'First Take' is an annual exhibition-cum-art award event by Abir, a charitable trust dedicated to supporting emerging artists in India. While the exhibition used to take place in Ahmedabad earlier, the sixth edition shall take place in Delhi for the first time, in November.

1. First Take Update, 2022: Eminent Jury Expediently Selects Finalists For
Exhibition
'First Take' is an annual exhibition-cum-art award event by Abir, a charitable trust dedicated
to supporting emerging artists in India. While the exhibition used to take place in
Ahmedabad earlier, the sixth edition shall take place in Delhi for the first time, in November.
First Take Jury For 2022. L To R: Manisha Parekh, Manjunath Kamath, V. Ramesh, And
G. R. Iranna | Abir Pothi
Article by Vinay Seth
Since 2016, Abir has been annually inviting artwork entries from emerging artists from all
over India, where after the entrants are shortlisted for displaying their works in a group
show. From these shortlisted exhibition finalists, the top few — 10 this year — are selected
for the First Take award, carrying an honorarium.
First Take 2022 opened its gate for entries on 23rd May, and closed the submission round
on 14th July. Abir was overwhelmed by the positive response, with around a 1000 entrants
participating from over 300 cities across the country. The entries needed to be shortlisted
for the exhibition though, and Abir was delighted to get on board esteemed personalities
from the world of Indian Contemporary Art for the jury. This team of five comprises the
notable artists V. Ramesh, G.R. Iranna, Manjunath Kamath, and Manisha Parekh, and the art
historian Jayaram Poduval.

2. First Take 2022 Jury with Team Abir Pothi | Abir Pothi
The jury was invited for the shortlisting round to the office of Abir group’s art magazine,
Abir Pothi, in New Delhi, on the 21st and 22nd of August. We were pleased to host them,
and felt grateful to them for having sacrificed their Sunday - 21st August - for the sake of
contributing to the future of India’s budding artists. One of the esteemed jury members, V.
Ramesh, came all the way from Chennai just to tend to the jury selection, heading back in
the evening of 22nd immediately after the duty was done. Jayaram Poduval, got stuck with
some commitments though, and unfortunately couldn’t attend the event in person. He
made up for his physical absence, however, by going through the entries by himself, and
sending us the pen drive containing his verdict.
Abir founder Ruby Jagrut giving a virtual note of thanks to the jury members | Abir Pothi

3. This first stage entailed shortlisting from hundreds of entries. The round was opened on
Sunday the 21st, with Abir founder, - Ruby Jagrut — an artist herself briefing the jury over a
video call on a laptop. After exchanging warm greetings and a note of thanks, the team
wasted no time in getting to work. The task was carried out expediently by the jury with the
aid of our sub-editor Rajesh projecting soft copies onto a projection screen, from our office
computer. The team did an excellent job of shortening down to over hundred entries for the
final display. The artworks sent varied in mediums, ranging from painting to sculpture, from
oil on canvas to mixed media, and from bronze to terracotta.
Jury on judgement | Abir Pothi
During the process, Manisha Parekh emphasised that even though the jury members held
their own distinct views about each entry, it was important for them to peacefully come to a
consensus. For this reason, the four worked in tandem, going to the lengths of holding a
separate round just to finalise on those contestants for whom everyone wasn’t on the same
page during the first viewing. They took great pains to ensure that the process was fair, and
that as many deserving candidates got shortlisted as possible. The four eminent artists were
very giving of their time. G. R. Iranna, in fact, had to get his measurements done on Monday
for an art-cum-fashion show he was to soon model for. He got that preponed to early
Monday morning, so that he could attend the jury process on time.
Working in tandem | Abir Pothi

4. Our team managed to shoot V. Ramesh and G.R. Iranna on camera, recording their
reflections over the two days gone by. Iranna was highly appreciative of Abir’s founder Ruby
Jagrut, as he felt that artists are otherwise generally a bit lazy to connect other people in the
field. He expressed that he felt it his responsibility to encourage initiatives like Abir and First
Take, so as to serve as a helping hand to the next generation of budding talent in the
country. V. Ramesh stated that he had heard about this event from his artist-friends, and
had been looking forward to contributing. Both expressed their slight disappointment
though, over the deterioration of art education in the country, reflective in some of the
entries sent. We in the Abir family hope to remediate this issue, by doing our best to
support emerging voices of contemporary art in India.
Day 2 culminates with a hearty lunch | Abir Pothi
We are looking forward to the jury assembling again in the coming months, for the selection
of 10 entries to be given the First Take award. Stay tuned to Abir Pothi for the next First
Take update!
In case you submitted your work for First Take 2022, you can check whether you were
selected, on Abir’s Instagram post.