Conversations with Collectors, ft. Dr. Furqaan Ahmed and Jaiveer Johal
VIEW EVENT DETAILSTuesday, 11 February, 12:30pm onwards

The functioning of the global arts ecosystem depends squarely on the art market. This $60+ billion dollar economy, composed of collectors and patrons, ensures that artists, curators, gallerists and museum professionals and the larger public, can engage with profound cultural histories and imaginative contemporary experimentation. Writing for Art Basel, the critic Nick Hackworth recently opined how, especially “outside the West, patrons too often remain the only option when it comes to funding.” While the role of the ‘collector’ in sustaining an art scene and its emerging talent cannot be understated (particularly in the absence of publicly-funded schemes), collecting also possesses a whole other dimension of value. In The Joys of Collecting, renowned art-lover J. Paul Getty lauded the practice as one that grants “breadth and depth to one’s whole existence.” By participating in the acquisition, commission and display of objects, patronage offered him a pathway to enriching the soul.
A quarter of our way into the 21st century, winds of economic change see young Asian collectors wielding increasing influence in the art market. In the same breath, South Asian art is ever growing in its global appeal and resonance; at the end of 2024, for example, the world’s largest online arts marketplace Artsy calculated that, year-on-year, Indian artists are now the most sought-after cohort by nationality. Given this context, this moment is ripe to study the steady, cultivated endeavors of South Asian arts patrons. Today, a select group of passionate individuals, often from business families, nurture collections of exquisite regional art while simultaneously supporting the very life breath of their local arts ecosystem. In many ways, this is a contemporary continuation of a long tradition, for “art in the Indian subcontinent reveals a deep history of patronage.”
It is in this spirit that Asia Society India Centre brings to Colombo an edition of Conversations with Collectors, featuring collectors Jaiveer Johal (from India) and Dr. Furqaan Ahmed (from Pakistan) in conversation with each other. Bringing together like-minded collectors from across borders, the programme will dive into their affinities and styles of patronage; their collecting journeys; and the ways in which their trajectories help build support for artists in India and Pakistan, respectively, and South Asia on a larger level.
Johal and Ahmed's free-flowing discussion will offer fresh insight into what collecting comprises as a serious practice, how they have developed their individual patronage philosophies, and what the future holds. The superimposition of two patrons from India and Pakistan, well-versed with the contemporary art market, is, further, aptly placed to invigorate a wider South Asian dialogue on aesthetic economy: the subtleties and considerations, impulses and anathemas that shape collectors’ visions and, by extension, young artists’ capacities, in the present.
This invite-only programme is presented in collaboration with KALĀ, a platform committing to bringing together the best of South Asian modern and contemporary art.
SPEAKERS

Jaiveer Johal has been a keen collector of modern and Contemporary Indian art, including textile art for the past decade and has a keen interest in the decorative arts of South India and the Deccan in particular. Within this field, the keystone of his collecting has been the Deccan. This work manifests as both, one that speaks to him and also one that, in a way, speaks of him. The work is a confluence of the cultures of the north and south; which is also a personal confluence of cultures that Jaiveer grew up around - the first half of his life in Delhi and the second in his chosen home of Chennai. In the pursuit of his passion, he has not only collected examples of ancient art spanning from Gandhara to the Nayaka but he has also worked with ateliers and craftsman for the revival and upgradation of traditional skills, in the field of woodwork and textile design to make them more relevant to the modern Indian home and the international market. He serves as a patron of the Delhi Contemporary Art Week, the Madras Art Weekend, the Chennai Photo Biennale and other art organizations. With a motto of ‘For Madras, From Madras’ he has founded the Avtar Foundation for the Arts, to bring great quality Modern and Contemporary art into the city in a curated capsule and to take the best that this city has to offer to the broader world. In his professional life he runs the Johal Logistics Group - with interests in the automotive logistics sector and contract manufacturing. He also serves on the board of startups particularly in the clean energy sector.

Dr. Furqaan Ahmed is a U.S. trained gastroenterologist who returned home to Karachi 17 years ago. One unexpected benefit of returning home was the development of an interest in Pakistani contemporary art.
The Furqaan Ahmed collection is a significant private collection of contemporary Pakistani art. The collection consists of a wide range of media including ceramics, paintings, works on paper, sculpture, installation, prints, photography and new media art. The collections of Pakistani contemporary ceramics and new media work, in particular, are the largest of their kind. The collection has lent works to galleries, biennales, and museums both in Pakistan and abroad and is supported by a large reference library and archive.
Dr. Furqaan Ahmed is also an art book publisher. The aim of the books is to document and invite scholarship on various aspects of the collection. The first book Beyond the Glaze, is the first in-depth examination of Pakistani contemporary ceramics. The book is also a tribute to the late modernist ceramicist, Mian Salahuddin. This was followed by Finding Jinnah, an examination of Pakistani history and Jinnah’s legacy through contemporary art. A third book, The Later, has just been released and looks at the relationship between our colonial past and postcolonial present and Pakistani contemporary art practices.
Ongoing projects included collaborations with different universities in Pakistan, consisting of curated loans paired with programs of lectures, panel discussions, and publications, and projects to begin digitizing part of the large art library and archive.
In collaboration with

Event Details
Sapumal Foundation, 32/4 Barnes Place, Colombo, Sri Lanka