Bengaluru is the pub-capital of India and will soon become a café-capital too. There are countless cafes providing a wide and unique range of cuisines and experiences. Amongst these are Art Cafes that provide a platform for hobbyist and professional artists apart from dishing out lip-smacking cuisines for its patrons.
As a self-taught artist, I have kept four art exhibitions till date, two at art cafes and two at art galleries. The recent one was at DYU Art Café. Located in midst of eye-soothing greenery within the bustling Koramangala area, DYU Art Café is a beautiful café with a rich, cozy ambience that reminds one of Kerala and Coastal Karnataka culture. The café sees a lot of visitors from all the age groups but pre-dominantly youngsters.
They provide almost the entire café space to exhibit your artworks. As soon as you enter the cafe, there is a hall area where approximately 15-20 artworks (depending on the size) can be displayed. Have more artworks to display? Not to worry! They let you display your artworks inside the café walls well within the view of patrons who sit and enjoy their meal. Still have more? You can display them on the 1st floor that is beautifully built using wooden panels.
DYU Art Café has always been one of my favorite hangouts and I had seen other artist’s works displayed there. So, I started pestering them for a slot way back in October 2018 and got one finally for entire month of May 2019. Thrilled to bits, I took 20 of my best pencil portraits, portrait paintings, caricatures and pop arts to be displayed at the café. I got the main hall area to exhibit my works and they fit perfectly.
Before any of my art exhibition, I put up display posts on my website, WhatsApp and social media accounts. The initial 1-2 weeks was spent going to the café and interacting with my friends, relatives who had come to see the exhibition.
Apart from that, I loved watching other visitors react to my artworks. I would sit in a corner and silently observe them. Some would silently watch each artwork with admiration, some would be super excited to watch their favorite character and would take selfies with it. I recollect an incident where a boy from a group imitated the expressions of each portrait and took selfies. The most watched and ‘clicked with’ portrait was Tyrion Lannister’s portrait painting that I had done just days before the exhibition started. As the exhibition coincided with Game of Thrones (GOT), that painting was a hit with the visitors. I am a bit shy when it comes to initiating conversation with strangers and therefore, my wife who is a PR professional, did the talking work for me. She would ask them how they felt about the artworks and then point out to me stating that I created them. They would then approach me, appreciate the works and also advise me on what characters to do next.
Watching them all from a distance, hearing what they had to talk about the artworks, their ‘Wows’ and reactions made me very happy. It was equivalent to adrenaline rush and a sheer motivating force. After all, the end-objective of an artwork is to get shown to the world (read art enthusiasts) and hang on one of their walls. Well, it did happen and one of my pencil portraits, ‘Logan’ got purchased from a patron. I do not have their details but I hope they tag me on their social media accounts.
Well, on the final day of the exhibition, it was time for me to get back the artworks from the café. Well, looking at patrons still admiring the artworks, it was a bit painful for me to remove my artworks and pack it up. Ultimately, I had to with a thought that these will hang somewhere else, in some other art café, some other art gallery. That’s their journey till they find a place in someone’s house, restaurant or any deserving wall.
Haven’t DYU Art Café yet? Do visit!
VarTOONS - Varun's Art & Toons 