Kaneka Subberwal

Venue credits: The Merchant House, Bahrain

About Me

Born during the winters in New Delhi in 1977, I am the eldest of my maternal cousins and the loudest.

My Tribe

My paternal grandfather was a man of principle and lived in Agra, where he managed and ran quite a few leather factories. On the contrary, my father was a dreamer and believed in the magic of art and cinema. After finishing his engineering, he moved from Agra to Bombay (now Mumbai), the city of dreams and the holy grail of cinema, to chase his dreams and become a film producer. My mother, a Master in History from Miranda House in Delhi, and foreseen to sit for the Indian Administrative Services exams, chose to be a homemaker instead. The administrative services dreams were carried forward by my two maternal uncles—one of them served with Indian Revenue Services and the other with Indian Administrative Services. They’re both currently working as consultants and are well reputed. I have spent my childhood in both Delhi and Mumbai, and my memories of them are a mixed bag of running around in the bylanes of Delhi during summers, and jumping incessantly in Mumbai rain. My childhood zoomed past me, and before I knew it, I had grown up and had to make life choices.

“Life gives us opportunities once. whether we let them decay or utilize them to change our lives lies within us”

– Kaneka Subberwal

The Source of My Core Strength

In a man’s world, it is not easy for a woman to find success. Therefore, I am often asked, where do I get my strength from? From whom do I draw my resilience and perseverance? The answer is from my maternal grandmother. She acts like a sailor’s compass for me. She has had an immense influence on me. She has always guided me like a sailor’s compass. She was a woman unlike any other. She lived during an era when Indian women didn’t enjoy much freedom and had to follow strict social norms. Irrespective of it, she challenged the status quo in her own peculiar way. Unlike her counterparts, she never wore colorful clothes. My grandmother always wore an off-white saree. Her signature was off-white—eternal, aesthetic, classic .

This will-headedness and resilience of hers is what inspires me the most and forms the chassis of my nature and provides a framework for my functioning. I have always strived to stand out like her.

My Lifeline & Purpose

Like the majority of females who are married off early as per the social dictates and norms, I also got married within months of completing my bachelor’s degree and graduation from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics. Quite an anti-climax, some would have thought, but not really. My husband is my best friend. He is someone who took me for what I was. In him, my insanity found the perfect match. He always encouraged me to follow my dreams and motivated me to work towards attaining my goals. Our daughter was conceived in 2003, and motherhood is a journey, a learning, and an awakening about strengths you didn’t know you had. With my daughter, I found my purpose, and being a mother ignited my passion and my calling—Art Select.

Bringing Bahrain to the Centre of Art

I have always been passionate about art. The most intriguing aspect of any art is that it doesn’t have a single confined meaning, it is open to multiple interpretations, and these multiple meanings are all finite and substantial. Driven by this passion for art, I started my journey as an art consultant, collector, and curator, and started my company, Art Select, in the year 2008, and set up two art lounges in Dubai—one at the Grand Hyatt and the second at the Emirates Towers. Over the next decade, I continued to gain worldwide experience and curated over 60 art exhibitions across all four continents. In the year 2010, with the aim of making Bahrain the centre of art, I set up the first ever art lounge in Bahrain called Hue. In my attempt to make Bahrain the focal point of art in the West Asian region, I created and established the kingdom’s first international art fair, Art Bahrain Across Borders (ArtBAB). Since its inception in the year 2015, ArtBAB has grown exponentially and has become an extension of my resolve to offer a platform for Bahraini artists to showcase their art in front of the entire world.

Focusing on Bahrain’s Creative Landscape

ArtBAB focused on the creative landscape of Bahrain and the artwork of Bahraini artists. The success of ArtBAB was a catalyst that inspired me to create and curate Bahrain’s first ever International Artists Program, which penned another epic success story by traversing the United Kingdom, France, Russia, India, Italy, and Singapore in three years and benefiting more than 50 Bahraini artists. The international programme was designed to bridge the wealth gap between Bahrain’s local artistic talent and the rest of the world.

Art Select has played an instrumental role in positioning and connecting Bahraini artists to galleries, collectors, and art enthusiasts across the globe. Art Select has lent support to local artists and has exhibited them in some of the most well-respected and prestigious art destinations, from the Grand Palais in Paris to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Singapore. Art Select offers expanded services in design, marketing, communications, and events across various sectors. Taking forward the vision to expand Bahraini artists’ reach across the world, “The Bahrain Room” was conceived in collaboration with renowned Indian designer JJ Vallaya and the artisans of Bahrain. “The Bahrain Room” is a handwoven, sustainable product line crafted in Bahrain.

More recently, when the world struggled under the economic pressures created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Indigo Advisory was launched where artisans shared their experiences and consulted. Along with Indigo Advisory, a channel was launched named Design by Art Select. The channel works with artisans across nations to create bespoke products inspired by the Gulf.

Driven by her passion for contemporary art as a consultant, collector and curator, Kaneka founded Art Select in 2008.

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