Art Is Very Fluid: Inside Annapurna Madipadiga’s New EkChitra Art Gallery

“I keep telling everyone that you have to talk only art to me, I don’t know anything. That’s how I grew up and that’s where I ended up. So, it’s an obvious thing for me to have a space where I can showcase what I am envisioning…”

For Annapurna Madipadiga, founder of EkChitra Art Gallery, the new 7,000 sq ft space in Hyderabad was not just the result of a carefully mapped-out business plan, it was rather the natural progression of a journey that began with curation. “I think I needed that space, so Ekachitra happened,” she says. She had stumbled into curation almost by chance, but once she found herself in it, she realised how much she loved the process. Ideas and narratives, she says, come naturally to her, and the process is then about turning those ideas into exhibitions. The new gallery is an extension of that thinking. Annapurna does not see it as competing with Hyderabad’s established galleries, many of which have been part of the city’s art landscape for decades. In fact, she credits those spaces with giving her exposure to art when she was growing up. What she felt missing was a space that could accommodate the kind of exhibitions and ideas she wanted to explore.

The new gallery is an extension of that thinking. Annapurna does not see it as competing with Hyderabad’s established galleries, many of which have been part of the city’s art landscape for decades. In fact, she credits those spaces with giving her exposure to art when she was growing up. What she felt missing was a space that could accommodate the kind of exhibitions and ideas she wanted to explore.

“Would I be adding anything new? Instead of that, I can rather say that the city would definitely have a new perspective and a dimension into art,” she says.

That perspective begins with her belief that art cannot always be neatly categorised. “I have always believed art is very fluid,” she says. For Annapurna, the boundaries between art, cinema, literature, performance and other creative practices need not be rigid. A filmmaker can communicate through a text, while an artist can express an idea on canvas. The same fluidity informs the way she imagines the gallery.

The idea is to make people stay.

“You will sit in a coffee shop for an hour or two, for chit chatting, but you will not spend time with art. I think art is meant to spend time. You have to sit with it. You have to enjoy.”

She believes that the conventional gallery experience has become too transactional, with visitors often walking in, deciding whether a work fits their home and leaving. “It should be a place for conversations. Art is meant to see. Art is meant to be with. Art is meant to be enjoyed,” says Annapurna.

That philosophy is reflected in the way EkChitra has been designed. Alongside exhibition areas, the converge space is intended to accommodate book launches, readings, film screenings and conversations. There will also be a permanent printmaking studio, where artists and art students can practise the medium and participate in workshops. The printmaking machine is being set up as part of the studio, with the intention of keeping the space active rather than limiting it to exhibition periods.

Books will also have a place here, with visitors encouraged to pick up a book, sit down and spend time with it. Annapurna also wants to create a screening space for independent films that may not have had a conventional theatrical release or wider presence despite their creative and intellectual value. The plan is to screen such work, followed by conversations around it.

The gallery is also designed to give young artists and emerging curators room to grow. Annapurna says she wants to nurture curatorial practices as well as provide opportunities for artists. Exhibitions will vary between solo and group shows, depending on the curator and the narrative being developed.

The inaugural exhibition deliberately brings together a group of younger artists, alongside a few more established names. The works span different mediums and approaches, from miniature-inspired works and ink on paper to ceramics, terracotta, aluminium and large-scale sculpture.

Among the works on display are those by artists working with nostalgia, memory, landscapes and familiar cultural references. One body of work draws on reflections in the Ganga, incorporating different materials and weaving them into a visual interpretation of the river. Another artist works with miniature techniques but approaches them through a contemporary medium and perspective. There are also works rooted in Jaipur’s villages, including pieces featuring 24-karat gold leaf, while other artists explore memories of home and the experience of young people who have moved away from their hometowns to study and work elsewhere.

 The exhibition also reflects Annapurna’s interest in bringing different generations of artists together. While many of the artists are young, the gallery also features more established practitioners, creating a dialogue between different stages of an artistic journey.

For Annapurna, supporting young and local artists is not a new direction but something that has been part of her curatorial practice. “We will be working with a lot of local artists too,” she says. Her aim is to create a more welcoming environment for them and to continue giving local practitioners opportunities through her exhibitions and incubation initiatives.

That focus on creating a cultural ecosystem extends beyond the walls of EkChitra. One of Annapurna’s projects is Keerthanam, an initiative aimed at documenting the history of art in the Telugu states. She points out that there is very little documentation around several Telugu artists and their histories, something she wants to address through conversations, presentations, documentaries and archival work.

 “I started this initiative called Keerthanam where I am trying to document a lot of Telugu art history,” she says. The intention is to create conversations around that history, document them and eventually pass the material on to the next generation. “At least the next generation of artists should know what art history was,” she says.

She is also working on another edition of Living Temple, a project that brings together art and performance. And then there is Baoli Art Sangam, an ambitious upcoming biennale that takes her idea of connecting art with place a step further.

Developed in collaboration with conservationist Kalpana Ramesh and the Telangana government’s tourism department, Baoli Art Sangam is envisioned around the state’s stepwells and heritage spaces. The stepwells become the connecting thread between venues, allowing art to move outside conventional gallery settings and into historic spaces that have their own stories and cultural memory. Annapurna says the idea came together after she met Kalpana Ramesh and saw the work she was doing with heritage conservation.

The project is part of a larger belief that heritage spaces can become living cultural destinations rather than remaining static monuments. Annapurna points to the work being done around restored stepwells as an example of how heritage can be made sustainable and relevant to contemporary audiences.

The biennale, she says, is not simply about putting up art exhibitions at different locations. The stepwells themselves are intended to be the connecting dots, creating a relationship between the artwork, the architecture and the history of the place.

It is perhaps the clearest expression yet of Annapurna’s larger curatorial philosophy… to see EkChitra not simply as another place to see art, but a place to spend time with it, talk about it and perhaps discover something about Hyderabad’s own cultural memory along the way.