Gallery Sumukha at 30: How Premilla Baid shaped Bengaluru’s art scene

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Gallery Sumukha in Wilson Garden, Bengaluru; (right) its founder Premilla Baid | Photo Credit: Special arrangement; Mallikarjun Katakol

Quite often, patients from the neuro clinic that shares its premises with Gallery Sumukha walk into the gallery’s cavernous front room, filled with paintings and sculptures without knowing what the space is for. Premilla Baid, 73, the founder of the gallery which marks its 30th anniversary this month, finds these serendipitous drop-ins the best way for people to engage with art. The gallery doesn’t seem incongruous in a mixed-use building, with a doctor’s chamber and clinic out front. The doctor has been her generous landlord for decades.

The neighbourhood it’s located in, though close to the city’s central business district, isn’t the typical upmarket area one associates with sumptuous art galleries. And yet, Wilson Garden has been growing into an art and culture hub with such spaces as 1 Shanthiroad, The Courtyard, and the Attakalari Centre for Movement Arts. This defines Bengaluru’s art ecosystem in contrast to its arguably more sophisticated counterparts, Delhi and Mumbai — it is unpretentious, understated and a little scrappy.

Founded in 1996, Gallery Sumukha first started from Baid’s home, then shifted to the Alliance Francaise building before relocating to its current location in 1999. Today, spread over 5,000 sq.ft., Sumukha is housed in the largest private gallery space in South India. Designed by architect Vikram Sardesai, it was built to accommodate large-scale installations, sculptures, and multimedia showcases that smaller commercial galleries of south could not host.

Moving back to India after six years in Ireland, Baid was deeply inspired by art doyenne Sara Abraham’s Kala Yatra. Self-taught Baid held her first exhibition for a charitable organisation at the Oberoi Hotel. “In those days [1996], we sold paintings worth about ₹5 lakh. That was a lot of money. Then it got into me,” she says. “I don’t know a word of art in the technical sense, I started the gallery out of pure passion alongside my medical practice.”

Baid is careful not to call herself a curator but a gallerist. “Curators usually have technical training and an educational background in art. I just put shows together, relying on my judgment and understanding gained over three decades,” she says. Initially funded by her own savings, the gallery has always been self-sustained. “Whatever money we make goes back into the gallery. Participating in art fairs is expensive. We may make some money here, go to an international art fair, and return without having sold anything, so it’s difficult to turn a profit,” she says. Baid chose sustainability over aggressive commercial growth. The gallery’s entry into Chennai, at her parents’ home, in 2006, lasted around six years.

Schoolchildren visiting the gallery in 2016 for the show ‘Homage to the Rainforest’ by Senaka Senanayake. | Photo Credit: Courtesy Gallery Sumukha

Installation view of ‘Painted Weaves’ (2017) by S.G. Vasudev at the gallery.