Rajiv Menon Contemporary, among the first commercial galleries in the US to focus on art from South Asia and its diaspora, this week held an opening for its debut exhibition in the gallery’s new space in Hollywood. Exhibitionism (until 30 March) explores the relationship between privacy and attention through the lenses of intimacy, domesticity and the operations of the art world, according to the gallery’s founder, Rajiv Menon. The show features more than 20 works by 19 artists of South Asian descent, including established names like Chitra Ganesh, Sunil Gupta and Jagannath Panda, and rising artists like Tarini Sethi, Mustafa Mohsin and Raghav Babbar, making his stateside debut in a commercial gallery.
The exhibition is the first at the gallery’s new permanent space at 1311 North Highland Avenue; Menon initially opened the gallery last year as a pop-up. “I felt incredibly inspired by the depth of talent I was seeing coming out of the South Asian diaspora, but I started to get really frustrated, because there weren’t a lot of outlets in North America to see the great emerging work,” Menon says.
Since opening last year in a temporary space in Silver Lake, Menon says, the gallery has had an “incredible” response from collectors. “We had huge support from within the South Asian diaspora and collectors in India, but we also saw really strong interest from just broad collectors with global sensibilities,” he adds. The Western market for South Asian art continues to grow—last year, a Christie’s sale dedicated to contemporary and modern South Asian art fetched $9.3m (with fees) with a 98% sell-through rate.
Menon says he opted to open his gallery in Los Angeles in part because of the city’s diversity and wide range of creativity. “I felt it was really important to tap into so much of the energy that was happening surrounding visibility in Hollywood and other mediums, and to bring that into conversation with contemporary art,” he says.
Opening a gallery just weeks after deadly wildfires is not ideal for any dealer, but Menon says that “more than anything, the gallery being a place of community gathering is really important. I think people want to come and celebrate the city.” The gallery plans to donate at least $10,000 to wildfire-relief efforts through the philanthropic groups SevaSphere and the California Community Foundation.