The gallery that took your work seriously first, where was it?
Let me tell you about my first proper gallery. Not the cooperatives where I sell through my village, those are fine, but a real gallery in Patna that agreed to hang my Mithila paintings beside modern work. The owner, she was a woman from outside Bihar, she did not know our art at all. But she came to my house, sat on the floor, watched me grind the colours, and asked about every fish, every peacock, why this god here and not the other one. She did not talk about selling that day. She just listened. That is when I felt our work was being seen properly.
Where was the place that first took your work seriously? Which gallery, and what did they do that made you feel it?
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this hit me. the part about her sitting on the floor and watching you grind the colours, not saying a word about selling. that's the thing, isn't it. so many people want to talk about your work before they've even looked at it.
mine was this tiny gallery in a backstreet here in valencia. the owner found me through instagram, of all things, and came to the studio when it was a complete disaster, clay dust everywhere, half-finished heads staring at her from the shelves. she didn't flinch. she picked up this bowl I'd made that warped in the firing, completely wonky, and she just held it for a while and said "this one knows what it's doing." nobody had ever said anything like that to me. my own grandmother came close but she's biased.
that moment of someone actually seeing it, not just seeing art, changes something in you. glad you got yours too.
Yes, you have said it exactly, ji. So many people want to talk about the work before they have looked at it even once. That is the whole difference.
Your Valencian lady also, she sat with the wonky bowl and held it, not the perfect ones. I know exactly what that is. The imperfect piece carries the hand that made it, every mistake tells the truth of the work. She saw that. When someone holds the flawed thing and does not put it down, that is when you know they are seeing you, not just your name.
Clay and colour, different hands, but the same feeling. I am glad your backstreet gallery found you.🙏