KaChaTaThaPa
International Calligraphy Festival of Kerala (ICFK) 2024
It is with immense happiness that we would like to inform you about the second edition of the International Calligraphy Festival of Kerala, scheduled to be held in Kochi, Kerala in 2-5 October 2024.
This is a one-of-its-kind International Festival in India, that is exclusively focused on calligraphy. It is a momentous occasion for the art-loving community in the region, as they welcome top artists and calligraphers from around the world to God’s own Country.
Hosted by the KaChaTaThaPa Foundation in association with the Kerala State Lalitha Kala Academy, this event is a continuation of the International Calligraphy Festival that was held in Kochi in October 2023.
The event will comprise of an impressive lineup of talented calligraphers from South Korea, France and Vietnam imparting their priceless knowledge to the students, teachers, advertising artists, art lovers and art enthusiasts from various fine arts colleges, design institutes and design colleges in Kerala.
Introducing various aspects of calligraphy, discussions on the possibilities of calligraphy, informative lectures on various art instruments, workshops, live demos and calligraphy quizzes are all part of the agenda for this four-day event.
An International Calligraphy Exhibition will also be held in connection with this festival, at Durbar Hall, Ernakulam, which will be open to the public.
Letters Matter!
Calligraphy, the art of beautiful writing, has travelled far and wide since its origins. Contemporary calligraphy excels in giving definite form to signs in the most creative, harmonious and comprehensible fashion, using pen, ink brush or other writing tools. This expressive visual art, which is highly regarded all over the world, finds comparatively less practitioners in India and a minimum in Kerala.
The First International Calligraphy Festival of Kerala (ICFK)
ICFK envisions providing the much-demanded uplift to this gifted art in Kerala. It is organized by Ka Cha Ta Tha Pa Foundation, which earnestly strives for the promotion of calligraphy in the state. The festival can be viewed as a noble extension of the National Calligraphy Meet held at Trivandrum in 2019 and 2022. This time, participants include renowned artists from France, Germany, Iran and Vietnam, making it The First International Calligraphy Festival of Kerala. 16 reputed calligraphers from all over India also take part in the 4-day festival.
Festival Lights & Colors
The festival presents a wide range of programs on calligraphy, making it a grand gala event. It includes exhibitions, workshops, talks, discussions, live demo, quiz on calligraphy and other entertainment programs. It deals at length with the numerous aspects, possibilities and methods of the art and also its tools and application. The festival promises to be a new, wonderful experience for design professionals, art students, artists, art aficionados and general public as well.
Celebrated calligraphers
participating in the festival
Achyut Palv
Achyut Palav is one among the pre-eminent Indian calligraphers, who has made enormous strides in the field, demonstrating in Devanagari, English and other Indian languages. His inimitable mastery can be viewed in that work, which ingeniously synthesizes calligraphy and performing arts. He is the founder of Achyut Palav School of Calligraphy and a great promoter of the art in India.
Akshaya Thombre
Akshaya Thombre is a well known artist who focuses her attention on Roman calligraphy. A persistent inquirer in the domain of calligraphy, Akshaya is known for the experimentations she made all through her career. These single-minded efforts saw her develop the black letter, a composition reached through inventive modifications and variations of her own style. She has represented the country in numerous international exhibitions and is the recipient of The Excellence Award at the 18th Cheongju Jikji World Calligraphy Association, South Korea in 2021.
Athul Jayaraman
Athul Jayaraman is a Graphic Designer specialising in Type Design and Typography. Since 2020, he has been working for Ek Type, the esteemed type-foundry specialising in Indic scripts. At Ek Type, he has created multiple typefaces as part of several larger type families. His expertise encompasses various facets of communication design, including publication design, illustration, visual identities and motion design. Additionally, he has designed numerous title sequences for films, showcasing his versatility and creativity in the field.
Đăng Học
He is a multi-faceted creative individual who is a former World Record holder, Calligrapher, Singer, Actor and TV presenter, in his native country of Vietnam. After his graduation in Theatre and Cinema from Ho Chi Minh City University, he pursued his studies in Graphic design at Mission College and currently lives in Ho Chi Minh City.
G V Sreekumar
A senior tutor at IDC School of Design, IIT Mumbai, Sreekumar has proved his excellence in wide-ranging areas as Typography, Publication design, Information Design, Anatomy, Figure Drawing and Design instruction. In a remarkable professional career, he has worked with The Times of India Group, CHIP, Jasubhai Digital Media etc. He works as the design consultant for several publications and is a visiting professor at NID Ahmadabad, MIT Pune, IIT Jabalpur and IIT Guwahati.
Gopal Patel
Gopal is a calligraphy artist who has conducted workshops at schools, colleges and also as part of events across the country. His work has been exhibited in the leading calligraphy exhibitions in India organised by both Government and enthusiast groups. He focuses in Gujarati calligraphy and organised a solo show in Ahmedabad in Feb 2023 named “Amdawad Ni Gufa”
Hiral Bhagat
Hiral Bhagat, a pioneer in Gujarati Calligraphy, is the first female International Award-winning Calligrapher from Gujarat. Her work focuses on taking calligraphy in visual art form. Her artworks have been selected and awarded at Calligraphies in Conversations, San Francisco, 2019, Tool Art-National Library of Singapore, 2019, Cheongju Jikji World Calligraphy Exhibition, South Korea, International Design Conference at Women in Design Plus, 2020, Mumbai, the Silk Road Calligraphy by Iranian National Commission for UNESCO, All India Fine Arts and Craft Society, Delhi 2023, Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata, 1st Art, Architecture & Design Biennale, New Delhi, 2023, Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2023. Her work has also been featured in the International Calligraphy magazine called Letter Arts Review in 2023. Her calligraphy posters have won awards at Typoday 2021 & TypoDay 2023. She has served as a jury member of several prestigious calligraphy events and has been invited to teach calligraphy at many leading Art Institutes and Design Universities.
Inku Kumar
A self-taught calligraphy artist, Inku Kumar is noted for his impacting style and arresting experimentations. An MFA degree holder in Applied Art, he chose calligraphy as his vocation and has blazed a new trail in the field. His studio is named CALLIART. He has worked for the promotion of major brands in India.
Dong-jun Son
Dong-jun Son is currently the Head, Department of Calligraphy at the Dongbang Graduate University, and has participated in 25 solo exhibitions and over 20 international art fairs. He has served in the jury for several Calligraphy Exhibitions in Korea. He is a member of the Korea Arts Council and the Artistic Director of the famous Korea Grand Jong Sang Film Festival.
Michel D’Anastasio (France)
As an aspiring student at DUCTUS, the first French Calligraphy Association, Michel had the privilege of getting trained under eminent tutors, very early in life. He acquired profound knowledge in occidental calligraphy and Chinese calligraphy before turning to Hebrew lettering. He is regarded as the best and authentic Hebrew calligrapher and is famed for his matchless style.
Mukesh Kumar
Mukesh Kumar, whose works rank high in aesthetic parameters, ensures his definite space in the Indian calligraphic arena. The artist from Madhya Pradesh is firmly rooted in his conviction that art is nothing but self-expression and the most beautiful thing that exists.
Muqtar Ahammed
Muqtar Ahmed has been working in the field of calligraphy for several years. He worked as an A grade calligrapher with one of India’s leading dailies, Daily Salar in Bangalore.
Muqtar attended the International Typography and Calligraphy Conference Dubai organised by the American University of Dubai, the Second International Arabic Calligraphy Exhibition in Algeria and the Sharjah Exhibition. He has participated in calligraphy exhibitions and events in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, and the UAE.
Apart from these, Muqtar also attended the Terengganu International Calligraphy Award ceremony in 2012, 2013 and 2014 on invitation to the Malaysia Calligraphy festival. He is the First Indian to receive ljaza (Masters Diploma) in Arabic calligraphy from IRCICA in Istanbul, turkey.
Narayana Bhattathiri
The first designated Malayalam calligrapher from Kerala, Bhattathiri has lettered the titles for the works of front line Malayalam writers in leading periodicals of the state. He has had a successful career spanning 4 decades. The recipient of the prestigious Jigji Excellence Award in International Calligraphy in 2017-2018, Bhattathiri’s work is displayed at the Calligraphy Stone Park in Herbin, China.
Navkanth Karide
Navkanth was fascinated towards arts and lettering in his childhood and is someone who has an affinity towards traditional arts and lettering. He believes that it is not about the words that he uses, it is about the font style that is developed & used to communicate thoughts and conveys the underlying emotion, that matters. He hails from Hyderabad and does calligraphy works in Telugu, his mother tongue.
Nikheel Aphale
Nikheel Aphale is an established graphic designer and calligrapher with prime interest in the letter forms of Devanagari. An NID graduate, Nikheel’s works has been published in Letter Arts Review, the much-admired calligraphy magazine in US. He was the proud participant of the World Calligraphy Biennale, conducted in South Korea and China.
Qamar Dagar
A pictorial calligrapher of repute, Qamar comes from the illustrious Dagar family, the traditional singers of Dhrupad, a genre in Hindustani music. A devoted practitioner and proponent of calligraphy, Qamar is the founder director of Qalamkaari Creative Calligraphy Trust and the recipient of Naari Shakthi Samman from the President of India and the Women’s International Award.
Rajeesh KV
Rajeesh is a computer programmer with keen interest in typography and type development. He contributes to a large number of Open Source Software projects. He is involved in the maintenance of over a dozen of traditional orthography Malayalam fonts made freely available by Swathanthra Malayalam Computing and Rachana Institute of Typography. He has also developed software tools for font production which were instrumental in the making of N. Bhattathiri’s designs into open fonts such as Sundar, Karuna, Ezhuthu & Chingam. He likes to use TeX, Metafont and Linux
Salva Rasool
Salva Rasool’s unique fusion of mystical stylised Arabic script with abstract contemporary modern art has enthralled global art aficionados for over three decades and she is presently acquiring her mastery in the challenging Thuluth script under the guidance of her masters. She is especially recognised for her use of unorthodox materials and textures in her mixed media paintings, essentially bridging the gap between the pen and the paintbrush to creating stunning art out of eloquent language. Her unique fusion of mystical stylised Arabic with abstract modern art have been featured in the media as well as many prominent art publications globally. She is regarded as one of the most prominent exponents of Arabic Stylised Calligraphy in India.
Sanjana Chatlani
Sanjana Chatlani is a calligrapher, lettering artist and entrepreneur based in Mumbai. She brings words to life through her beautiful lettering strokes. Having discovered her passion for calligraphy and lettering, she quit her corporate job to start – ‘The Bombay Lettering Company’, which has now become a popular home-grown brand.
Santhosh Kshirsagar
Dr. Santosh Bhaskar Kshirsagar is a B.F.A. and M.F.A. (by research) from Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art. Mumbai, India, has been experimenting and doing research in Indian Calligraphy for more than the past 30 years. He has conducted hundreds of workshops on basic Devanagari Calligraphy and stylisation, in different parts of the world. In addition, he has been teaching Indian (especially Devanagari) Calligraphy, Typography and visual communication design, for more than two decades at JJIAA, Mumbai, and is currently the Dean of the institution. He is an academic consultant to government organizations and institutions throughout the country and founded Aksharaya, the only organisation working for Indian script, calligraphy and Typography.
Shipra Rohatgi
Shipra Rohatgi is a Delhi-based professional calligrapher with vast experience working for global brands as Mont Blanc, Dior, Louis Vuitton, BMW, Dom Perignon and Salvatore Ferragamo that earns her a reputation par excellence. She has held the covetable position of the official calligrapher of Mont Blanc.
Suresh Wagmore
Suresh Waghmore, a multi-talented individual, is an artist, creative designer, calligrapher, and skilled pen maker based in Bengaluru. Since his graduation, he has delved into various disciplines, mastering the art of experimental non-objective abstracts, captivating watercolour landscapes and portraits, and the graceful art of calligraphy in both Kannada and English scripts. Additionally, he has honed his craft as a pen maker, creating bespoke tools for his calligraphy endeavours.
Tarun DeepGirdher
The chief designer of Graphic Design Department, NID, Ahmadabad, Tarun Deep Girdher has long and prolific years of experience in design education and academic governance. An expert practitioner of the art, he takes up projects pertaining to communication meant for rural community. His major research areas include Gurmukhi script, social behavior and indigenous visual culture.
D Udayakumar
The HOD of Design, IIT Guwahati, Dr. Udayakumar, with his profound insight and brilliance, works extensively in areas ranging from visual communication, design research and architecture. Kumar is better known to public as the designer of the new Indian Rupee Symbol.