Posted on 21 October 2025:
WITH Contours of Self, SHIKHA PATEL STEPS INTO MUMBAI’S ART WORLD AS A GENTLE FORCE—BLENDING POETRY, PHILOSOPHY AND PAINT TO TRACE THE SOUL’S QUIET SHIFTS. HER ART IS A SOFT REBELLION, STITCHED WITH SHARED MEMORIES AND THE UNSEEN THREADS THAT CONNECT US ALL.
Contours of Self: Shikha Patel’s Mumbai Debut at Jehangir Art Gallery
From 4th to 10th November 2025, Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai will host Contours of Self: From Private Silence to Public Gaze, a solo exhibition by acclaimed Varanasi-based artist Shikha Patel.
Known for her deeply symbolic and emotionally layered figurative paintings, Shikha Patel invites viewers into a quiet yet powerful journey of self-reflection and resilience. The exhibition, held in Gallery No. 1 at Kala Ghoda, will be inaugurated by celebrated filmmaker, producer, screenwriter, and editor Leena Yadav, adding a cinematic touch to the evening’s storytelling spirit.
Shikha Patel’s art speaks in quiet, powerful tones—where every canvas becomes a mirror of the soul. Her journey through contemporary Indian art is marked by celebrated milestones, including the Art for Hope Grant (Hyundai, 2023) and the Junior Fellowship (2019), with her recent selection for the National Art Exhibition in New Delhi affirming her growing impact.
Working across oil, acrylic, watercolor, found objects and digital media, she also brings walls to life through cement carving and mural painting. In her visual world, the Self is not hidden—it gazes back, listens, and gently crosses the line between private thought and public voice. Her figures breathe with handwritten notes and poetic whispers, creating a space where silence becomes speech and emotion finds its form.
Between Belonging and Becoming: Shikha Patel’s Urban Soulscapes
Emerging from the sacred rhythms of Varanasi, Shikha Patel brings to Mumbai a voice that is both ancient and new.
Her paintings blend everyday spirituality with modern thought, creating dreamlike spaces where the soul reflects, questions, and quietly transforms. Through poetic figures and playful text, Patel explores what it means to be seen, to migrate, and to belong in a shifting cityscape. Her feminist lens adds gentle wit to serious themes—challenging norms while celebrating the personal.
A standout series on kabootars (pigeons) captures the migrant’s journey with tender detail, touching on language, identity, and the quiet courage of everyday life. In these works, the Self performs, pauses and reimagines itself—moving between silence and speech, memory and motion.
The Scholar of Silence: Shikha Patel’s Thoughtful Brushstrokes
Shikha Patel, currently pursuing her doctoral research at Banaras Hindu University, brings a rare blend of intellect and intuition to her art. Her thesis, Self-Referential Art Practices in Contemporary India, echoes through her canvases—where symbols speak, and silence becomes a language. With a BFA and MFA in Painting from BHU and a JRF to her name, Patel’s work explores identity, emotion and society through layered metaphors.
With Contours of Self, Shikha Patel steps into Mumbai’s art world not with noise, but with nuance.
Her work blends poetry, philosophy and paint into a gentle force—one that listens, reflects and transforms.
Images: Shikha Patel / Mob: 7275495107 / Mail: artistshikha.7@gmail.com
In every brushstroke, she offers a mirror to the soul, reminding us that the journey inward is also a journey shared.
