Kaee Contemporary’s newest 🖼️exhibition narrates tales around Urban Living

On the evening of 22nd July, Kaee Contemporary, an art gallery located in the city of Joy- Kolkata, hosted the opening of the 2nd edition of ‘When the Other Stares Back’. The show runs till the end of September 2022. Curated by Adwait Singh, the exhibition was an amalgamation of the art works by artists Jagannath Panda and Gigi Scaria, and it rests on the idea of urbanization and the narratives revolving around it.

 Established 6 months ago by art arbiter Ambica Beri, Kaee Contemporary showcases emerging and established artists from India and abroad, and focuses on critical discourse, educational programs, site–specific installations and collaborations. The contemporary art space curates emerging and unconventional practices to create a collective experience within younger and older generations with the help of established practitioners. Its homely settings in Alipore complete with a café and relaxed outdoor spaces, counters the estranged white-cube aesthetic with a sense of coziness, hospitality, and commensality.

 Commenting on the show, Ambica Beri, Founder of Kaee Contemporary, said, “Having begun my journey with Gallery Sanskrti in 1990, I am excited to open our doors again to Kaee Contemporary, a contemporary and compelling space. With Kaee Contemporary we come full circle to where we began, to what may seem a complete reversal of the original form. The new art space has been conceptualized and developed to target new audiences and interpret the art of our times. It hopes to generate an environment for art to evolve and continue to grow in synthesis.”

The major highlights of the exhibition include Jagannath Panda’s ‘The Profiteer’ – an acrylic assemblage wherein the bodies on whose backs the city is built are often the ones left out of it; and Gigi Scaria’s ‘Lockdown’,a brass sculpture which is a commentary on human folly. In his message for the exhibition, Curator Adwait Singh asserts, “ The exhibition brings together the works that are rooted within urban environments that the artists came to inhabit, exposing these seemingly civilized spaces as nested sites of multi-species cohabitation and conflict. The other’s abysmal gaze — impenetrable as it is unforgiving — demands accountability and pronounces judgment.” 

👉🏻About Kaee Contemporary:
‘Kaee’ — a colloquial word for algae — denotes a vitalising presence within an ecology. Not only does it fulfill a nourishing and filtering function, its metabolisms and composition can be further studied to determine the health of the ecosystem. Founded by Ambica Beri in 2022, like its namesake, Kaee Contemporary is sensitive to the changes within the local environment and hopes to be a lively interpreter for Kolkata’s emergent contemporary art ecology. With a range of energizing residencies between Kolkata and Maihar illuminating its core, the programming at Kaee catalyzes an interplay of urban and rural perspectives. As with Art Ichol in Maihar, the goal is to move beyond presenting, collecting, and documenting, to foster a sustainable community of creative practitioners, interested publics, and supportive patrons.

Kaee Contemporary brings to you the 2nd edition – ‘When the Other Stares Back’ Part II

👉🏻Preview: 22nd July, 5 PM onwards
👉🏻On View: 22nd July till 30th September 2022
👉🏻Address: 2-H Alipore Avenue , Kolkata 700027
👉🏻Timings: 11.00 AM to 7.30 PM