What is Sharan Apparao's new dream project?

It was in 1984 that an enthusiastic 22 year-old art lover with a degree in art history dared to start ‘The Gallery’. Though she lacked any solid business background, she had passion for art. We are referring to Sharan Apparao...

Tracking her two and half decade long journey, the founder of Apparao Galleries turned nostalgic. In a recent interview with Gargi Gupta of The Business Standard, she quipped that art was hardly a business then. One of the first exhibitions she did was on horses, which allowed her to come in contact with legendary artist M. F. Husain. Then she did an exhibit on women artists.

Since then she has built Apparao into the credible brand in the contemporary art scene, identified with senior ‘modern’ artists like Raza, Jogen Choudhury and Burman, as also young and talented artists such as Alexis Kersey, Farhan Mujib and George K. Apparao is also known for ‘expat art’ done by international artists like Werner Dornik, Andree Pouliot and Olivia Fraser, who have lived in the country for a considerable period of time and been greatly influenced by its artistic traditions.

Apparao is also keen to launch an institution that will address the fast changing face of creativity. It’s something that she earnestly wants as Apparao Galleries completes 25 years. She mentions:

“Most artists reach a kind of plateau by the time they are 50-60 years old. They can’t change because they have reached a comfort zone. What happens if they want to renew their creativity? Or if they have a creative idea, how do they translate it? This could happen even with young artists, so where do they go? My institution will be a platform for out-of-the-box thinking.”

Her desire to know and understand the Dalai Lama is also evident, the writer notes: “She finds the Tibetan spiritual leader ‘a great speaker’, who exudes a compassion and a contentment she would like to imbibe."