How were you drawn to art?
TA: I come from a very old family of Lucknow. My late grandfather, Afzal Ahmad, who was a lawyer, took great pride in the arts and cultural scene of Lucknow. Mushairas, baithaks, mehfils, and performances used to take place in our courtyard every weekend, with numerous famous people from the city and around visiting our house. Urdu poetry and Hindustani classical music was a part of my upbringing and routine. This evoked a passion inside me to create, preserve my identity, and to have a sense of cultural belonging.
How has formal education in art helped shape your career?
TA: It brought discipline to the discipline I wanted to pursue! I went to Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi to study Fine Arts, back in 2012. Since I have always been influenced by the various mediums of visual arts and literature from pre-school days, my formal education in Fine Arts acted as a tool to further express, experiment, resist and grow. It gave me a voice, with which I have grown and evolved over the years, not just as an artist but also as a human being. Like everyone, I too have had my share of struggles with experiences and experimentations before I reached a point where I found photography and cinema as my artistic practice. I still do experiment a lot, and always will, with different forms of visual and performance art.
My course at Jamia also helped me to bridge the gap between academia and industry at a very initial stage through events, guest lectures, and exhibitions that we used to host and organize under the headship of Hafeez Ahmed. Through one such exhibition and lecture I met artist Sandeep Biswas, whom I later assisted and worked with.
What, in your view, makes art a language that speaks to a larger audience?
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A Legacy Continues
Leveraging the success of his family's export business, Naman Jain is focusing on creating a retail presence in India
Creating KAIRA
Long fascinated by Indian fabric, Nikita Gupta has launched an attractive line of contemporary apparel in traditional block prints
Stories faces tell
Aditya Narula dabbled in various vocations before he realized portraiture was the best way to express the fascinating complexities of the people he encountered along the way
time tested DESIGN
Surrounded by art and architecture as a child, Sarah Sham went on to take the family antiques business in a new direction through her interior design venture
DANGEROUSLY DELICATE
Kavya Potluri's attention to minute detail is what sets her intricate and unconventional jewelry apart
music as muse
A multidisplinary visual artist, Aaron Pinto, also known as Kidsquidy, has had an interesting journey that started with MTV and has him now working on everything from music videos to stage design
DEVELOPING A DISCOURSE
Documentary photographer Taha Ahmad believes his work has a greater purpose than merely being admired by a select audience for its esthetic value. It's when people are able to see the underside of society and understand the prevailing social injustice that the work tries to reveal that it is truly worthwhile.
Tiny little Stories
Creating miniature worlds allows Ruchika Nambiar to continue to play childlike games of make-believe
The Richness Of Handmade
Amit Vijaya and Richard Pandav are committed to bringing together many hands and hearts through their clothing label ‘amrich’
The perfect balance
Aniruddh Mehta is as much graphic designer as visual artist, and he tries to do justice to both through his work at Studio Bigfat
