Juhi Saklani (an eminent writer) writes about us -

They have been infusing life in the word 'art' for centuries in this country - painting sensuous life in all its aspects on their walls and doors in Bihar; embroidering fire and mirrors into their clothes in Kutch; protecting the miniature form's spring colours with their autumnal hands in Rajasthan. In its search for everyday beauty or in its service of the divine, art has always had more meaning than that of an object of quick consumption. If this meaning is to survive this age of mass production and the reduction of all art to mere entertainment, more creative ways of looking at 'art' need to develop. What role can an art gallery play in such a context?

More than just a space for inanimate art objects to be put up for exhibit, an art gallery needs to be a forum for dialogue between lovers and creators of art, between various artists, and indeed, between various art forms. It needs to be the texture of the pigment, the fourth dimension of the sculpture, the frame of the photograph, the mind-space in which a viewer can evolve from being a consumer to an engaged human being with a contemplative self. Perhaps the art gallery needs to be a work of art in itself!

The Kriti Gallery in Banaras is an honest attempt to create such a forum and reach such a mind-space, if its artistic reference points from the time of inception in April 2005 are any indication. Consider the following: The gallery building itself has a garden landscaped on the lines of the Navagraha (nine planets) concept, made famous by Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur in his many constructions. It is designed in the cool white tradition of the traditional architecture of Northern India's hot plains, underscored by local rosy Chunar sandstone. It is in process of metamorphosing into a museum of Varanasi photographs being collected from photographers around the world. It has a collection of paintings by rising artists Bikash Poddar, Lambodar Naik, Debanshu Das Gupta, Anjan Chakraborty, and paintings by Tibetan monks, apart from printed portfolios of 18th and 19th century lithographs. It has already held shows of three contemporary representatives of the Nathdwara School of painting: Yugal Kishore Sharma, Raja Ram Sharma, and Rewa Shankar Sharma. And had for its second exhibition -- hold your breath -- a collection of mesmerising, surreal, illusion-filled fashion photographs, from the beating heart of Punk and New-Romantic London in the 80s! Beat that for variety.

The Nathdwara paintings exhibition at Kriti showed all the hallmarks of this traditional Rajasthani school, with adoration of Krishna's form of Shrinathji being the central motif. The brushwork, colours and representation of landscape and figures by contemporary artists was heartening evidence of how this art form more than survives today. If Kriti continues with its plans to host Artists in Residence Program programmes and art workshops, the interface between artists such as these and the students and experts of Banaras should yield interesting artistic and commercial results.

The photograph exhibition, "Make up Magic", was a tribute to the work of Australian photographer Robyn Beeche who is extensively represented in the National Gallery of Australia. It was redolent of the late 70s and 80s in a pulsating, vibrant, and very creative London, when bodies were pierced, outre was in, and work such as this -- with its overt tributes to the melting solidity of Salvador Dali and the under-the-skin realism of Picasso -- did not feel out of place. But was it out of place in Banaras? No, a local artist spent hours absorbing the portraits of a cross-dressing actor whose androgyny was as if painted on his skin, or of the garden-books author Sir Roy Strong, with his body of vegetables. More than portraits of people, these were portraits of illusion itself, created with paints, holograms, mirrors, shadows. at a time when there was no retouching of photographs and, of course, no Photoshop software.

"We just wanted to have fun" says Robyn. She recalls the initial compiling of the make-up effect on paper, the ideas rushing in thick and fast from all friends, how each make-up session would take up to 12 hours, the care that went into the lighting effects, and the spirit of creative explosion such that there was no question of money or personal gain in the minds of the people involved. As she speaks, her desire to share her knowledge of these techniques and the fruits of her experience is palpable. Far from thinking "why such an exhibition in Banaras", Robyn and gallery owner Navneet Raman would particularly want to hold such an exhibit in a place like Banaras. Let a thousand Gangas flow.

Emerging from such an exhibition into the calendula, hibiscus, palms, and lilies of the garden, and then back into Banaras of 2005 is a surreal experience in itself. But that's what a culturally-rich encounter is all about: a new experience, the thoughts it brings, the dimension it adds to life. as the goldfish swim in their pond and the bhutta-seller goes about his business. And that is what a gallery is all about, resting the aching back of your existence, putting up the feet of your thoughts, and adding a new part to the sum total of yourself.

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