Prutha Goa

Yolanda de Sousa has always been an awe-inspiring woman. Someone to look up to and attempt to emulate in her eternally positive attitude towards life. Known primarily for her prowess as a footballer, Yolanda has an equally extensive career as a well-known artist. These days Yolanda paints and runs the Art Chamber- Galeria de Belas Artes in Calangute along with her husband Rudolf Ludwig Kammermeier and her talented daughter Sarah Sousa Kammermeier, who has followed in her mother’s creative footsteps. Voted 'Player of the Decade' by the Women's' Football Federation, Yolanda has been captain of the Indian women’s football team. In Sultanpur in 1976, her 15 goals and two hat-tricks at the first ever National Football Championship games, proved her exemplary skill. 1977 saw Yolanda score 18 of the Goan team’s 49 goals at the National Football Championship held in Goa with the Goan team claiming the championship trophy. Yolanda made her international debut as part of the Indi

Art is not often an encouraged subject in most Goan or Indian schools, and sometimes exceptional talent is buried under academic and professional pursuits. The Pyde Pyper Academy in Goa is helping open up individuals from different walks of life to their own uniqueness and discover a wealth of artistic ability that is skilfully shaped to open artistic career opportunities to them. The Academy, which was established in 2010, has proficiently played the part of the legendary Pied Piper of Hamlin that it is named after by calling students to ‘find their own tune and follow it to their dreams’ as Deé Ayn Fernandes, who is a full-time teacher and assistant at the Academy, says. Some students have discovered their hitherto unknown gift for art here while others pursuing it as a hobby have taken it to a higher level of a career by itself. The Pyde Pyper Academy has optimally trained students, guided them in the option of taking up art in a professional capacity. This has resulted in individua

Smitha Bhandare Kamat comes across as an unassuming person, and indeed, she does prefer the solace of home and hearth and bonding with family and pets to the constant spotlight. Her cartoons, many of which have featured in prominent magazines and won her awards, seep into your sensibility, packing a punch with humour. Her style is her own, evolving from years of doodling in numerous school notebooks. The messages Smitha communicates through her cartoons emerge from a psyche moulded by a strong and steadfast upbringing by her parents. Her father, Govindas Bhandare, was a self-made man who did not shy away from hard work and encouraged in Smitha an interest in political issues. An amateur cartoonist himself, his drawings were limited to his family for an audience. Fortunately, it is a talent he passed on to his daughter together with his values. ‘I was particularly close to my father, late Shri Govindas Bhandare. He was a very determined man with a rag to riches story to his credit. He w

The man engages his audience with candour and the humour that effortlessly emerges from it. Alexyz, the cartoonist and the fearless activist for any legitimate cause, will wake you up with his wit and a dash of laughter therapy should ennui impede your concentration. The Friday Balcao, an initiative that evolved in 1999 out of the need for information and discussions related to issues in Goa,  hosted Alexyz   on the first day of the Konkan Fruit Fest 2016. He spoke on the topic ‘Goa, Today and Tomorrow’ using the description of cartoons from his latest book O to be in Goa…Today as an insightful yet playful educative tool. Alexyz began with the monumental problem of alcoholism in Goa that shows no signs of abating. The cartoon declares that Goa is a government approved bar and restaurant. The chance for cheap liquor has tourists from other states heading in droves for Goa where the highest number of deaths are alcohol related. Goa Medical College records 300 deaths connected to alcohol

Apurva Kulkarni is a name that immediately evokes a response of acknowledgement in artistic and literary circles. A teacher for over 25 years, Apurva has curated art shows such as I am Red , Bioscope , and, more recently Kama, Interrupted . The art historian with a post graduate degree from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda has furthermore been involved in conducting courses in art history and art and film appreciation in various art galleries in Goa. As a pioneer of performance and conceptual art in Goa, Apurva has an oeuvre that certainly offers a wealth of knowledge and comprehension of art. He spoke of his manifesto called The Manifesto of a Dirty Bomb at Kokum Design Centre, Porvorim, giving his audience insight into the mind of a man who is very much a social activist in his own right and is not afraid to echo it in his work. The 1900s saw the emergence of the Modernist art era, and manifestoes were a much needed aid in comprehending the mystery enshrouding the artwor

From anthropologist to writer, from NGO (Tara Trust) founder to artist, Katharina Kakar has donned many mantles and excelled in them all. However, it is art that fires up her passion in every other area. ‘I am just driven by it. Art has always been my oxygen,’ she says. Her mother was an artist and, as the daughter of an artist, Katharina’s own foray into the world of art was anticipated. The influence of art was all pervasive in her life, with her mother taking the family to exhibitions which developed Katharina’s sense of ‘seeing’. She and her siblings were also encouraged by their mother to experiment with different things and exercise their creativity. Despite the expectations, Katharina chose to study Anthropology and Comparative Religion in Germany. It has been a few years since she came back to art as a full-time occupation, and in doing so she has come full circle. The journey of research, teaching, writing and social work she has made to this point now serves to enrich her ar

Unnati Singh’s exhibition Webotika-I am an Alien and this is my Spacecraft at the Cube Gallery at Moira, challenges the norms of quintessential art and jolts one out of the humdrum of routine. A written text that is part of her painting says it all about the appearance of her work ‘When life is not pretty, why the f**k should I make pretty pictures?’ This is not visually soothing art and it provokes one to introspect, so be warned. ‘Webotika’, a word coined by curator Katharina Domscheit-D’Souza, is a combination of three words: web – denoting the World Wide Web, the web of network that connects humans and nature together, and the web created in nature by the spider; robotic – signifying artificial intelligence, the desire of man to scale the heavens by playing God; and erotic – a much evident presence in the paintings in the form of phalluses, vaginas, breasts and body fluids. The exhibition consists of a series of paintings on canvas; three series of paper drawings: I am an Amplifie

The month of January saw a flurry of postings on social media about the portrait photography of Alex Fernandes titled Festakars . The delicacy and other worldly beauty of these photographs, which captured the essence, the inner soul, of every one of the models who sat for him, is so very evident. This self-taught photographer of Goan origin wields the camera with great artistic expertise. ‘I am actually a product of the advertising and fashion industry,’ says Alex, who began his foray into the world of fashion and advertising as an assistant photographer in 1984 in Mumbai. From 1987 to 1990 Alex worked at his first job as a commercial photographer in the Middle East. The aftermath of the first Gulf War saw him join the Kodak distributor in Kuwait. He says, ‘During my tenure (1992-2001) I also conducted lighting workshops for the company. The workshops for Profoto film and Potra paper which were Kodak products used exclusively for portraiture were on behalf of Kodak (Near East) based in

Achies Art Gallery stands out for its location in the quaint village of Chandor (Chandrapur), which is renowned for its historical significance as the past capital of Goa and for the presence of the Menezes-Bragança House, the Fernandes House, and a statue of the Nandi Bull. The one year old gallery occupies two rooms in the beautiful ancestral house of Celio Mascarenhas. After inheriting a grand Portuguese style mansion from his father, Celio Mascarenhas decided to convert it into a venue for celebratory occasions, and hence the name Grandeza was used to advertise it as the ‘Party Palace’. Mascarenhas is an artist and a sculptor by profession and uses the media of stone and wood to express his creativity. As a graphic designer with a BCA from Damodar College of Commerce and Economics, Swetlana seems to have an affinity towards art. She says, ‘I love art! Having gained experience for 2 and a half years in this field, I am still learning as I keep moving on. Each time I learn something

KitaMika has a childlike quality that belies the idea that you are speaking to a young mother-to-be in her early thirties. This wandering soul has found her footing as an artist and she pours her very being into her art. Her art is an expression of pure emotion that her subconscious captures with a comprehensive intellect. The young Japanese artist has a tortured past that fuels her creativity. Her mother was institutionalised with paranoia when KitaMika was a child and, at the age of eight, KitaMika saw her father divorce her mother. She lost her father to suicide after his second marriage. KitaMika’s relationship with her stepmother was a tumultuous one and she was brought up mostly by her grandparents. At the age of nineteen KitaMika made her first trip to India and she has been a regular visitor from 2003. It is her love of religion and culture that has set her travelling to different countries. ‘I have travelled all over Asia and Africa but I always find myself back in India,’ say