Inside Gallery Maxima: Sunaina Rajan introduces Mumbai's newest art gallery

Commuters rush past us when we depart from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus as we try to stay dry The first monsoon showers have added a shade of refreshing green to Fortrsquos colonial streets We sidestep the traffic and head up the spiral wooden staircases of Kitab Mahal with bannisters older than this writer to enter the newest art space in the city Gallery MaximaA view of the gallery spaceGallerist Sunaina Rajan is among the new guards of the cityrsquos art world Growing up in Malabar Hill art was a personal choice ldquoI started drawing and painting when I was four or five years old and knew I would do something in this spacerdquo she admits It led her to The Art Institute of Chicago and her first tryst with galleries at the Leacutevy Gorvy Dayan in New York Back in India she cofounded Chemould CoLab with Atyan Jungalwala and worked at Nature Morte that also affirmed her decision to platform young contemporary artistsDil Mera 2026As we enter the venue on the second floor the vast 1600 sq ft space that opens up to large 15 ft high ceilings Light streams in through large windows allowing the art space to breathe The bright red doors and tiles make it different to another white cube spaceA Wedding I Never Went To Mommyrsquos GirlAesthetic yes But functional too says Rajan ldquoAs a gallerist you need to think of many things such as wide doors to bring art works through windows to allow natural light so that even if the displays are large they do not feel suffocating You need lifts to offer easy accessrdquo she lists It took her over three months to reshape the space to suit her aesthetics ldquoThe space also needs to be adaptive to different forms and mediumsrdquo she tells us revealing that future exhibitions will highlight artists working in textile and ceramic mediums as wellDream Girls 2026 Pics Courtesyartist Gallery MaximaPlans are already in motion with artists locked in till January 2028 we learn The opening weekend will witness Maithili Chaturvedirsquos debut solo Dream Girl A series of 22 works on velvet the series revisits Hindi cinemarsquos iconic female archetypes Celluloid stars from Meena Kumari and Madhubala to Hema Malini and Rekha all emerge as mysterious mythsSunaina RajanWhile she charts out the upcoming plans from walkthroughs with the artist to a film screening to capture the themes of Chaturvedirsquos feminist archetypes in cinema things are beginning to get busy ldquoWe hope that visitors will walk out with a new awareness that art can push boundaries I hope to make it a place where you could experience new things that you hadnrsquot beforerdquoshe saysWe certainly hope toFrom June 27 1030 to 630 pm Tuesday to SaturdayAtGallery Maxima second floor Kitab Mahal off DN Road FortArtistSpeak Velvet canvasHindi cinema was always part of culture My mother and I would sing to each other speaking in song In my graduate year I had to create a project about my dream exhibition I chose to visualise my paintings atop a typical Art Deco building in SoBo So this was almost perfect The choice of velvet is everything My artworks acquire an alluring tactile quality when placed in a gallery setting The gaze of these women as icons and objects of the male gaze are both inviting and elusive at once Maithili Chaturvedi