Chennai’s Artiform blends contemporary art with everyday living spaces

What if you could envision a painting on your wall before even deciding to bring it home?

At the Collectors Room by Artiform design studio, that question brings a new approach to collecting art. Their debut exhibition, titled Spatial Dialogues, envisions the space where art, design, and community intersect, bringing together four artists: Bhagwan Chavan, Dilipkumar Kesavan, Jacob Jebaraj, and Pravin Kannanur, all representing Cholomandel Artists Village, to showcase their abstract artworks as a way of integrating contemporary art into everyday living spaces. 

Founded in 2024 by Shreyans Bohra, Artiform began as a premium interior design studio. The name, he explains, reflects the idea of “where art meets form”. Initially occupying two floors as an interiors-focused space, it later included The Collectors Room as a platform for art and collectables.

Through various mediums of abstraction, be it acrylic, watercolour or sculpture, the exhibition aims to create a shared dialogue between their practices. 

Cholomandala series by Pravin Kannanur
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

“We’ve always wanted to integrate art into everyday living. Just as people choose furniture that reflects their personality, art has the power to express something deeply personal. A piece that resonates with one person may not necessarily speak to another, and that’s what makes it so unique,” says Shreyans.

“It allows our viewers to visualise how a work can add character, warmth and meaning to their own homes,” adds Shreyans. That idea comes alive through works such as those by Bhagwan Chavan, whose abstract compositions in oil, acrylic and watercolour lend a sense of warmth and depth to the space. 

Layers of deep indigo, ochre, rust, and muted earth tones are intersected by bold geometric lines, creating a sense of architectural fragments and shifting horizons. 

InPrimordial Elements, a series of granite sculptures, Jacob Jebaraj draws inspiration from the master sculptors of Mahabalipuram. “I learned that sculptors from Mamallapuram carefully selected granite from specific mountains for particular idols, such as Ganesha, based on their understanding of each stone’s hardness, softness, colour, and how it responds under pressure. Their deep knowledge of the material and its possibilities inspired me to create my own works for this exhibition,” he says.

“Curating art in a showroom is very different from curating in a gallery. The challenge was to make the artworks converse naturally with lived spaces like kitchens, wardrobes, and homes,” says curator Isaiarasi Annamalai.

As art and design increasingly overlap, Spatial Dialogues offers a new way of viewing and collecting art.

Spatial Dialouges is on at Artiform, Durgapuram, Mylapore, till July 20.