About Dhoomimal’s City gallery

Dhoomimal’s City gallery, managed ably under Mr. Pallav Jain, is the perfect creative space that will endeavour towards nurturing and promoting upcoming artists and setting the stage for showcasing various colors of creativity in the form of photography, installation, sculptures, etc. The gallery will serve as a platform that will bridge commerce with creativity. In other words, it will work as a station for a productive interface between art, education, production and consumption.

ARTISTS PROFILE

NIREN SENGUPTA          

A senior artist-cum-art-educator Niren Sengupta retired as the principal of College of Art, Delhi. A product of the Calcutta's Government College of Art and Crafts, Niren Sengupta efforted to create his own brand, focussing mostly on Buddhist legends. "The Prince" or the "Princess" became the symbols of his work. Imbued with a sculptural style, which may even be termed as "Cubism" (a geometrical approach to both figures and objects) Niren Sengupta chissels his faces to show their various aspects and features. Even the rest of the picture space is filled with geometrically oriented objects (clothes and limbs too get the scene treatment). Colours, generally in a contrasting mode, are used as separating hues that define the form, finally.          

Things spiritual are of course the realm in which the artist delves with ease. However, he is prolific in his output and has experimented with various colour orientations, including he purity of white. Of late, he has been touching upon themes that do not depend on the historic persona for their impact. A work like "The Spiritual Journey" features only a religious figure while retaining an spiritual environment. Having done more than 20 solo-shows, Niren Sengupta has been participating in a wide range of art activities such as joining with other like-minded artists in group shows and art camps or workshops, taking group exhibitions outside the country (like one to South Korea recently.          

Niren Sengupta's works are in prestigious individual and institutional collections all over the world. One of his works is in the collection of the Prime Minister of Japan. The National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi, too has his works. And so also the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. The Taj Hotel Group, the Indira Gandhi National Airport, In Mumbai his works are in the collection of Goenkas. Also in the Raj Bhavan, Kolkata.           

Niren Sengupta has curated several art shows, including the Dhoomimal millennium show "Their Story" in collaboration with VHAI. And a show by the artist of Bengal for the Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi.

DHARMENDRA RATHORE           

Salari (Raj.) born Dharmendra Rathore is one of those artists who has established his mark as well as brand in the contemporary art whirl. From his early Rajasthani faces, moulded from the Rajasthani miniature tradition Dharmendra Rathore has worked both in the figurative as well as the abstract idioms, both being equally successful at the viewers' level as well as art-collectors' market and fast moving. The abstract vein has been a pet indulgence of Dharmendra Rathore. His earlier show at the Lalit Kala Galleries was well received, reestablishing his stamp in this field.          

The sober, serene and yet engaging figure-heads and busts that he had been creating are a precious viewing in their own right. These offer an aroma of peace and tranquility, the hall mark of Indian spiritualism. These images sustain in one's mind, ad infinitum, and have a persuasive quality. They are strong culturally as well as aesthetically – colour, composition, mood and feeling put together. Rathore has combined the Rajasthani (Indian) sensibility and approach with the modernistic art environment. And he has done it wonderfully well. And this is what makes one an addict or admirer of Dharmendra's art.          

On the credit side, Dharmendra Rathore, is a product of the Udaipur University with a post-graduation degree in Drawing and painting (1982) and is credited with receiving a Gold Medal at the 7th International Trinennale-India in 1991. He has several solo-shows to his credit, spread all over the country-at the major art centres, that is. His works have also been shown at the various International fora–in Denmark, Hong Kong, Singapore and in such shows as the "Harmony Show", "Save the- Children" show and the "Joy of Life" show. He has also participated in the first "Biennale of Contemporary Art" held in Arad in Romania, in May 2005. Recipient of scholarships from All India Art and Crafts Society, New Delhi, the State Lalit Kala Akademi, Rajasthan, Jaipur, from Rajasthan Biennial and a fellowship from the Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD), Govt. of India, New Delhi, reflecting wider appreciation of his art and creativity to the contemporary art field.           

Dharmendra has also been an art restorer and his precision and keenness is visible in his own work, whether in the figurative vein or in the abstract.           

Dharmendra's further credits include the presence of his works in such prestigious collections as Glenbarra Art Museum (Japan) Wolgon University of Australia, German Embassy, New Delhi, Sahitya Kala Parishad, Delhi, College of Art, Delhi and Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. Several ambassadors too have collected his works such as Denmark, Singapore, Mauritius and Germany. 

SANTOSH VARMA          

Varanasi born Santosh Verma is an MFA from Benares Hindu University (U.P.) He practices an abstract idiom that resembles litter or molecular dispersal against an aquous background. His colour orchestration varies from the mysterious to a fantastic surrealism. There is also a visible, yet gradual evolution in the artist's creative products, which are generally in oil or acrylic. He displays consistancy in his formal approach. There is also a feeling of enhancement in his colour perception and projection (which means he sees the same form in a different light as he cruises along.

Santosh Verma is recipient of several prestigious awards like the Lalit Kala Akademi Award, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS) award for the year 2000 and 2001, Sahitya Kala Parishad award (1994) Bharat Bhavan Award (1992). Verma has held four solo shows so far in Delhi and Bombay (at Dhoomimal Art Centre, New Delhi and Jehangir Art Gallery & Taj Art Gallery, Bombay). Has participated in some of the top grade group shows in Delhi, Bombay, Baroda and Bhopal. His work have thus acquired wider visibility and appreciation and have found a place of pride in various individual and institutional collections both at home and abroad.

JAGDISH DEY          

Jagdish Dey is an alluring painter, specialising in an endearing romanticism. As an art educator (he retired from College of Art, Delhi, some years back) Jagdish Dey had created a stylished idiom of his own, what could now be called his "brand". And he has never looked back ever since. Sober, contemplative colours, easily recognizable symbols, a "romance-in-the-air"  like atmosphere characterise Jagdish Dey's paintings. A successful painter and a soft spoken person, Jagdish Dey has been on the art-scene for more than a quarter century. He is one of those artists who has not been affected by the price – hike boom in art though his work had fetched record price in a New Delhi auction. Consistently working and humbly walking – populating the capital's art world, Jagdish Dey has contributed significantly to modern / contemporary figurative art unrattled by the onslaught of the commercially hyped "Abstract Art".           

It is no surprises then that his works be found in both institutional and private collections at home and abroad. Born in Bangladesh (1942) Dey did his art education in Delhi – Delhi Polytechni in those days – and took up a teaching job in, what is now, College of Art, Delhi. Dey came into professional art whirl pretty early and participated in quite a few group shows, art works shops besides mounting several solo shows. He won a second prize at the Ambala All India Fine Arts Seminar as early as 1962, the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Award in 1969 and them again in 1982. And he repeateely won Sahitya Kala Parishad Annual Award in 1981, 1982 and 1989.      

Dey's works are in the collection of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, the Lalit Kala Akademi, Roopankar, Bharat Bhavan (Bhopal, M.P.) The Jai Mahal Hotels, the Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, New Delhi, the Smithsonian Institute at Washington (USA). CCBMB, Hyderabad, Tata Steel, Museum of Kerala History, World Trade Centre, Mumbai, HUDCO, Indira Gandhi International Airport etc. etc.