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Forum Art Gallery, founded by artist Shalini Biswajit and cartoonist Biswajit Balasubramanian in 1997 stands today as one of the country’s distinguished and well-defined center of contemporary art promoting paintings, sculptures, photography, cartoon art and ceramics. Endorsing the computer as an artistic tool the gallery has braced itself to present new media, digital installations, and projection mapping that enhance the viewer experience. The gallery’s interests include art promotion and exhibition, art advisory and art education.

Over the past 25 years with well documented and curated shows to its credit in India and abroad and a presence in art fairs, the gallery pledges to promote young and established artists to create a greater drive towards the popularization of the arts. Forum’s space is versatile and is always .transformed with each show. The gallery has since 2002 seen musicians like Maestro Balamurali krishna, Madhav Chari, Anil Srinivasan, Sikkil Grucharan, and eminent dancers like Dato Ramli Ibrahim of Sutra Dance Academy KL and Anita Ratnam present their repertoire in connection with curated art exhibitions. Art symposiums, workshops, poetry reading and varied art collectives being conducted at Forum make it a unique progressive gallery in the Indian visual artscape.

ARTINK is Forum’s dedicated art education program for children and adults conducted at the gallery premises. The gallery has over the years reached out to physically challenged and terminally ill children to facilitate art therapy for healing and well being.

Embracing the arts, Forum’s commitment to excellence remains its foremost priority and leans towards ICE- Innovation, collaboration and exposure in the national and international art market.

Forum continues to strive beyond the commercial, to be of value to society, to have a wider reach implementing its philosophy of art education, service and awareness.

ArtReach

 

ART THERAPY
 
Forum Art Gallery helps children access their artistic creativity to encourage relaxation and experience joy. Forum, in its stride to extend art to those who need it most, those who can befit from its healing powers imparts art therapy as a tool and aide to deal with life's challenges. 
 
Art is a universal visual language spoken and understood by all. 
 
It is a strong communication tool that can portray a gamut of emotions.
 
Any one willing to sit down for a few minutes can enjoy the poetry and verse of art, the joy that resounds as every syllable is muttered, expressed and delivered. 
 
Engaging in activities that explore Colours, textures, magazine pictures, shapes and mediums that have a strong non-verbal component, the creations will effortlessly bypass conditioned verbal patterns and outline that which lies deep within. 
 
That which lies deep within has a power to heal. The power to deal with emotions, stress, disease, pain and suffering that by itself becomes therapeutic.
 
In today's global world, challenges are hurled at speeds faster than meteors. 
 
The singularly most important tool that can shape thought processes is art. It can relieve stress, tap into creative energy and simply enable a person to have a great time. 
 
In a therapy session, the type of photos chosen by the kids speak of the range of emotions they have yet to express verbally. Some choose photographs that depict loneliness others symbols of beauty. For kids with cancer, one can only imagine how hard it is to express how they truly feel. The process of thinking, choosing and creating an image in and of itself is healing. At so many levels images blast in front of our eyes and we take these images for granted.The children are steered towards higher awareness and healing by using art as a communication medium.
 
The therapy may include trying to get the patient (and maybe even their families) to narrate their life stories and emotions. It results in a purging or cathartic effect but there's a certain purity in the knowing and acknowledging, a subtle dance between the listener and narrator. 
 
Certainly, a lot of the therapy is subject to mixed interpretation.However,at the end of a session when the child displays a smile, an expression of pure joy and pride at the sight of his creation, an art work that reflects more than emotions can express, the therapy can be deemed as complete and effective.

 

Who We Are?

  • shalini-sareeShalini Biswajit

    Shalini Biswajit is a painter and a sculptor and Director of Forum Art Gallery. She has a Bachelors and masters degree in Fine Arts from Stella Maris College, Chennai India. 

    At Forum Art Gallery which she founded in 1997 with her Cartoonist husband Biswajit Balasubramanian,  Shalini delivers a holistic art experience – art exhibitions, art consultation, art education and art therapy.

    Her spiritual journey and life experience is articulated in visual terms in her art. Shalini’s illustrative canvases are bathed in colour and metaphors and her figurative sculpture in steel and assemblages from found materials wittily taunt familiar perceptions. Shalini has exhibited her art widely in India in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, Bengaluru and Chennai in curated exhibitions and art fairs. Her work has been shown in New York, London, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in group collectives. Shalini has illustrated a children’s book titled King and Kiang for Tulika Publishers, 2007.

    Her large sculpture installations are in the permanent collection of the Chennai Rail Museum and her paintings are in public spaces, offices and educational institutions in India and abroad.

    Shalini was the Chairperson of Ficci Ladies Organisation Chennai Chapter, she is a trekker, a travel enthusiast and an avid photographer. Many of her artworks have evolved from her travels and experiences.

    She is the recipient of the FICCI FLO award of excellence 2013 and the Globus style icon award 2012.

     

     

     
  • Biswajit Balasubramanian

    Biswajit Balasubramanian

    Biswajit is a caboodler - has been and always will be. The passion with which he caboodles reflects in his endearing characters - layered with humour to give life to a happy congregation of people that populate his art. His animated train of thought portrays socially inspired situations with graphic detail. He excavates deep for the ‘invisible’ to appear and it does…with such clarity that it is almost shocking in its innate simplicity. Biswajit's eye is trained to peel away the layers, one by one, and to reveal in its simplicity a constellation of characters engaged in the ‘drama of life’. To express the maximum in the most minimalist of terms is a challenge that Biswajit straddles with ease. A cartoonist’s caboodle is a collective narrative that essays the sensitivity of the creator. With Biswajit, narrative is infused with thought-provoking stories that never fail to leave a smile or giggle on the face of the beholder!

    For Biswajit as a cartoonist, transitioning from a flat surface to a three dimensional sculptures in fibreglass has been an exciting foray that brings to life his world of characters. His sculptures explore social themes and the Divine and are presented in contemporary parlance.

    Biswajit Balasubramanian’s professional career as a cartoonist began in 2002 when his pocket cartoon was featured in the Chennai based bi-monthly newspaper Madras Musings for ten years. The work spread over three years was published in 2005 as a compilation, titled Chennai Latte-A Madras Brew, which he co-authored with Ranjitha Ashok. He also worked with almost all newspapers in Chennai. His weekly strip cartoon, titled Mallini appeared in The Hindu-Retail Plus for two years. His cartoons have also appeared in several lifestyle magazines such as Frappe, and 2nd REEL, a strip cartoon, in Galatta Cinema, Kaapi for Malli, an online gourmet website. His one-a-page corporate cartoons appeared in Nightingale Management Diary in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Biswajit’s cartoon Biz As Usual… appears almost daily in the City Express of The New Indian Express since November 2014. He has illustrated several books with leading publishers including children’s books for Tulika Publishers, Chennai. He worked with Tulir, a Chennai based NGO, to bring out their publicity material for Child Abuse in 2015.

    His solo shows include MADras! in celebration of the Madras week at Forum Art Gallery, Chennai, 2014, Caboodle of Lines at The Indian Institute of Cartoonists, Bangalore, 2012, Madras Musical Musings 2012 in collaboration with Pianist Anil Srinivasan and Humorology for Art Chennai, 2012. Selected curated shows he has participated are Raas Leela, Forum Art Gallery, 2012, India Art Festival Mumbai 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014, The Madras Canvas at ICCR, Kuala Lumpur, 2010, Lining the Streets, Forum Art Gallery, Chennai Sangamam, 2009, The Madras Canvas I and II at Forum Art Gallery, 2007, 2008, Madras Week, Forum Art Gallery, 2007, WomanEyes, Forum Art Gallery, Chennai 2006, Maiden Humour, Nehru Centre, London, and Sutra Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2006.

    Biswajit has conducted a workshop at Kala Goda Festival 2015 in Mumbai and for the Fine Arts students of Stella Maris College, Chennai in 2014, 2015. He also regularly conducts Cartoon and Comics workshops at various venues.  

    In April 2017, he was invited by the Commissioner, Corporation of Madurai to do wall murals at Bharathiar Park, Madurai.

    He received a special jury award for his political cartoon for 2013, awarded by Maya Kamath Memorial Awards and Indian Institute of Cartoonists, Bangalore.

     He lives and works in Chennai, India.

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