Kalakriti Art Gallery delighted to present their upcoming group exhibition Standing on Sacred Ground opening with a preview on 14 September at Bikaner House.
The exhibition brings together the works of artists who explore the many ways in which the sacred inhabits our inner and outer worlds. This careful curation of works by emerging contemporary artists include Bolgum Nagesh Goud, Bratin Khan, Dhruti Mahajan, Keerti Pooja, Mayadhara Sahu, R. Giridhara Gowd and Sachin Jaltare.
Standing on Sacred Ground brings together artists who draw from the rich visual vocabulary of indigenous practices, traditional motifs and cultural memory, reinterpreting these references through distinctly contemporary practices. The resulting works occupy a space between the familiar and unfamiliar, evoking the myths, legends, fables and stories that have travelled across generations while offering new ways of looking at their underlying meanings. Ancient frescoes, temple art, traditional mask-making, murals and puppetry traditions are featured across the exhibition. Earth pigments, gold leaf, bronze and other materials connect the works to longstanding artistic traditions, even as the artists employ contemporary forms, abstraction and visual languages. At the heart of the exhibition are questions of time, ritual and memory, and how these continue to shape artistic practice today.
Bratin Khan’s monochromatic tempera paintings include memories of rural Bengal, classical music and the rhythms of childhood. Memories of his mother, returning home from school, rain, lush landscapes and lotus fronds intermingle with his years at Visva-Bharati University, where he developed his distinctive approach to tempera.
For R. Giridhara Gowd, the figures of Shiva and Shakti become meditations on creation and destruction, as well as the balance between masculine and feminine energies. His engagement with the mural traditions of Lepakshi, Badami and Hampi, alongside his experience with tempera and fresco techniques, is reimagined through a contemporary sensibility. Sachin Jaltare approaches Shiva and Shakti and explores ideas of form and formlessness, presence and absence. The gradual modulation of jewel-like colours in his paintings reflects an inward process of transformation, where thought, colour and emotion evolve together. Bolgum Nagesh Goud draws on Telangana’s Cheriyal and leather puppetry traditions in his fibreglass and bronze sculptures of Rama, Sita, Hanuman, Krishna and Rukmini.
Keerti Pooja observes fleeting pauses within everyday routines, using recurring images of garlands and unfinished threads to evoke gestures and memories that gradually fade with time. Dhruti Mahajan approaches time through repetition and contemplation in her minimalist white-on-white works, where subtle shifts of mark, light, shadow and texture create a meditative experience. The architectural heritage of Odisha provides a different point of departure for Mayadhar Sahu, whose memories of the temples in Puri and Konark lead him beyond their visible splendour. His work reflects on the remarkable relationship between individual stones in temple architecture; a relationship of trust and interdependence that allows structures to endure without cement binding them together.
Standing on Sacred Ground proposes a contemporary understanding of the sacred and is not an exhibition about religious art in a conventional sense. The artists’ practices become bridges between ancient philosophies and contemporary life, between collective memory and individual experience, and between inherited traditions and new forms of artistic expression.
Gallerist Rekha Lahoti says, “Kalakriti has curated various kinds of exhibitions, and we have always recognised that we have very different kinds of audiences. Some people are drawn to eclectic contemporary works, while others are interested in emerging artists which is why we have programmes such as Origin Story, which is especially relevant for young collectors. Our basic palette has always included established and seasoned artists. Standing on Sacred Ground brings together seven such artists, but explores their practices through a very different kind of material intelligence. There is a wide range of materials in the exhibition, and each artist approaches and processes their material very differently. Their narratives are also distinct, however what connects them is the idea of spirituality, but spirituality takes a very different form for each artist. Standing on Sacred Ground is about an invitation to pause and think. These works are not merely objects to be looked at; they can become part of our everyday lives and our way of seeing the world. It is about allowing these small moments of reflection, beauty and spirituality to become part of how we live.”
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