Madras Craft Foundation opened the DakshinaChitra Art Gallery in January 2005, with the objective of bringing contemporary art through exhibitions to the public. With the opening of the Art Gallery Madras Craft Foundation has taken one more step on its journey to bridge the past with the future and its goal to promote and encourage contemporary art and design.

The prominent location of the Gallery between the reception center and the restaurant gives it high visibility to our approximately 80,000 annual visitors. (2005 visitor ship figure)

DakshinaChitra also offers seminar space and guest house facilities at very reasonable prices.

Theme exhibitions coupled with seminars have been very successful at DakshinaChitra.
We invite collaborations for special theme exhibitions and seminars with a potential to
impact the arts, architecture, ecology and society.

World heritage week
Date : 16^thto 30^th November 2012

Connect - Disconnect: Solo Art Exhibition by S. Michael Irudayaraj
Date : 02^ndto 30^th November 2012

DakshinaChitra hosted an art exhibition of Michael Irudayaraj . Michael did his post diploma from M.S. University, Baroda after his diploma from College of arts, Chennai in late 80’s.Since then his works have been part of many Solo and Group exhibitions all over India and has participated in several national level camps. Michael has won several awards and Scholarships at regional and national level. He has also taught in National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and at NIFT, Chennai.

Art exhibition of renowned artist – M. Suriyamoorthy
Date : 19^thto 30^th November 2012

An art exhibition of renowned artist, M. Suriyamoorthy was organised at the centre. To coincide with Vinayaga Chaturthi, twenty exclusive paintings of Vinayagar were displayed in the art gallery. The artist has made hundreds of drawings and paintings of Ganeshas and about 20 works were on display in this show. He was a resident artist at DakshinaChitra for 5 days starting from the 19th of this month, on Vinayaga Chathurti day. M. Suriyamoorthy is a senior painter from the post –colonial times of Madras art movement. This was the time where nativism and tradition were reinvented and revisited in the works of artists. Artists painted themes from their own cultural milieu and came out with new visual languages. Youngest recipient of the National award at the age of just 21, Suriyamoorthy has been painting and exhibiting in important galleries in India and abroad.

THE WONDER OF IT ALL - A retrospective of Sakti Burman
Date : 19^th May to 30^th July 2012

DakshinaChitra in association with Pundole Art Gallery and Apparao Galleries presents an exhibition of Sakti Burman THE WONDER OF IT ALL – a retrospective.
The exhibition was inaugurated by Ms. Leela Samson, on 18th May 2012.

Artist profile:
Born in 1935, Burman studied at  Kolkata, and later at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris. The artist had his first solo exhibition in 1954 in Kolkata, and has since exhibited widely across the world including at venues like the Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris; Piccadilly Gallery, London; Galerie Doucet et Coutureau, Paris; Galleria Nuovo Sagittario, Milan; and Galerie Sagar, Zurich. Burman was awarded the Medaille d’Argent au Salon de Montmorency and the Prix des Etrangers, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris in 1956.

His paintings evoke the look of a weathered fresco, depicting figures in hues that the viewer feels were once vivid, but are now faded. They transport one into their dream-like worlds, where the perspective and composition is often that of medieval icons.

His works mingles reality with the world of his dreams.

Event: Art Exhibition
A retrospective of Artist P. Perumal.
Date: 21 October 2011 to 31 January 2012

An exhibition of early paintings ,drawings,etchings, and lithographs by renowned artist P.Perumal, an important painter who formed part of the Madras Art Movement was felicitated at dakshinachitra through an exhibition.This collection mainly from Apparao Galleries and DakshinaChitra was in the Ambur Art Gallery A formal inauguration was done where art critics and his contemporaries gathered and spoke about the artist. A catalog was released on the occasion and a documentary film by Gita on the artist was also premiered to a packed audience. The artist shared his experiences and many of his old students who are established painters themselves celebrated the occasion.

Artists Profile:
P. Perumal born in 1935, Virudhunagar district Tamilnadu, P.Perumal graduated with a First Class in Fine Arts(Advanced Painting) from the Govt college of Arts and Crafts, Chennai in 1957. He joined as an Art Instructor at the Govt High school in Kodambakkam in 1959 and continued to work as an instructor in several colleges and institutions for many more years. In 1988, he received a senior Fellowship from the Department of Culture, Govt of India for two years.

Awards:
1958-1959- He received First prize at the All India Khadi, Swadeshi and Industrial Exhibition.
Received The Madras State Lalit Kala Akademi twice- in 1963 and again in 1967.
He was awarded by the Tamil Nadu Ovia Nunkalai Kuzhu in 1979 and won the National Award from Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi in 1990-91
He has held several important exhibitions in India like the 34th Annual Exhibition of the Indian Academy of Fine Arts in Calcutta, Tamil Nadu Art Exhibition at the Lalit Kala Akademi Galleries in New Delhi, The Bombay Art Society Annual Exhibition- Mumbai, First Rashtriya Kala Mela, Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi etc.

Honours:
He was conferred with a Fellowship by the Tamil Nadu Ovia Nunkalai Kuzhu in 1995. Was felicitated by the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society for his Lifetime Achievement and by the Department of Art and Culture, Goverment of Tamil Nadu, for his contribution to visual arts.

Regional Art Week- 21^st to 28^th February 2011

Lalit Kala Akademi, Regional centre, Chennai, in collaboration with Kalakshetra, Cholamandal Artists Village and DakshinaChitra organised the REGIONAL ART WEEK, a national level artists camp.

The four different venues had 30 artists participating artists
Graphics & New Media at Lalit Kala Akademi
Painting at Cholamandal Artists Village
Ceramic at Kalakshetra
Wood Sculpture at DakshinaChitra

The motive behind the Regional Art Week is to create awareness among general public,to highlight the importance of art in society apart from linking major art and cultural institutions in the city.

The participating artists for Wood Sculpture Sham Sundar from Hyderabad, Narayanan Kutty from Kerala, V. Yuvaraj from Chennai, K. Ragavendra from Mysore,
Rajendraa Pandharinath Dhavalay from Pune, M. Segar from Pondicherry

All the sculptors made two sculptures, one for Dakshinachitra collection and the other for the Regional Akademi collections.

National Art Week January 2010

Dakshinachitra in Collaboration with Lalit Kala Academi, Kalakshetra Foundation and Cholamandal Artists Village hosted a National level Artists Camp from 18 – 24 January .

Four different mediums like painting, print making, ceramic and stone carving were hosted by the four organizations.

DakshinaChitra hosted the painters camp. The participating Artists were

Akhilesh from Bhopal, C. Douglas from Chennai, Kashinath Salve from Mumbai, Vipta Kapadia from Mumbai, Guru Siddappa from Bangalore, Rajeswara Rao from Hyderabad and Veera Santhanam from Chennai.

Painting Exhibition -   Group Show - August 2009

Dakshinachitra  hosted an art exhibition  by  4 Chennai based artists .Gayathri Aditya’s works were surrealistic in tones of blues, reds and greys. She works from Chennai and is also a print maker. Santhana Krishnan’s doors were very popular with the visitors. All his paintings were based on different  styles of traditional doors combined with painted canvas. Gita's works are semi-abstract with the suggestion of a female form, architecture, musical instruments, or some combination of these elements. Mark Rathinaraj’s works were realistic, based on rural theme, folklore and people. His works are monochromatic in shades of ochre, browns, yellow, black and white. Exhibition was inaugurated by  Rm.Palaniappan -  Secretary, Lalit Kala Academi

Photo Exhibition - August 2009

On “ Independence Movement and Chennai” at DakshinaChitra.

The exhibits are from Roja Muthiah Research Library Trust which enables development of research libraries and archives relating to South Asian studies and serve the needs of scholars. The panels had a collage of photos, drawings and cartoons from various magazines and news papers of the freedom movement time -  Swadeshamitran, Gandhi, Kalki, Swathandra Sangu  to name a few.

Photo Exhibition by Prabhu Harsoor – May 2009

Photo exhibition on “Contemporary Art in Folk Elements” by Prabhu Harsoor , who experiments new style of composition by blending the contemporary art in folk elements. The exhibition was inaugurated by Mr. A.V.Ilango

Artists Camp - March 2009

Four Artists were invited from various parts of India along with senior artist Laxma Goud to produce and present one work each in a five day camp. The artists invited were Gopinath, Jyothirmoy De, Narendra Babu, Shruti Devi Thakur.  Their  works are   preserved in the museum collection of contemporary art at Dakshinachitra

Exhibition of Photographs - March 2009

Different forms of Indian Classical Dance Forms took shape in the form of Large photographs by

Dr. Sushil Pani of  Pondicherry from the Geet Govindam Trust.The Photo exhibition brought out the salient features of the various dance forms like Odissi, Manipuri, Mohiniyattam, Kathakali, Kathak and  Bharathanatyam.

As part of the Chennai Sangamam Festival, "Refine Lines" an art exhibition by the students of Government College of Art and Craft was organized at DakshinaChitra Art gallery from 11-17th January, 2009.

Dakshinachitra Art gallery  had  organized Coast to Coast , an exhibition of paintings by The Goa College of arts & The University of Connecticut, USA from 3rd to 10th January 2009.

This exchange exhibition had been organized by Hanuman Kambli, The Goa college of Art and Kathryn Myers, The University of Connecticut. It originated in the coastal state of Connecticut at Jorgensen Gallery. Later the exhibition travelled to Goa to Ruchika art gallery in December 08. In January 2009, the exhibition was held  at Dakshinachitra followed by a power-point presentation by Kathryn Myers.

Timings 10am to 6 pm all days except Tuesdays.

Dakshinchitra Art gallery present Coast to Coast , an exhibition of paintings by the the Goa College of arts & The university of Connecticut, USA from 3^rd to 10^th January 2009.

This exchange exhibition has been organised by Hanuman Kambli, The Goa college of Art and Kathryn Myers, the university of Connecticut. It originated in the coastal state of Connecticut at Jorgensen gallery. Later the exhibition travelled to Goa to Ruchika art gallery In December 08. In January 2009, the exhibition will be on at Dakshinachitra followed by a power-point presentation by Kathryn Myers. Few works of students of both the Artists will also be a part of the show.

Timings 10am to 6 pm all days except Tuesdays.