An artistic twist inflates the price of the matchbox. Colaba art gallery Lakeeren hosts a flea market of more than 1,000 art pieces dating back ten years. This is your chance to own an art piece at a throwaway price, says the gallery owner. Rs 25 for 50p maachis box? No! Eight Husain signed serigraphs for 90k? Yes
An artistic twist inflates the price of the matchbox. Colaba art gallery Lakeeren hosts a flea market of more than 1,000 art pieces dating back ten years. This is your chance to own an art piece at a throwaway price, says the gallery owner. Rs 25 for 50p maachis box? No! Eight Husain signed serigraphs for 90k? Yes
The wall facing the glass door that leads to Lakeeren, The Contemporary Art Gallery in a Colaba bylane, is plastered with photographs of artist Surekha attempting to meditate in the craziest locations. A mound of matchboxes occupies another corner, while over a hundred un-framed works lie neatly on the floor. Larger paintings and prints stand on walls, and ceramic murals vie for your attention elsewhere. 
Chatterbox matchboxes are by artist Amod Damle. pics/Sayed Sameer Abedi
Curator and art historian Arshiya Lokhandwala has decided to share artworks from as early as 1995, that have been displayed at the gallery over the years. "The flea market concept is a way to share artworks with people. A lot of the pieces have not even been re-priced because I wanted the works to move out, and the artists were okay with the idea," says Lokhandwala.
What this means is that you can own a piece of art at a throwaway price ufffd that's if you choose prudently.
At Rs 25 a piece, Amod Damle's prints on a matchbox are the cheapest pieces on display here. Those with a little more moolah can check out Damle's functional cube-drawer priced at Rs 20,000.
Anjum Singh's pink and yellow slide-drawer comes with a few of her works tucked inside ufffd all for Rs 10,000.
Want MF Husain's signed-serigraphs? Shell out Rs 90,000 for a set of eight. Lokhandwala says each of those will sell for double the price elsewhere. Considering most of his single serigraphs border on Rs 20,000, she is probably right.
The set of four silkscreen-on-paper works by Sushil Mangaonkar (priced at Rs 15,000 each) are definitely the highlight of the show.
Lokhandwala says people who walk into the gallery have a great time looking through the works. "You could find something that you won't see at another gallery. Besides, this may be your chance to own something that, perhaps, you couldn't afford when it was displayed here earlier," she says.
For those on a budget, Anuj Poddar's Mirchi series is priced at Rs 1,800 (for a set of three frames), while Tamal Mitra's etchings are tagged at Rs 5,000 each. We liked Reghu's ceramic murals. At Rs 4,000 each, they don't pinch, and can make great conversation starters.
At: Grant's Building, opposite Basilico Cafe, Colaba.
Till: June 30, 11 am to 7 pm
Call: 65224179
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