Behind the gallery
Two rooms of paintings, and a workshop that smells of teak.
- 26
- artists we show
- 1991
- year the first frame was joined
- 4,000
- frames made each year
Who we are
Hung on a white wall.
The front rooms of an old Tamil house on Rue Romain Rolland hold the paintings. In the back courtyard, Joseph and two framers cut, join and finish every frame by hand, and nothing is hung until it has been seen in morning light.
Paintings and prints by artists from the Coromandel coast, and frames made by hand in our workshop behind the gallery. Book a free 30-minute framing visit. We hold mouldings and mounts against your work in daylight, and give you a written price before you decide.
— The Vellai Suvar Gallery team, Puducherry
What we stand for
Three things we will not change
Artists paid first
Artists receive their share within a week of a sale, before the work even leaves the gallery.
Frames that can be undone
We use hinges, corners and stitching rather than glue, so any work can be taken out and reframed later.
Seen in daylight
Every work and every frame is checked by the courtyard window, because that is where colour is honest.
Bring your painting, choose its frame.
Book a free 30-minute framing visit. We hold mouldings and mounts against your work in daylight, and give you a written price before you decide.
Visit or call usOur story so far
Vellai Suvar Gallery, year by year
- 1991
A framing table in a garage
Joseph Arokiasamy starts framing calendars, wedding photographs and film posters from a garage on Rue Suffren, with one mitre saw.
- 2003
The first exhibition
Local painters ask him to frame and hang their work. He clears the front room of a rented house for a two-week show of six artists.
- 2012
Moving to Rue Romain Rolland
The gallery moves into an old Tamil courtyard house, with two rooms for paintings and the workshop in the back.
- Today
Twenty-six artists and a print press
His daughter Anita runs the gallery, Joseph runs the workshop, and a small press in the courtyard prints linocuts and etchings.
Choose
A work from the walls, or bring your own.
Frame
We make it to size in 7–21 days.
Hang
Delivered and hung free in Puducherry.
Reviews
What customers say
Sample reviews, written for this demo. Real customer reviews replace them on your store.
We brought my grandmother’s wedding saree border. It is now stitched on linen in a deep frame and it is the first thing guests see.
Bought the Rue Dumas print by post. It came in a sturdy tube with a handwritten note about the photograph.
Joseph held four mouldings against my watercolour in the courtyard and the right one was obvious. Ready in ten days.
Be at the next opening.
A WhatsApp note before each new show, with the artists and the date. Openings are on Friday evenings.