Aakriti Art Gallery Kicks Off 20th Anniversary Celebrations with Gurucharan Singh Exhibition

Kolkata, 20 November 2025 — Aakriti Art Gallery, one of Kolkata’s leading contemporary art spaces, launched its landmark 20th anniversary celebrations with the inauguration of A World Made Visible, a solo exhibition of recent works by renowned artist Gurucharan Singh, on Wednesday evening.

 Prayag Shukla and Gurucharan Singh

Curated by noted poet and art critic Prayag Shukla, the exhibition opened to a packed house of art lovers, collectors, artists, and literary figures. The event, held at the gallery’s premises at 12/3A Hungerford Street, turned into a vibrant gathering of Kolkata’s cultural community.

The highlight of the evening was a rare live drawing session by the artist himself. In a deeply engaging gesture, Gurucharan Singh unveiled the show not with a speech, but through the spontaneous act of creation—sketching directly onto canvas in front of the assembled audience. The drawing, composed in bold strokes of charcoal, depicted a layered composition of architectural and human forms, emblematic of the themes explored in the exhibition.

“To witness Gurucharan Singh draw live was to watch decades of artistic thought unfold in real time,” said one of the attendees. “It felt deeply personal, like an offering to the viewers.”

The exhibition features Singh’s recent body of work—complex, vibrant, and rooted in a narrative style that blends myth, memory, and lived experience. His visual language, marked by angular figures, architectural motifs, and a subtle interplay of light and gesture, continues to evolve while maintaining its contemplative depth.

In his curatorial note, Prayag Shukla described the exhibition as “an act of revelation—where the artist allows us to see the visible and the imagined in the same breath.”

The inauguration marks the beginning of a year-long celebration by Aakriti Art Gallery, which has played a pioneering role in promoting modern and contemporary Indian art since its founding in 2005.

“This is not just an exhibition—it is the first of many events that will celebrate our two-decade journey with artists and collectors,” said Vikram Bachhawat, Director of Aakriti Art Gallery. “We are honoured to begin the celebrations with a master like Gurucharan Singh.”

The exhibition A World Made Visible will remain open for public viewing in the coming weeks. Entry is free and all are welcome.

Aakriti Art Gallery (AAG)

Address: Orbit Enclave, 12/3a, Picasso Bithi, Mullick Bazar, Park Street area, Kolkata, West Bengal 700017

Phone: 033 2289 3027

A SOLO SHOW BY ABHISHEK SALVE - NIPPON SOLO MUMBAI

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“Echoes of Silence” An Exhibition of Photographs By Eminent Photographer Dev Inder in Jehangir Art Gallery

 Dev Inder - The Silent Lens

In the corridors of my art college, where the smell of pigments and turpentine often lingered in the air, there was a man whose presence was as subtle as it was profound  Dev Inder Singh, he came to us as a teacher of the Punjabi language. His voice carried neither the weight of authority nor the pressure of command. Instead, he spoke with the gentleness of flowing water, soft and steady, as if each syllable he uttered had been tested in the silence of his heart before touching the air.

 Dev Inder

Dev Inder Singh is a man of few words, and those few words matter. It is as if he believes language is not meant to scatter recklessly like dry leaves in the wind, but to be placed with care, like flowers offered in prayer. He carries himself with an awareness so refined that even while speaking a single word, he seems to weigh its effect, as though a careless sound could make the flowers tremble or the leaves fall.

His photography, though he rarely speaks about it, is another form of silence. Through the lens, he captures what words cannot carry. Just as he uses language sparingly, he uses light, shadow, and moment with the same precision. His art is not about grandeur but about seeing, seeing with humility, with patience, with the same care he gives to words.

In my memory of him, there are no long lectures or loud expressions. There is only the quiet presence of a man whose wisdom is not in what he says, but in how he says it. He shows us that to speak softly is not weakness, but strength; that to live with awareness is the highest form of artistry. To us, he is less a teacher of language and more a teacher of life, a teacher of silence-the greatest strength of all great visualization.

Like the whisper of a hymn that lingers long after the sound has faded,  Dev Inder Singh remains in my heart-a reminder that silence itself is a language, and that the truest art begins not with paint or camera, but with the awareness of a single word. A man of few words, his voice is a hymn-soft as incense rising, gentle as a river turning. A disciple of the Guru, he whispers language like prayer, never to wound, only to heal.

Through his lens, he does not capture, he receives. His photographs are haikus, few lines of eternity, where clouds carry messages unknown, trees dance in joy, leaves descend as blessings, and shadows sing in praise, writing calligraphic forms with black ink upon the ground. Light itself becomes his storyteller, revealing the momentary flame of being-fragile, fleeting, yet radiant as creation's smile.

He wanders not as conqueror, but as pilgrim-eyes half-closed, surrendered, wondering at the vast play of the world, smiling at its mystery. From him we learn that silence is a language, that words can be prayers, that photographs can be hymns, and that the truest art is reverence.

- Sidharth

12th to 18th November 2025

“Echoes of Silence”

An Exhibition of Photographs

By Eminent Photographer Dev Inder

VENUE:

Jehangir Art Gallery

Terrace Gallery

161-B, M.G. Road

Kala Ghoda, Mumbai 400001

Timing: 11am to 7pm

Contact: +91 9872401204

“UTKARSA” Celebrating JMS Mani’s Mastery (1948-2021) Art Exhibition in Jehangir Art Gallery

This Show will be inaugurated on 11^th November at 5pm by Honourable Guests Mr. Anant Nikam(Veteran print maker, artist and former HOD all department of Sir J.J. School of Arts), Mr. Gourmoni Das(Director & Founder of Nine Fish Gallery and Dot Line Space Foundation) in the August presence of Rajesh & Ranjitha S, S & D of JMS Mani.

JMS Mani

UTKARSA marks a sincere tribute to the life and creative legacy of J. M. S. Mani (1948–2021), one of Karnataka’s most revered modern artists and a transformative educator. Curated by Darshan Kumar YU, Curator(Muesmuseologist), artist & Thinker, Omit Curator NGMA, Bengaluru, and presented by JMS Mani’s family, this posthumous exhibition draws together key works spanning his iconic Badami series, expressive landscapes, and sensitive charcoal and mixed-media drawings and sketches, offering Mumbai audiences an intimate encounter with an artist who shaped both canvas and community.

His first solo show happened in Jehangir Art Gallery in 70’s.

 

Rooted in a rigorous academic foundation, Mani’s early practice honed traditional disciplines of light, form and perspective, later blossoming into an intuitive painterly vocabulary that balanced realism, symbolism and emotional intensity. His celebrated Badami series remains central to Indian art discourse, elongated rural figures, dusky-skinned, rendered with sincerity and grace, their gestures carrying the poetry of daily labour and social memory. These works reaffirm Mani’s lifelong conviction that dignity lives in the ordinary and beauty in lived experience. Equally powerful are Mani’s landscape studies, from the atmospheric ruins of Hampi to abstracted chromatic vistas, where nature becomes metaphor for time, memory and the human spirit. His drawings, often executed in charcoal, reveal a master draftsman able to distill emotion through line alone, capturing movement, fragility and stillness in equal measure. Throughout his evolving practice, Mani cultivated his studio as a sanctuary of creativity and learning, a space meticulously organised yet spirited, where students, artists and grandchildren entered freely. As a devoted teacher and principal at Ken School of Art, he encouraged experimentation, peer support and the courage to think beyond conventions. His belief in nurturing the next generation remains one of his greatest contributions to Indian art.

UTKARṢA honours not only a master painter but a mentor whose life’s work embodies artistic excellence, humility, and the deep conviction that art must stay rooted in humanity. This exhibition invites Mumbai art lovers to celebrate a legacy that continues to inspire—quietly, fiercely, and with unwavering devotion to the creative flame.

 

Sushma Sabnis

Mumbai

 From: 11^th to 17^th November 2025

“UTKARSA”

Celebrating JMS Mani’s Mastery (1948-2021)

 

VENUE:

Jehangir Art Gallery

161-B, M.G. Road,

Kala Ghoda, Mumbai 400001

Timing: 11am to 7pm

Contact: +91 9886598387, +91 9538449359