Hotel Art Fair: Indian galleries are checking into five-star hotels to create art collectors of tomorrow

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Buying art has become a five-star experience. Artix, India's first hotel art fair, has opened a new meeting place in the country's fast expanding art market
A new hotel art fair, a first in India, is allowing art collectors to view and buy artworks within the ritzy confines of a five-star hotel.
Galleries are checking into luxury hotels to set shop in the swanky interiors of their well-appointed rooms, considered the new meeting place in the fast growing Indian art market.
Artix, the Indian hotel art fair, transforms hotel rooms into tastefully curated art spaces, offering a fresh way of exchange between galleries, artists, connoisseurs, collectors, hotel guests and visitors.
First held in Delhi at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel two years ago, Artix has grown to become the country's only hotel art fair organised multiple times in major cities every year with an annual edition in the national capital.
A travelling fair, it works by turning whole hotel floors into exhibition venues. In its new edition, Artix has returned to Delhi (The Claridges, August 2-3), with an increased presence of young and emerging artists. Housed on two entire floors, the fair has artworks mounted on the walls and even bathrooms.
"Artix is an art fair with a twist where the hotel room becomes an art space where the buyer and seller can get to know each other and imagine art like how it would be in their own space," says exhibition co-founder Payal Kapoor.
The fourth edition of Artix (The Claridges New Delhi, August 2-3) in the national capital is spread over two floors.
Luxury meets creativity
"It is more intimate, immersive and quiet than usual art fairs. The luxurious feel relaxes the buyer and seller and visitors can view and imagine artworks in their own environment," adds Kapoor, who founded the Arushi Arts gallery in Delhi more than three decades ago to help promote tribal and contemporary art.
"The exhibition explores the intersection where luxury meets creativity. It is a sophisticated platform for art enthusiasts and collectors," explains Artix co-founder Malvika Poddar, who owns the fashion boutique Carma.
Hotel art fairs have become the latest trend in an expanding global art market, the quiet and intimate setting of private rooms offering enough opportunities to loosen up a guest or visitor and loosen their purse strings too.
The art world has welcomed hotel art fairs with much enthusiasm ever since it started to spring up in major cities across the world, following the first such event in New York three decades ago.
ART, the hotel art fair in Tokyo, Japan, the Hybrid Art Fair in Madrid, Spain, the Asia Hotel Art Fair in Hong Kong and the Arrival hotel art fair in Massachusetts, United States and the Hotel Art Fair, Bangkok have all done well to embrace the idea of selling and buying art in hotel rooms.
"At a hotel art fair, the collectors know they get good prices and provenance for the artworks," says Kapoor. "We give whole rooms to artists who are new to provide a launching pad," she adds.
"Artix is a fair of young artists and young collectors," echoes Poddar. "If you target young people, then you will have a growing Indian art market."
The recurring business meetings at luxury hotels help thicken the plot. The first Indian hotel art fair in Delhi in 2023 coincided with the G-20 summit of world leaders, allowing participants of parallel business meetings to sneak into its venue, a whole floor, at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.
Participating galleries and artists at the fair mount artworks on the walls of hotel rooms.
A fair for all
Delhi-based artist Prarthana Modi, who has participated in both previous Artix editions in the capital, considers exhibits at the fair "affordable" even if it is happening in a luxury hotel. "While the audience is limited in a gallery, a whole cross-section of people come to a hotel art fair," says Modi, whose works at the current edition, as the artist describes, "captures the silence of landscape, people and animals".
Among the regular participants at Artix is Artrise Art, the online auction house of Dhoomimal Art Gallery, one of the oldest art galleries in the country. Its exhibits include a semi-abstract Chinar tree painting by Kashmiri artist A K Raina.
Art Nouveau, a Gurugram-based gallery, has mid-career artists like Ramesh Gorjala from Andhra Pradesh and Vivek Kumavat from Mumbai, along with the works of masters like Jogen Chowdhury and Nandalal Bose. "Mid-career artists like Gorjala and Kumavat have tremendous potential and are the masters of tomorrow," says Ameeshi Tapuriah of Art Nouveau.
Artix co-founder Poddar says the fair is expanding with plans to host future editions also in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. "We want the fair to grow, nationally and globally. We plan to take Artix to different countries," she says.
Indian art has witnessed record sales in recent years. In March this year, modernist icon M F Husain's Gram Yatra was bought by art collector and gallerist Kiran Nadar at a Christie's auction in New York for 13.7 million dollars (about 118 crore rupees), making it the most expensive work of Modern Indian Art ever sold in a public auction.
According to several market data analysis, the demand for Indian art has shown a remarkable increase in recent years. The Hurun India Art List 2024 showed a combined sale of a whopping 301 crore rupees for the country's top 50 artists last year, a 19 percent growth. Art product and services company Asign's Indian art market report for 2024-25 presented an over 50 percent growth in the 1-10 crore rupee price bracket.