How these Mumbai artists are keeping street art tradition alive in Kala Ghoda

Updated On: 21 February, 2024 10:30 AM IST | Mumbai | Nascimento Pinto

Mumbai’s art district, Kala Ghoda, boasts of some of the most well-known art galleries and museums that showcases the artworks of some of India’s best artists but it also makes place for the artist’s street. It has artists from all over the country sitting on a chair daily busy immortalising faces of people, families, lovers and friends

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Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. Pic/Kala Ghoda

Different artworks in shades of blue, red, green and yellow adorn the makeshift display boards of the footpath between Rampart Row and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya gate. A cool winter breeze makes these artworks on paper flutter to create a kaleidoscope of artworks that manage to hold this writer’s gaze and that of every young and old passerby around him. Rakesh Sinha and Shailesh Kamble sit side-by-side on old metal chairs immersed in sketching portraits of orders they have received. They are only two of approximately 17 artists who have been making that footpath their street studio every day for the last 20-odd years. The street makes every Mumbaikar stop and admire the artworks that are a mix of sceneries, portraits of common people as well as celebrities, and other kinds of abstract work that are popular today.

Flourishing in Mumbai’s art district of Kala Ghoda is this quiet footpath that houses artists who travel from different parts of Mumbai including Panvel and Mumbra daily to create unique artworks. They find joy in not only drawing for themselves but for Mumbai’s art enthusiasts and tourists who throng the neighbourhood daily to visit the art galleries, museums and other tourist spots that leave them in awe because of the colonial architecture or the bright hues. Along the way, they get treated to these artworks that are on display. It helps slow down time for them as they pause and marvel at the sketches and colours that help them beat the monotony and mundaneness of the Mumbai’s fast-paced life. The colours and sketches leave a noisy child in awe and allows the parents to briefly forget the challenges of parenthood. It also prompts lovers to get a quick portrait of themselves, and best friends to forge their friendship in charcoal, acrylic or oil paints for keepsakes.

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