The Ultimate Show Guide To Art & Design In Mumbai For 2024
As the beating heart of India’s artistic renaissance, Mumbai plays host to a diverse range of artists, both established and emerging, who use their works to reflect the complexities of modern life and explore the depths of Indian craftsmanship. From Lorenzo Vitturi’s textile-inspired sculptures that transgress boundaries of materiality and genre to Pallavi Sen’s ‘hard-edge watercolour’ scenes of everyday beauty, the city’s cultural landscape is abuzz with showcases that will woo enthusiasts and connoisseurs alike. Design Pataki is back with a revised compendium of the best art and design exhibitions currently on view across the metropolis.
#1 Metamorphosis, Lorenzo Vitturi at Nature Morte, Colaba, March 23 to April 27, 2024
Known for masterminding temporary sets and ephemeral sculptures for the silver screen, Italian-Peruvian artist Lorenzo Vitturi has defied canonical classifications of genre for Nature Morte’s latest exhibition in Mumbai, fittingly titled ‘Metamorphosis.’ Murano-fused glass, Peruvian yarns, eucalyptus wood, and Indian handmade rugs are only a few of the variegated materials that Vitturi has nimbly adapted into his dimensional sculptures. Playing with fractal patterns, multifarious textures and an avant-garde blend of intercultural heirlooms, Vitturi envisions a new visual language altogether. It is this felt presence of the image, its corporeal dimension, and the tension between what is material and impermanent that pervades Lorenzo’s oeuvre.
Also Read: Come “Run As Slow As You Can” At This Hyper-Immersive TOILETPAPER Exhibit In Mumbai
#2 Liminal Gaps at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, BKC, March 31 to June 09, 2024
Dwelling in the confluence between familiarity and subliminal spaces, this not-to-be-missed group show presented by Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre or NMACC takes inspiration from the evolving fabric of our Indian subconsciousness.
Curated by Mafalda Millies Kahane and Roya Sachs, ‘Liminal Gaps’ encompasses all four tiers of the Art House, an ensemble of multigenerational artists have choreographed site-specific installations that brood upon the glaring lacunae in architecture, nature, and technology through which the surreal permeates the ordinary realm. The first floor showcases the three-dimensional flattening of India’s distinctive skylines in an optically intriguing composition by Delhi-based artist Ayesha Singh. Dissecting the human experience of time, five mechanical creations by Raqs Media Collective tracking the foundational rhythms in our universe unfold like bewitched clockwork on the second level. Examining notions of ecological conservation through the lens of indigenous bamboo weaving, ‘Chaal’ by Asim Waqif on the third floor depicts how even tiny man-made sounds can trigger immense disruptions in nature’s echo chambers. Finally, the fourth level culminates with Goa-based artist Afrah Shafiq’s sensorial, Wonderland-style multimedia installation titled ‘Sultana’s Reality,’ emblematic of the relationship between women and the colonial education movement in India. Performance artist Brendan Fernandes was a surprise addition, tying the show together by examining weighty motifs like cultural displacement and collective agency through his recognisable movement-based interventions.
#3 Growing Pains, Revant Dasgupta at Method Kala Ghoda, Fort, Ongoing till April 07, 2024
Coming of age has historically been a period fraught with anxiety but Kolkata-born painter and multimedia creator Revant Dasgupta builds on it with more depth. His solo exhibition ‘Growing Pains’ wrests deeply embedded horrors from the wells of his mind, regurgitating psychedelic imagery that vividly explores what tearing down one’s identity looks like. Known for their introspective approach to art, Method Kala Ghoda is one of the few galleries that recognise the limitlessness of our imagination. Through free-flowing and absurdist imagery, the artist explores his experiences of coming to terms with adulthood, their process of understanding, and accepting childhood trauma, navigating feelings of alienation and paranoia, and struggles with gender identity.
Also Read: Everything You Need To Know About The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) In Mumbai
#4 Drawing Dreaming, Pallavi Sen at Chemould CoLab, Colaba, March 14 to April 27, 2024
Pallavi Sen’s paintings are perhaps best characterised as a kind of hard-edge watercolour; she subverts the medium itself by composing hundreds of rectilinear grids across which the pigment trickles like runoff water from fields lying fallow. Sen’s newest tour-de-force titled ‘Drawing Dreaming’ at Chemould CoLab reads like a series of precisely rendered representations of daily life, at least on the surface. A dreamer is bundled up inside a kaleidoscopic quilt, a cat reclines whimsically beside a man reading a newspaper and through such seemingly innocuous scenes, Sen sutures time and space together. She paints the things she knows and admires with her unshakeable sense of childish wonder, and the things she can’t possibly know, we are invited to not fixate upon but simply allow the miracles of quotidian existence to unravel themselves.
#5 Threaded Visions at Snowball Studios, Worli, April 03 to April 06, 2024
Serving as a compelling reminder of our obligations to the planet, ‘Threaded Visions’ is a trailblazing exhibition woven together by ‘Milaaya Embroideries’. Re-creating masterpieces through couture hand embroidery, Milaaya is a collective that assiduously pays homage to India’s rich tradition of craftsmanship, from panels to luxury garments and accessories. Radiant from its debut at the India Art Fair 2024, this consortium of some of our country’s most renowned artists intertwines ancestral techniques like the Kantha stitch and phulkari with contemporary multimedia expression. Groundbreaking visionaries such as S H Raza, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Nilima Sheikh, Ranbir Kaleka, Ram Kumar, and K K Hebbar are the swashbuckling protagonists driving this visual narrative forward — inviting contemplation on the delicate balance between nature and human existence. Each artwork intricately crafted by skilled artisans not only depicts the beauty of embroidery but also sparks meaningful conversations about advocating for a sustainable future.
