It is 10 years since we moved into our space in Kamal Mansion, a building set amid the hurly-burly of Colaba’s Arthur Bunder Road. We are proud to have been the first commercial gallery to find a home on the street. A decade on, is this a birthday or an anniversary celebration? The truth is that we are simultaneously wedded and parent to this thing called Chatterjee & Lal. As our gallery colleagues will no doubt agree, running a space with a regular exhibitions program is all consuming. It is also one of the most rewarding activities that the world of art can provide.

The 10 Year Hustle presents three strands or positions that the gallery has particularly engaged with over the last decade. There are works by gallery artists, mostly in their 30s and 40s, whose practices often incorporate the mediums of performance, moving image, drawing and painting. There is historical material from the 20th Century, with particular focus on that generation of artists born between the 1920s and 1930s: artists who played a critical role in birthing the contemporary in South Asian art. Lastly, there are artworks that reach back to periods in art history that pre-date the modern.

The ancient, the modern and the contemporary: we are rather having our cake and eating it. But, then, isn’t that what birthdays/anniversaries are all about?

Tara Lal & Mortimer Chatterjee Mumbai, August 2017

MINAM APANG | FABIEN CHARUAU | NIKHIL CHOPRA | ZARINA HASHMI | NASREEN MOHAMEDI | HETAIN PATEL | PILLOO POCHKHANAWALA |
MARK PRIME | SAHEJ RAHAL | RASHID RANA | GAGAN SINGH | KIRAN SUBBAIAH | K.G. SUBRAMANYAN | THUKRAL & TAGRA | NITYAN UNNIKRISHNAN