Kaash工作室及展览空间丨印度班加罗尔

Housed in Bengaluru's 200-year-old villa, Kaash creates a living archive of Indian craft

Bengaluru-based studio-cum-residency Kaash is quietly working in the craft collectibles market with collaboration and accessibility at its core.

The entrance—Kaash is housed in a typical colonial-style bungalow common to Bengaluru that dates back to the 1800s. Outside is founder Sridhar Poddar’s collection of granite stone girders.

Tall and effortlessly elegant in a khadi shirt and bandhani scarf, Kaash founder Sridhar Poddar is warm and effusive as he welcomes you to the leafy bungalow compound he converted into an exhibition space, a studio and an artist residency in late 2020. Originally a home, the bungalow dates back to the 1800s, with a classic

Mangalore-tiled roof

and carved wooden monkey tops typical of colonial architecture found in Bengaluru. It carries a serene old-world charm and authenticity that is hard to come by these days.

The lawns are a place for congregation and talks.

Last year, Kaash hosted a months-long artist residency with five artists working across the indigenous art forms of

warli

gond

mandana

. The residency culminated in

Thinking Hands

, an exhibition of new representations of traditional art forms, experimenting with scale and materials.

The space is currently carrying a stunning exhibition, titled

Play: Experiments with Indian Miniatures

. The series is of limited-edition pieces that marry intricate punctures and illumination—core facets of

tholu bommalata

, a form of

leather

puppetry from Andhra Pradesh—with miniature painting. This freestyle cross-pollination is signature Kaash: out-of-the-box creativity with an understanding of what people want. The catalyst for this project—it is

a museum, Poddar emphasizes—is creating a living, breathing archive of Indian craft, set in research and studio-based experimentation. The goal is to reveal the full potential and relevance of centuries-old traditions in our modern world.

Prints from Tara Books at the Thinking Hands exhibition.

We work with

craftspeople

as collaborators, and creative and business partners. Our job is to amplify their incredible skills and set a new level of professionalism and price-setting.” The idea for the space was born out of the research Poddar and his mother, Vandana, were doing for their specialist craft gallery, Evoke London. Sitting in the tony Marylebone district, the gallery has been attracting collectors of rare African and Indian craft since it opened its doors in April 2021.

Ramsingh Urveti’s Trees, acrylic on chalk board, at the Thinking Hands exhibition.

The process of creating capsule collections for the gallery took Poddar on a foraging trip across India, during which he built relationships with craftspeople and got a close-up view of both the challenges and the immense potential to explore new dimensions with

craft

. “I was inspired to set up something in my city that reflected this strong creative current I was experiencing as I spent time with some of the best makers in our country,” shares Poddar. Over the last two years, Kaash has hosted a range of exhibitions, artist talks and performances. “I wanted to harness the spirit of a creative

jugalbandi

—see what happens when traditional practices from across India are brought together in a nurturing, creative environment. The results have been magic,” he adds.

Mandana artist Sunita’s work on a limited-edition hand-tufted rug at the Thinking Hands exhibition.

Whilst the foundation has a corpus that supports its artist residency, studio and, eventually, an archive, the goal is to create a self-sustaining entity. The Kaash niche of “

collectible craft

” has received a warm response, but the founder and his core team have been plotting ways to cast a wider net—reach younger Indian buyers who have modest budgets but a huge appetite for beautiful, meaningful things. In December 2023, Kaash revealed a new line of non-editioned, accessible but equally beautiful high-quality products that spotlight the gamut of crafts it has been working with.

Din raat

by Gond artist Gariba Singh Tekam—at Thinking Hands.

Reflecting on the Indian market, Poddar says, “We find our Indian audience to be incredibly receptive. In fact, I find it much easier to communicate the essence—the

guna

Kaash, then, is part of what feels like an important moment for

Indian craft

and design. The binaries are blurring more than ever before, with a focus on the maker and authenticity of the process. All of this is spurred on by our human desire for innovation and beauty, for bringing special value to our interiors and our lives.