Aakriti Art Gallery Relaunches ‘GenNext’ as a Year-Round Platform for Emerging Artists

Kolkata: Building on the success of its acclaimed GenNext exhibition series, Aakriti Art Gallery has announced the relaunch of the initiative in a new and expanded format aimed at providing continuous visibility to promising young artists from across India and beyond.

Originally introduced in 2006 as a platform to discover and showcase emerging talent, GenNext will now evolve into a permanent feature on the Aakriti Art Gallery website, offering collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts year-round access to carefully selected works by the next generation of artists.

Unlike the earlier exhibition-based format, the new GenNext initiative will function as a dynamic online platform where artworks by young practitioners will be regularly updated and presented to a global audience.

As part of the programme,  Aakriti will also actively promote selected artists through its online journal Talk Art, publishing interviews, artist profiles, critical essays, studio visits, and feature stories that provide deeper insight into their practice and help build long-term visibility beyond exhibitions alone.

Speaking about the relaunch, Vikram Bachhawat, Founder-Director of Aakriti Art Gallery, said:

“Every established artist was once an emerging artist waiting for an opportunity. With the relaunch of GenNext, we want to create a sustainable platform that not only showcases young talent but also documents, promotes, and supports their artistic journey. Through our website and Talk Art, we hope to connect promising artists with collectors, scholars, and audiences around the world.”

The initiative is open to artists below the age of 40 working across painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, mixed media, installation, and other contemporary practices.

Artists wishing to be considered for inclusion in GenNext are invited to submit their curriculum vitae and portfolio to:

creative@aakritiartgallery.com

The relaunch reinforces Aakriti Art Gallery’s long-standing commitment to nurturing emerging talent while creating meaningful connections between artists, collectors, and the wider art community. By combining digital accessibility with editorial engagement through Talk Art, the gallery hopes to build one of India’s most comprehensive platforms dedicated to discovering and supporting the next generation of creative voices.

Applications are now open.

Aakriti Art Gallery(A Unit of  Chisel Crafts Pvt.Ltd)

Orbit Enclave, 1st Floor 12/3A, Hungerford Street, Kolkata – 700 017

Tel: 91 33 22893027/5041 Fax: 91 33 22895042

"ECHOES OF CARBON" Solo Show of Paintings By Rajib Dey in Nehru Centre Art Gallery

 Echoes of Carbon marks the public culmination of a journey that began far from the studio. Trained as an engineer and having spent more than three decades in the structured world of industry and management, Rajib Dey turned seriously toward art after retirement, pursuing a practice shaped not by academic instruction but through sustained self-learning, observation, and personal discipline. The exhibition brings together a body of charcoal and graphite works that reflects this transition from technical precision to visual contemplation.

Working almost exclusively in monochrome, Dey explores the expressive possibilities of carbon-based media, using charcoal, graphite, and powdered tonal applications to construct images that move between representation and introspection. The exhibition's title, Echoes of Carbon, is therefore both material and metaphorical. Carbon is the substance of his chosen medium, but it also becomes a vehicle for memory, devotion, and the enduring traces of human experience preserved through mark-making.

The works on view revolve around two recurring concerns: spirituality and form. Portraits of Buddha, Swami Vivekananda, Sai Baba, and other revered figures occupy an important place within the exhibition, not as doctrinal assertions but as studies in stillness, conviction, and human aspiration. Dey approaches these subjects through light rather than colour, allowing subtle gradations of tone to create an atmosphere of reflection. The absence of chromatic distraction places emphasis on expression, texture, and the psychological presence of the image.

Alongside these spiritual subjects are detailed studies of architecture and cultural monuments. Here, the artist's engineering background quietly resurfaces. Structural rhythm, ornamental detail, proportion, and spatial order become central concerns. Whether depicting sacred icons or architectural landmarks, Dey demonstrates a sustained fascination with the relationship between illumination and shadow, and with the ways in which form emerges from darkness.

What distinguishes this exhibition is not the pursuit of stylistic novelty but the persistence of a self-directed artistic inquiry. Dey's practice emerges from patience, repetition, and an enduring commitment to learning outside institutional frameworks. His drawings reveal an artist attentive to craft and devoted to the slow discipline of observation.

Echoes of Carbon presents the work of an individual who arrived at art through an unconventional route. The exhibition invites viewers into a monochromatic world where charcoal becomes more than a medium. It becomes a language through which faith, memory, architecture, and contemplation are rendered visible, one tonal transition at a time.

 From: 16th to 22nd June 2026 - "ECHOES OF CARBON"

Solo Show of Paintings By Rajib Dey

Venue: Nehru Centre Art Gallery

AC Gallery Dr. Annie Besant Road Worli, Mumbai 400018

Timing : 11am to 7pm Mob. No.: +91 9969228107.Email: rajib1956@gmail.com

"Florals & Forms" A Group Exhibition of Paintings by 4 contemporary artists in Jehangir Art Gallery

"Florals and Forms" – A Group Exhibition by Four Contemporary Women Artists at Jehangir Art Gallery Exhibition 

Florals and Forms brings together the creative expressions of four contemporary women artists whose works celebrate the beauty of flowers, nature, folk traditions, and human emotions. The exhibition offers art lovers a rich visual journey through diverse artistic styles, themes, and perspectives.

 

Sudha Barshikar has been actively contributing to the art world for over five decades. Inspired by nature, spirituality, and Indian culture, her celebrated series “Whispers of Nature” beautifully captures the grace and serenity of flowers and the natural world.

 

Nanda Pathak has been actively associated with the field of art for nearly 30 years and has participated in numerous prestigious art exhibitions. Since 2019, she has been a regular participant in the Indian Art Festival. Her paintings beautifully reflect the richness of Indian culture.

Her artworks are strongly influenced by Rajasthani folk art and the social traditions of Rajasthan. Through her paintings, she sensitively portrays nature, human emotions, peace, and the balance of life, creating visually engaging and meaningful compositions.

Art has been her lifelong passion, and her dedication to the field has earned her several accolades. She has received the Emerging Artist Award at an Art Contest, the International Achieve Women Achievers Artist Award in 2021, and the Mani Karnika Art Gallery Gold Award in 2025.

 

Janhavi Bhide, a multidisciplinary artist from Pune, presents works characterized by rich textures, abstract forms, and the striking use of gold tones. Her paintings create a unique synthesis of science, spirituality, and aesthetics, inviting viewers into a world of contemplation and beauty.

 

Sohnal V Saxena is an electronics engineer, art therapist, and accomplished painter. Her artworks blend Indian folk traditions with contemporary artistic sensibilities. Nature, Indian culture, folklore, and human emotions form the core themes of her practice. Distinguished by vibrant colours, folk-inspired visual language, and expressive storytelling, she has participated in over 200 exhibitions and has received numerous national and international awards.

 

Through Florals and Forms, visitors will experience a vibrant spectrum of artistic expressions inspired by flowers, nature, folk art, and the many shades of human emotions. The exhibition promises an engaging and enriching visual experience for art enthusiasts, collectors, and the general public alike.

 

The exhibition is curated by Anjali Kaur Arora.

 From: 9th to 15th June 2026

"Florals & Forms"

A Group Exhibition of Paintings by Sudha Barshikar, Nanda Pathak, Sohnal V. Saxena, Janhavi Bhide 

 

VENUE :

Jehangir Art Gallery 

M. G. Road, Kala Ghoda,

Mumbai 400001

Timing - 11am to 7pm

Contact: +91 98672 25691, +91 9820438258

Pigments and paradox -A Group Exhibition of Paintings by 6 contemporary artists in Jehangir Art Gallery

  

Striking a Harmony of Form, Line, and Tradition: Six Contemporary Artists to Showcase at Jehangir Art Gallery MUMBAI, INDIA — The historic Jehangir Art Gallery in Kala Ghoda is set to present a powerful, multi-voiced group art exhibition featuring six of India's compelling contemporary creators. Running from 9th June to 15th June 2026, the week-long showcase will exhibit a deeply evocative collection of paintings and creative experiments that challenge and redefine the boundaries of traditional and modern Indian aesthetics. The exhibition brings together a curated selection of works by a distinguished lineup of participating artists:  Bharati Arya,  K K Sharma,  Neelu Kanwaria,  Piyali Sarkar, Sanjay Soni,  Tanishka Khandelwal

Spanning diverse mediums and visual philosophies, the collection balances technical rigor with profound narrative depth. From meticulous structural geometry and reimagined traditional motifs to fluid, emotionally charged abstracts, the exhibition offers connoisseurs and new collectors alike a rare look into a vibrant tapestry of Indian artistic expression.

Grand Inauguration & Luminary Guests
The exhibition will be formally inaugurated in the presence of a stellar gathering of administrative leaders, eminent cultural preservationists, and art masters:
 Chief Guest:
Ms. Nidhi Choudhari, IAS, Director of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai. Known for her strong advocacy of philosophical, empathetic curation and making art institutions spaces for public healing and inclusion, her presence highlights the exhibition’s cultural weight. 

Guests of Honour: 
Shri Rajendra Patil, Director of the India Art Festival and President of The Bombay Art Society, Mumbai—a towering figure in curating expansive platforms for independent artists across the country.

Shri Prakash Bal Joshi, Eminent Artist and President of the Artists' Centre, Mumbai, is celebrated for his expansive, atmospheric abstractions that capture the stillness of nature and human emotion. 

Shri Jainkamal Sir, Eminent Artist and master of Typography, whose legendary command over line, text-as-form, and design has deeply influenced modern graphic and fine art.

 From: 9^th to 15^th June 2026

“Pigments and paradox”

 

A Group Exhibition of Paintings by

Featuring Artists:

Bharati Arya, K.K. Sharma, Neelu Kanwaria, Piyali Sarkar, Sanjay Soni, Tanishka Khandelwal

 

VENUE:

Jehangir Art Gallery

Gallery - 2

161-B, M.G. Road, Kala Ghoda,

Mumbai 400001

Timing: 11am to 7pm

Contact: +91 9024623501

 

“Where Silence Becomes Form” Solo Show of Paintings By contemporary artist Nidhi Sharma in Jehangir Art Gallery

NIDHI SHARMA PRESENTS “WHERE SILENCE BECOMES FORM” AT JEHANGIR ART GALLERY

Mumbai, June 2026 — Contemporary artist Nidhi Sharma will present her solo exhibition, Where Silence Becomes Form, at Jehangir Art Gallery, Hall 1, Mumbai, from 9–15 June 2026.

The exhibition brings together a new body of paintings inspired by the Himalayan landscape, exploring themes of memory, stillness, transformation, and the subtle relationship between inner and outer worlds. Through layered surfaces, atmospheric colour fields, and intuitive mark-making, Sharma creates contemplative spaces that invite viewers into moments of quiet reflection.

While rooted in observations of forests, mountains, pathways, and forgotten temples, the paintings are not intended as descriptions of specific locations. Instead, they evoke states of presence and perception, offering an experience that lies between landscape and memory.

“These works emerged from a sustained engagement with silence—not as absence, but as a living presence. The paintings draw inspiration from the Himalayas, yet they are ultimately reflections on the inner landscapes we carry within us,” says Sharma.

The exhibition features works ranging from intimate studies to large-scale paintings, including a monumental diptych that serves as the focal point of the exhibition. Across the body of work, subtle shifts of colour, light, and texture suggest moments of emergence, transition, and stillness.

Nidhi Sharma has exhibited extensively in India and internationally. Her exhibition history includes solo presentations at Bombay Art Society, Mumbai Art Fair, Eminent Art Gallery, Gurugram, and Tokyo International Art Fair. She has also participated in World Art Dubai, India Art Festival, and numerous group exhibitions and art initiatives across India and abroad.

The exhibition will be inaugurated on 9 June 2026 at 5:30 PM by noted art critic and curator Uma Nair. Rajendra Patil, President of the Bombay Art Society and Founder of India Art Festival, will attend as Guest of Honour.

From: 9^th to 15^th June 2026

“Where Silence Becomes Form”

Solo Show of Paintings

By contemporary artist Nidhi Sharma

 

VENUE:

Jehangir Art Gallery

161-B, M.G. Road, Kala Ghoda,

Mumbai 400001

Timing: 11am to 7pm

Contact: +91 9867293641

Email: nid.aurora25@gmail.com

Instagram: @nid.aurora.art

 

Aakriti Art Gallery - Beyond the Gallery Walls How Technology Is Reshaping the Future of Art Collecting

For centuries, the experience of discovering art has remained remarkably unchanged.

Collectors visited galleries, attended exhibitions, consulted experts, read catalogues, and gradually developed their understanding of artists and artworks. Knowledge was often scattered across libraries, archives, private collections, exhibition catalogues, and personal networks. Access depended largely on geography, relationships, and opportunity.

Today, that reality is changing.

Across the world, technology is transforming how people encounter, research, collect, and engage with art. Museums are digitising collections, archives are becoming accessible online, artificial intelligence is changing how information is discovered, and collectors increasingly expect immediate access to knowledge alongside access to artworks.

Yet one challenge remains.

While thousands of artworks can now be viewed online, the context surrounding them is often fragmented. Information about artists, provenance, exhibition histories, publications, critical reviews, and archival material frequently exists in separate places. For collectors, researchers, and enthusiasts, discovering an artwork is often much easier than understanding it.

This challenge has inspired a new generation of digital initiatives that seek to bridge the gap between art and information.

Aakriti Art Gallery’s evolving digital ecosystem represents one such effort.

Rather than viewing technology simply as a tool for online sales, the project seeks to create a more integrated environment where artworks, research, archives, publications, and intelligent discovery tools coexist within a single platform dedicated to modern and contemporary art from India and South Asia.

The vision reflects a broader shift taking place across the cultural sector.

Increasingly, collectors are looking for more than transactions. They seek context. They want to understand an artist’s journey, explore exhibition histories, access publications, verify provenance, and discover connections between artworks and broader cultural narratives.

Research has become as important as acquisition.

Knowledge has become as valuable as ownership.

This is particularly relevant in the context of Indian and South Asian art, where significant information remains dispersed across institutions, private collections, exhibition catalogues, family archives, and out-of-print publications. Important artists are frequently under-documented, and valuable historical material can be difficult to access.

Digital platforms have the potential to address this challenge by bringing together resources that were previously disconnected.

At the centre of Aakriti’s initiative is “Ask Aakriti,” an AI-assisted art advisory tool designed to help users navigate artworks, artists, archives, and collecting opportunities. Rather than replacing human expertise, such technologies can act as gateways, helping users discover information more efficiently and encouraging deeper engagement with art.

The platform also seeks to combine artist profiles, provenance records, exhibition histories, research articles, publications, and archival resources within a single environment. The objective is not simply to display art but to provide the knowledge necessary to understand it.

For researchers and students, this creates opportunities for learning and discovery. For collectors, it offers greater transparency and confidence. For artists, it provides visibility within a larger ecosystem of scholarship and documentation. Most importantly, it helps preserve cultural memory.

The future of art will not be defined solely by the artworks that survive.

It will also be defined by the information that survives alongside them.

In many ways, galleries are no longer just places where art is exhibited and sold. Increasingly, they are becoming custodians of archives, publishers of knowledge, facilitators of research, and builders of communities.

Technology does not diminish the importance of seeing an artwork in person. No digital image can fully replace the experience of standing before a painting, sculpture, or print. However, technology can expand access, improve understanding, and create connections that were previously impossible.

The most successful cultural platforms of the future will likely be those that combine the best of both worlds: the immediacy of technology and the depth of scholarship.

As the art world continues to evolve, initiatives that unite artworks, archives, publications, research, and intelligent discovery tools may help shape a more informed, transparent, and connected future for collectors, researchers, artists, and institutions alike.

The gallery of the future may not be defined by its walls.

It may be defined by the knowledge it preserves and the conversations it enables.

The Gold Dynasty: Where Heritage Meets Contemporary Art

Participating Artists:

Vasudeo Kamath, Mohan Naik,  Prakash Bal Joshi, Datta Bansode, Gautam Mukherjee,  Pradip Sarkar,  Umakant Kanade, Kappari Kishan,  Shrikant Kadam,  Govind Dumbre,  Vijaykumar Pandav,  Vishwa Sahni,  Dinkar Jadhav, Abhijit Chaubal, Parag Borse, Satish Patil , Sharad Kale,  Prabhakar Ahobilam, Amit Gautam, Atul Bhalerao, Ayushi Jain, Bhuwan Silhare, Chandrakant Tajbije, Sachin Kharat, Manoj Das, Nagesh Hankare,  Deepak Garud, Ganesh Hire, Somnath Bothe, Sonu Gupta, Suresh Gulage,  Gopal Pardeshi, Sanjay Tikkal, Vishal Phasale,  Yuvraj Patil , Jyothi Menon, Karuna Shigvan, Kashyap Ray, Kiran Shigvan, Kumar Gaikwad, Mamata Mondkar Shingade, Manjula Dubey, Maredu Ramu,  Dr.Shefali Bhujbal,  Mohit Naik,  Nita Desai, Nikita Agarwal, Nilesh Nikam, Paras Parmar, Priti Mehta, Puja Agrawal, , Seemaa Hedaau, Shailesh Gurav, Sofaiya Yasmeen, Taslim Jamal Sonaa,  Yashica Dhabre, Vibha Singh and Bodhi Shilpa

 

Mumbai will witness a unique celebration of art, culture, and craftsmanship with ‘The Gold Dynasty,’ a landmark exhibition presented by Yellow Orchid Heritage Pvt Ltd. at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai. Bringing together an exquisite collection of antique jewellery alongside more than 125 paintings and sculptures by eminent artists from across India, the exhibition offers a rare dialogue between heritage and contemporary creativity. Gold has long occupied a special place in India's cultural imagination, not merely as wealth, but as a symbol of beauty, devotion, memory, and legacy. Reflecting this enduring relationship, the exhibition showcases remarkable antique and concept  jewellery pieces that embody centuries of craftsmanship and aesthetic refinement. Complementing these treasures is a diverse presentation of contemporary art, featuring a wide spectrum of styles, subjects, and artistic voices. From figurative works and sculptures to contemporary abstractions, the exhibition highlights the richness and plurality of India's visual culture.

By placing antique jewellery and contemporary art under one roof, 'The Gold Dynasty’ invites visitors to experience how traditions of adornment, craftsmanship, and artistic expression continue to evolve across generations. The exhibition is not merely a display of objects, but it would be a revival of the Indian golden era, a celebration of India's enduring creative spirit and its timeless pursuit of beauty.

A compelling destination for collectors, connoisseurs, and art enthusiasts alike, ‘The Gold Dynasty’ promises an immersive journey through the many forms of Indian artistic excellence.

 From: 2^nd to 8^th June 2026

Yellow Orchid Heritage Presents

“The Gold Dynasty”

Reviving India’s Timeless Artistic Legacy Through Gold & Heritage

A Group Exhibition of Paintings & Sculptures

by

VENUE:

Jehangir Art Gallery,

AC 1,2,3

161-B, M. G. Road, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai 400001

Timing - 11am to 7pm

Contact: +91 9920804573 / +91 9833949788

“Listening to Birds” Solo Show of Paintings By contemporary artist Mahananda Sagare in Jehangir Art Gallery

In her latest solo exhibition, Mahananda Sagare presents a body of work that emerges from silence, repetition, and prolonged acts of looking. Her paintings inhabit the fragile threshold where observation slowly transforms into inner experience. Rather than treating nature as subject matter, Sagare approaches it as a lived companionship; something sensed through rhythm, atmosphere, and  proximity.

Artist: Mahananda Sagare 

The exhibition moves through recurring forms that appear almost elemental: birds in flight or pause, drifting leaves, dense clusters of organic movement, shadows suspended between stillness and motion. These are not descriptive images. They function more like states of mind; fleeting presences that carry memory, solitude, tenderness, and unease all at once. Her surfaces breathe through layered textures, muted intensities, and sudden bursts of colour that feel less painted than experienced.

There is an honesty in Mahananda’s visual language. The works resist theatricality and overstatement. Instead, they build a personal space where intuition becomes structure and sensitivity becomes method. One senses an artist listening carefully to the world before attempting to translate it. This gives the paintings their quiet force.

Crow series Acrylic on canvas 24inch x 24inch 2025

Her practice also reflects an important contemporary tension: how does one remain inward and attentive in a culture addicted to noise, and visibility? Mahananda Sagare’s works answer this not through protest, but through persistence. They slow perception down. They ask the viewer to stay with an image long enough for it to reveal its emotional temperature.

The Exhibition will be inaugurated on 1st June 2026 by eminent artist Shakuntala Kulkarni.

 From: 1st to 7th June 2026

“Listening to Birds”

Solo Show of Paintings

By contemporary artist Mahananda Sagare

VENUE:

Jehangir Art Gallery

Hirji Gallery

M.G. Road, Kala Ghoda, 

Mumbai 400001

Timing:11am to 7pm

Contact: +91 9860290534

www.mahanandasagare.com

 

“Ethereal Visions” Nehru Centre Art Gallery

26th May to 1st June 2026

“Ethereal Visions”                                                                         

Nehru Centre Art Gallery

AC Gallery

Dr. Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai 400018

Timing: 11am to 7pm

+91 9324647023

 

Jain Kamal's Retrospective Show in Jehangir Art Gallery I 26th May to 1st June 2026

 Renowned artist Jain Kamal's Retrospective show in Jehangir Art Gallery 

A Spiritual Journey of an artist 

Senior artist Jain Kamal’s retrospective at Jehangir Art Gallery, bringing together 101 works, positions itself within an onerous yet compelling proposition: the translation of the ‘Namokar Mantra’ from an ethical utterance into a visual system. In Jain philosophy, this mantra is not supplicatory but hierarchical and ontological. It acknowledges perfected states of being rather than invoking intervention. Its recitation is an act of alignment, a recalibration of the self toward equanimity, restraint, and self-knowledge. The exhibition’s premise rests on extending this inward calibration into the domain of the visible.

Artist: Jain Kamal

Jain Kamal’s practice consistently mobilises script as structure rather than inscription. Letters accumulate into vortices, grids, and concentric dispersals, where language begins to behave as matter: compressing, radiating, dissolving. Elsewhere, manuscript-like grounds and typographic densities evoke the labour of chant-like repetition central to Jain meditative practices, where meaning is not delivered instantly but sedimented through sustained attention.

The reference to Jain cosmology, particularly the notion of cyclical existence and gradations of consciousness, is deployed not as illustrative narrative but as structural principle. The works often stage a movement from dispersion to centre, from multiplicity toward a tentative stillness. This compositional logic mirrors the ethical trajectory embedded in Jain thought: the gradual attenuation of karmic accretions through discipline and awareness.

Crucially, the exhibition’s invocation of global peace emerges as a derivative condition. Within Jain epistemology, peace is neither negotiated nor imposed; it is the by-product of an interior equilibrium achieved through self-regulation. Jain Kamal’s visual strategy: repetition, containment, and centripetal focus, attempts to materialise this proposition: that the ordering of perception precedes the ordering of the world.

The retrospective also folds into itself several parallel strands from the artist’s long professional trajectory. A section titled ‘Namokar Mantra for World Peace’ extends the exhibition’s meditative axis into a broader public-facing rhetoric of ethical coexistence. Another body of work, ‘Ek Fakir Se Doosra Fakir’, presents glimpses from a series of approximately 250 paintings centred on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, positioning political portraiture and public image-making within the artist’s wider engagement with symbolic identity and circulation. Alongside these works, archival material from nearly fifty-five years of design practice for around sixty national newspapers and periodicals is also displayed, foregrounding Jain Kamal’s sustained involvement with print culture, graphic layout, and visual communication across editorial platforms. An Original design portfolio featuring 55 years of work for 60 national newspapers and periodicals will also be on display.

This retrospective, therefore, is best understood not as a devotional display, but as an extended inquiry into whether a rigorously inward philosophy can sustain a contemporary visual language without losing its ethical density and, moreover, how it might extrapolate into a globally aligned peace-making process.

Sushma Sabnis

Art Curator & Writer

From: 26th May to 1st June 2026

Retrospective show by veteran artist Jain Kamal

Jehangir Art Gallery, Auditorium Hall

M.G. Road, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai 400001

Timing: 11am to 7pmContact: +91 7039448108