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Make the most of the city-wide art festival this week
Day 1: January 31
6pm: Begin with Gyan Panchal's solo of sculptures made of found objects from Mumbai, worked upon further by the artist. The show also happens to be the last show at Jhaveri Contemporary's current space before they move to a new location. So drop by and say goodbye to the lovely white cube by the sea!
6.30pm: Drop by Dhanraj Mahal to see some of the rarer highlights from Christies' upcoming New York auction of South Asian art in March. The auction preview is on till February 4th and features work by FN Souza, Tyeb Mehta, Gaitonde, etc.
7pm: Sakshi debuts their new adjoining space Sakshi Salon (formerly occupied by Lakeeren gallery) with city-based artists Sanjeev Khandekar and Vrushali Narkar's intriguingly named exhibition ‘Ragmala – Songs of the Anthropocene'. This is the duo's first collaborative show in Mumbai in a long time.
7.30pm: UK-based artist Hetain Patel premieres his latest work ‘Don't Look at the Finger' at Chatterjee and Lal with an eponymous solo exhibit. Also showcasing here is his 2015 film, The Jump.
8pm: City-based artist Shreyas Karle returns with ‘Unnecessary Alcove' after a hiatus of seven years. His show at Project 88, enquiries into the notion of ‘archiving' the domestic as an extension of his project ‘Redux Redux: Enter by the Side Door' for the 2016 Aichi Triennale.
Day 2: February 1
4pm: The Mazgaon-based residency Space 118 hosts an Open Studio featuring artists who have been a part of their recent residencies. Don't miss the curated screening of performance art-based videos including work by Baptist Coelho and Fiji-based artist of Indian descent, Shivanjani Lal.
4.30pm: At Gallery Isa, attend a walkthrough with Mexican sculptor Aldo Chapparo and Spanish painter Antonio Santin for their show Modelling Matter, where both artists engage with the dimensionality of work through their respective media.
5pm: The Clark House Initiative previews a joint exhibition with Mauritanian artist Saleh Lo curated by Senegalese artists and curators Marie Helen Pereira and Aissatou Diop, as well as a collaborative exhibit between Diop and Clark House director and artist Amol K Patil.
6pm: A conversation between Asia Art Archive's Claire Hsu, Pooja Sood (director of Jaipur's recently founded art centre Jawahar Kala Kendra and founder of Khoj Studios) and artist Reena Saini Kallat, moderated by the global head of cultural partnerships at Artsy, Anna Maja Spiess. Hear them discuss archive, space and site specific art at the recently restored Royal Opera House.
Day 3: February 2
5.30pm: Delhi-based artist Mithu Sen's solo exhibition, UnMYthU at Chemould Prescott Road is almost a retrospective and promises to be as spectacular as the artist herself. Catch her speak about her practice which includes about two decades of performance and mythmaking as a method of identity building, and the social roles we undertake and discard.
6.30pm: Gallery MMB at the Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai opens ‘State of Housing', with a keynote lecture by Ravi Sundaram from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. The exhibition looks at various housing policies across the country going over various timelines and government plans. The exhibition is a collaboration between Urban Design Research Institute, architect Kaiwan Mehta and curator Ranjit Hoskote.
7pm: For those who missed out on Lower Parel/Worli based exhibitions so far, Art Night's Midtown edition sees Gallery Art & Soul, Gallery Odyssey, Piramal Museum of Art, Priyasri and Tao art galleries and Volte Art Projects open to visitors till 10 pm – a great way to wind down your workday.
Day 4: February 3
12pm: Renowned artist Sudhir Patwardhan discusses the art and legacy of artist and teacher KG Subramanyan, with curator and cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote at Art Musings in Colaba. The conversation complements ‘In The Honeycomb of Stories', an exhibition of the late and great Subramanyan's work.
1.30pm: Back after a seven-year hiatus, artist Shreyas Karle walks you through his work at Colaba's Project 88. Here, he talks about the burgeoning domesticity that has him contemplating it as an archive, and the extension of his Aichi Triennale series towards a solo exhibition.
3.45 pm: UK-based Hetain Patel talks about his work at Chatterjee and Lal. Among the talking points are questions about how the artist translates his love for Hollywood blockbusters and his interest in understanding the diaspora through visually spectacular films.
5.30pm: At Tarq, join Boston-based, Nepali artist Youdhisthir Maharjan speak about his first solo exhibition, An Unquiet Mind, featuring text-based works that highlight his exploration of the materiality of text to create sculptural objects exploring the idea of futility.
7pm: Head to Lower Parel's Gallery Odyssey for a conversation with artists Mithu Sen, Justin Ponmany, Jitish Kallat and the curator of the upcoming Kochi Biennale, artist Anita Dube, moderated by Arshiya Lokhandwala. The panel discusses Lokhandwala's exhibition India Reworlded: Seventy Years of Investigating a Nation to see how artists configure political and social issues as part of their practice.
Day 5: February 4
11am: Catch artist Jenny Bhatt as she conducts a walkthrough for her solo show featuring incisive and tongue-in-cheek comments about the art world at Gallery Art and Soul for a show titled Moksha Shots, Episode 18: Swimming in the Subconscious.
2pm: Drop by for a lazy Sunday of art-interactions at What About Art?'s Bandra residency space for an all-day open studio featuring current artists in residence Sanket Jadia, Afrah Shafiq, Pat and Miki Gringas, Gayatri Kodikal and Gitanjali Dang.
3pm: At Byculla's Piramal Museum of Art, performance artist and now founder of Heritage Art Spaces residency in Goa, Nikhil Chopra conducts a lecture-performance titled Drawing a Line Through Landscape parallel to an ongoing exhibition in the same space featuring work by artists Thukral and Tagra, Aji VN, MF Husain and SH Raza.
6pm: Closing MGW is 2020, a self-organised exhibition by a group of 75 artists, filmmakers, architects and live art practitioners in an open air, public exhibition at the Horniman Circle Garden, as a response to the contemporary socio-political upheavals society is living through.
The Mumbai Gallery Weekend is on till February 4. For a detailed lineup, visit Mumbaigalleryweekend.com