Between Inner Silence and Shared Spaces - Text by Mukur Biswas

Nipa A. Modi

Nipa A. Modi's practice is grounded in observation, social experience, and spatial awareness. With formal training across painting, printmaking, photography, and sculpture, her work demonstrates a strong command of figure, structure, and material. Her practice engages directly with the external world—people, environments, and everyday life. Her paintings frequently depict women and children within domestic or communal settings. These figures are not idealized; instead, they are presented with dignity, warmth, and emotional clarity. Narrative is present but understated, often capturing ordinary moments that speak to broader themes of care, labour, resilience, and social belonging.

A defining feature of Modi's work is her engagement with architecture and pattern. In series such as Ranakpur Whispers, lattice structures and geometric motifs directly reference the carved stone screens and ornamental rhythms of the Ranakpur heritage site. These patterns are not merely decorative; they function as spatial frameworks that both contain and reveal the figures within.

Her sculptural practice—particularly bronze scrap sculptures—extends these concerns into three dimensions. Simplified, elongated human forms emphasize gesture and relationship rather than anatomical realism. Material reuse and handcrafted assembly underscore themes of continuity, adaptation, and human presence within constructed environments. Overall, Modi's work operates at the intersection of tradition and contemporary life, where architectural order, cultural memory, and lived experience shape visual form. Her figures inhabit real spaces structured by social and cultural systems, yet retain individuality and emotional depth. 

Neha Suthar

Neha Suthar's practice is rooted in an introspective process where painting becomes a personal conversation. Working with charcoal and mixed media, she uses line, texture, and shadow as tools to process thoughts and emotions that remain unspoken. Her surfaces are built through scratching, layering, and erasure, allowing images to emerge organically rather than through predetermined narratives.

In series such as Burning Souls, fragmented human faces and suspended forms reflect inner states of vulnerability and emotional intensity. The figures often appear withdrawn or incomplete, occupying ambiguous spaces that suggest psychological rather than physical environments. Earthy tones and assertive charcoal marks convey both urgency and restraint, capturing moments where emotion is felt but not articulated. Nature appears in abstracted forms that merge with the human body, reinforcing themes of endurance and transformation. Silence plays a crucial role in her work—communicated through shadow, absence, and unresolved form—where the unsaid becomes a powerful visual language. 

CONCEPT NOTE

Between Inner Silence and Shared Spaces

This exhibition, presented at Nippon Art Gallery, opens on 10 February 2026 and brings together the works of Nipa A. Modi and Neha Suthar, foregrounding material practice as a key site through which social experience and inner states are articulated. While the artists differ in approach and visual language, both employ material, surface, and process as central components in constructing meaning.

Nipa A. Modi's practice spans painting and sculpture, reflecting sustained engagement with figure, space, and structure. Her paintings incorporate patterned surfaces and architectural frameworks—most notably in the Ranakpur Whispers series—where lattice-inspired motifs derived from the Ranakpur heritage site organize pictorial space. These structural elements function not only as visual devices but as cultural references, situating contemporary figures within systems of tradition, labour, and social continuity. Her sculptural works, particularly those using bronze scrap, emphasize material reuse and hand-built form, underscoring ideas of endurance, adaptation, and human presence within constructed environments. In contrast, Neha Suthar's material approach is process-driven and introspective. Working primarily with charcoal and mixed media, she constructs surfaces through layering, scratching, and erasure. The physicality of mark-making becomes a record of emotional engagement, where fragmented figures and suspended forms emerge through repeated gestures. Material instability—visible in rough textures and unresolved surfaces—mirrors psychological vulnerability and internal unrest, allowing silence and the unsaid to remain present within the work. Together, the exhibition examines how material choices shape artistic expression, positioning the body and human experience at the intersection of external structure and internal reflection. The works invite viewers to consider how material, memory, and emotion operate within both shared social spaces and private inner worlds. 

Text by

Mukur Biswas

Feb 2026