHOJ) ; Nilima Sheikh and Suniti Namjoshi | Blue and Other Stories, 2014 (Tulika Publishers) ; Pushpamala N in collaboration with Clare Arni | Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs, 2000-2004 (Nature Morte) ; Ronny Sen | End of Time, 2017 (Nazar Foundation) ; Sohrab Hura | Coast, 2019 (Self-published) ; Somnath H**e | Tebhaga (reprint), 2019 (Seagull Books) ; Subhash Vyam, Srividya Natarajan, S. Anand, Durgabai Vyam | Bhimayana: Incidents in the Life of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, 2011 (Navayana Publishers) ; Sunil Gupta | We Were Here: Sexuality, Photography and Cultural Difference, 2022 (Aperture) ; Q***r Muslim Futures: A Collection of Visions, Utopias and Dreams | The Q***r Muslim Project, 2021 (Q***r Muslim Project) ; Thukral and Tagra | Weeping Farm (book and gameplay), 2022 (Om publishers) ; Vasudha Thozhur | Vasudha Thozhur: Diaries, Projects, Pedagogy, 1998-2018 (Tulika Books) ; Vidyun Sabhaney | First Hand: Graphic Narratives from IndiaI and II, 2016/2018 (Yoda Press)

Protick Sarkar’s solo exhibition “Till Time Stands Still” opens at Shrine Empire on 7th Oct. We begin with a conversation at 5pm with Shuddhabrata Sengupta and Protick Sarkar followed by the preview of the exhibition. Thankyou for this fabulous coverage.

Posted • 𝘏𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘉𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘭— 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢'𝘴 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵
On the 75th anniversary of the end of colonial rule, photos document the British Empire's lasting imprint on the part of India that is now Bangladesh.

Essay by Naeem Mohaiemen and photographs by Sarker Protick.

Thank you National Geographic for this fabulous feature.

Posted • Save the date for Delhi Contemporary Art Week 2022!

For the fifth edition of DCAW we feature the works of Awdhesh Tamrakar, Divya Singh, Lavkant Chaudhary, Piyali Sadhukhan, Priyank Gothwal, Ratna Gupta, Sangita Maity, Samanta Batra Mehta and Shruti Mahajan.

(1) Delhi Contemporary Art Week
1st - 7th September, 2022 | 11 am – 7pm
Venue: Bikaner House, Pandara Road, India Gate, New Delhi - 110011

(2) LEGAL ALIEN, Curated by Meera Menezes

(3) Collateral Exhibitions : Blueprint 12 | Exhibit 320 | Gallery Espace | Latitude 28 | Nature Morte | Shrine Empire | Vadehra Art Gallery

(4) Public Programming
To know more about line-up of artworks, walkthrough, events, talks, workshops, and much more follow





.malkus .sangita .s

‘𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧'𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐀 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞’
In light of the Depp-Heard trial, Outlook Editor Chinki Sinha talks to Bangladeshi artist Tayeba Begum Lipi on her art, the need for collectives, feminism, and patriarchy affecting women's actions.

Tayeba Begum Lipi’s work 𝘜𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥, which serves as the cover of this week’s issue of Outlook magazine and sees a woman covered in a veil of razors, is a powerful reminder of what is at stake if we don’t continue having important conversations about the position of victims of abuse. Outlook Editor Chinki Sinha spoke to Tayeba about the work, and its resonance in light of the (Jhonny Depp and Amber Heard) trial and its verdict.

Thank you Outlookindia for this fabulous feature.

.chinki

We are thrilled to announce that Omer Wasim is a part of an exhibition at the Jameel Arts Centre: ‘Proposals for a Memorial to Partition’, curated by Murtaza Vali on view from June 18, 2022 until February 19, 2023

‘Proposals for a Memorial to Partition’ brings together proposals by artists and writers for an imagined memorial to the partitions that produced the modern nation-states of South Asia. These proposals range from artworks and texts to sketches and maquettes, presenting a multitude of poetic and speculative approaches to a historical event that resists narrow categorisations.
In the aftermath of British colonial rule, a few crucial weeks in 1947 initiated complex and still-unresolved processes of displacement, fragmentation, conflict, and nation-building that spanned decades, and which continue to deeply scar the societies and peoples of the subcontinent. Most of the artists’ proposals hint at the impossibility of a single monument or unifying narrative. Instead, they offer delicate, informal, and often collective ways of looking at history and memory.
- (jameelartscentre.org)

Image Credits (4&5) - Umer Butt

⁠

We are thrilled to see Karan Shrestha as a part of the 5th Mardin Biennial, curated by Adwait Singh, on view until June 20th, 2022.

Karan Shrestha divides his time between Nepal and India. His works overlays encounters in physical landscapes over that of mental maps of people and spaces he comes across so as to examine and restructure notions of the ‘present’. His practice incorporates drawings, sculpture, photography, text, film and video. With stories of every day and every people, his work seeks to blur opposites that build and define our individual and collective identities.
Shrestha has shown his work at the Sharjah Film Platform; Art Heritage Gallery, New Delhi; Jawaharkala Kendra, Jaipur; Prometeo Gallery, Milan; the Yinchuan Biennale; Photo.Kathmandu; Kathmandu Triennale; Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa; The Arkipel, Jakarta; Delfina Foundation, London; International Kurzfilmtage Winterthur.

We are excited about the participation of Tayeba Begum Lipi as a part of Britto Arts Trust at one of the most significant exhibition platform, the Documenta fifteen that will take place in Kassel, Germany from June 18 until September 25, 2022.

BRITTO ARTS TRUST is the first artists’ run non- profit collective in Bangladesh with a global reach founded in 2002. Britto Arts Trust is an expansive and sustainable non- commercial contemporary art environment and culture that seeds and promotes multiple interdisciplinary practitioners, groups and networks. As a catalyst it provides a platform for the development of professional artists, a place where they can meet, discuss and upgrade their skills on their own terms. Britto Arts Trust is part of Triangle Network and is already connected with a number of organisations/ institutions from the globe.

At Documenta fifteen, Britto creates a vivid interconnected landscape devoted to food politics, displacement, and culture.

Installation views of “Safarnama” by Saraab ( and ) as part of “Does the Blue Sky Lie?” at Khoj International Artists' Association

Invoking the presence of to explore the and of air, activates and sacred worlds to pay attention to the intimacy of . Borrowing its name from and referencing the of produced in the world, Safarnama traces the journey of a jinn traveling through the emerging, extractive of the - Corridor.

Original and mixing by ; two channel sound design at by Baan G. Music played by and . Wall at Khoj Studios by Mohd. . Commissioned and produced by and Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza for st_age.

All images by , courtesy of and .

We are excited to announce that has been featured in the "Look, Look, Look, Look, Look Again" by the , , , and by , in February 2022.

Tayeba Begum Lipi Kevin Townley Jr.

by is on view at till June 15th, 2022.

“In When they stopped making , .sangita builds a between the that build a structure of and nourishment – a – and a structure of like a , a built to mined goods and . There is a double here – of dispossession and of into turning they come from. again offers both porosity and ‘opacqueness’ – a (if we read into) to the hollowness and of infrastructural . The granary then is a of coming together, building by hand and of caring as a – a site of resistance, an inheritance and a mode of . For the granary to anchor Maity’s signals both and a that emerges from holding .”

- from the text by

India Design ID 2022 | x Blueprint12 in collaboration with "arttd'inox" | 12-15 May

Shrine Empire presents a unique collaboration with , the country's first in . Tayeba Begum Lipi and her husband Rahman [represented by ] have creatively engaged with Arttd'inox to and produce signature products for spaces. This body of works will have its showcase at , 12-15 May.

Both took parallel journeys in the process of this . This collaboration has translated their artistic reflections into a selection of , design-forward lifestyle objects. With a special focus on and an emphasis on and artistic vocabulary, these pieces present a unique perspective on both the of design and living spaces.

An immersive site-specific of Sharbendu De 's work ‘ ' from the series ' ' is part of the ongoing 'Does The Blue Sky Lie?' at Khoj International Artists' Association on view till May 21st, 2022.

The exhibition delves into the effects of to our crisis, embodied of the serving as a of , vernacular responses to and speculations around our collective .

Image 1 & 2- Installation for ' ? at

Image 3- 's works at Select Citywalk for Air Expo by concluded on April 29th, 2022.

It’s a wrap! And what an edition it’s been. Thank you for all the love and support.

It’s a wrap! And what an edition it’s been. Thank you for all the love and support.

India Art Fair Sharbendu De Shruti Phagre Mahajan Samanta Batra Mehta Tayeba Begum Lipi Lavkant Chaudhary

SHRINE EMPIRE
9 9
Booth: B9

& | | | | | | | |

SHRINE EMPIRE X SPACE STUDIO present
inversion, incision, immateriality
by and
Booth: F4


NSIC Grounds | |
April 28th - May 1st, 2022

.malkus .sangita .sharbendu

SHRINE EMPIRE
9 9
Booth: B9

& | | | | | | | |

SHRINE EMPIRE X SPACE STUDIO present
inversion, incision, immateriality
by and
Booth: F4


NSIC Grounds | |
April 28th - May 1st, 2

Divya Singh Lavkant Chaudhary Neerja Kothari Samanta Batra Mehta Sharbendu De Shruti Phagre Mahajan Tayeba Begum Lipi Ayesha Singh Abhimanyu Dalal Architects (ADA) Space Studio India Art Fair

We are thrilled to announce the representation of Shruti Phagre Mahajan. Welcome to the family.

Shruti Mahajan’s work responds to of , the of belonging, thinking about and . Taking various forms, it is a of and absence, of what is lost and gained, and has filmed the mappable along with indiscernible acts of faith, , and hope. She works between mediums of paper, stationery, , found objects and layered narratives.

In 2019 she was invited as an artist in residence at Kunsthistorisches Institut, , the Institut (2019). The time spent at the , , Florence strengthened her ongoing practice that looks at synthesizing the fragments of the collage through / photography/ cutting/ stitching and (quite literally) translating them into making works of .

In 2012, Shruti lived in as in residence at -Studio Höherweg 271, e.V.
During her stay she presented her works at Museum Ostwall in Dortmund and at . In the span of six months in Rhineland she did travelling shows along with (artist based in Düsseldorf )in three cities- Neuss, Xanten, and Siegburg .These shows were supported by IFA (Institut für ), Stuttgart and .

Shruti Mahajan currently lives in .

Image 1- Shruti Mahajan’s portrait

Image 2- Installation view, Field Institut Hombroich , Neuss, 2010

Image 3 & 4- Video Installation Lakeer/ Line, Duration 5 min played in the loop, Goethe Zentrum, Hyderabad 2017

Image 5- Dastavez- Series of 25 Letter Books, set 1
Installation view: Delhi Contemporary Art Week, India Habitat Centre, 2020

We are thrilled to announce the representation of . Welcome to the family.

Born in , in 1986.

Sarker Protick is an artist primarily working in Bangladesh. He studied at the South Asian Media Institute – .institute in Dhaka, where he is currently teaching for last eight years. Protick is a co-curator of Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography , the longest running in .

Working with , and , Protick has formed a series of works that are built on long-term surveys rooted in Bangladesh, while simultaneously exploring ideas that blurs the notion of boundaries. His works propose a subjective space, often minimal, vast and atmospheric, exploring subjects of temporality, materiality of time and the prospects of and .

His work has received several awards and , including , , , Fund, Photo Award etc. His work has been shown in (SGIFF), , , , , , 4A Center of Contemporary Asian Art, Noor der licht, and more.

Image 1: Sarker Protick portrait by Aishwarya Arumbakkam

Image 2 & 3: Raśmi, Video Single Channel, 16:9, Color Stereo, 09:09 mins, 2020

Image 4: Love Kill, Variation II, Photographs Color, giclée prints, 2015

Image 5: Untitled, Of River and Lost Lands, Photographs Color, giclée prints
2011 - 2022

Image 6: Origin, Installation( Photographs, Video), Variable dimensions, 2017

Save the Date!

Now They Stopped Building Granaries by Sangita Maity
Preview on Tuesday | April 26th, 2022 from 6 to 9 pm
Defence Colony Art Night | India Art Fair Parallel

"Sangita Maity’s work emerges across two states - of extraction and dispossession. Through fields visits and with the communities of the Choto Nagpur region, the artist untangles complicated and conditions of , displacement and changing . addresses the seething that envelopes the region head-on. It emerges from accelerated change and a constant abandonment by the . This dispossession finds its origins in the practices of extraction, has been used by the state over the years to people and acquire mineral-rich . The only charge and resistance against these oppressive structures is the body that hosts memories and stories, and thereby a people’s . These bodies have constantly organized, gathered and , but the hard reality about models of ‘development’ is that systems are trained to invisibilize and fail us. Maity attempts to do what we must all be – aware, to hold these stories as histories that must challenge large narratives established by the state. Our complicity must be challenged too and we must see, witness. This holding of memory is an act of in itself."- excerpt from the text by Mario D'Souza