The legendary Leo Tolstoy once said Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced. At the India Art Fair, this transmission of feeling happened on an iPad instead of the conventional paper and paints displaying a unique mix of Art and Tech, the two most fascinating things in the world.
There are multiple interesting aspects at the fair that deserve your attention but the dedicated Digital Residency Hub within The Studio is what caught our attention, of course for obvious reasons. The section had on display digital works of art by three artists: Mira Felicia Malhotra, Gaurav Ogale and Varun Desai, all predominantly made on the iPad Pro and refined using Apple devices like a Mac and iPhone.
Illustrator Mira Felicia Malhotra brings to life the idiosyncrasies of Indian families through her showcase titled Log Kya Kahenge. The body of work was a set of family portraits that offer a look into the desire to conform to societal expectations and project a certain image for society to see. There are two layers to each of these family portraits: the portrait itself, which shows the conformist front and the animated layer, which reveals the true dynamics of these families when viewed using the Artivive augmented reality app on iPad or iPhone.
Next was artist and storyteller Gaurav Ogale’s Best-sellers. With an aim to flip the script on what it means to read a book on the bestsellers list, Gaurav showcased unexpected stories of everyday people while flipping through digital pages on iPad Pro. As a multimedia storyteller, he makes his narratives leap off the page in motion by drawing frame by frame in Procreate then editing the video file on Adobe Premiere on his MacBook Pro, and layering in audio recordings taken on his iPhone 14.
Last but not least was the work of multidisciplinary artist Varun Desai, he created Dimorphism, a digital installation of code-generated video art, 3D LiDAR scanning, hand-drawn animation, and sound synthesis, all compiled on his iPad Pro. He combined his background in coding, his love for music, and his artistic flair, working adeptly across multiple devices, from synthesisers to iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil, as well as Mac Studio and Studio Display.
In case you wish you buy Mira Felicia’s artwork you can look for Studio Kohl online, to buy Gaurav and Varun’s pieces you can connect with the artists directly via their social media handles. Or if you just want to look at the artworks, you can visit the India Art Fair till February 12, 2023.