Posted on 24 October 2025:

Melange of Memories: A Curated Tapestry of Contemporary Indian Art at Bikaner House

From 31st October to 4th November 2025, Melange of Memories unfolds at LTC Gallery, Bikaner House, New Delhi—an evocative group exhibition curated by renowned art critic JohnyML and presented by artist and CanonFire Creatives director Kali Charan Padhi. Featuring thirty accomplished artists from across India, the show is a vibrant confluence of personal, cultural, and historical memory rendered through diverse visual vocabularies.

Rooted in shared academic legacies yet shaped by distinct geographies, the participating artists transcend thematic boundaries to explore identity, emotion and time.

As JohnyML reflects, “Each artist reflects how memory becomes the foundation of identity—shaping visual thought, emotion, and style across time and space.”

This thoughtfully curated exhibition invites viewers into a layered dialogue—where memory is not nostalgia, but a living, evolving force in contemporary Indian art.

In Melange of Memories, the canvas becomes a vessel for emotion, identity and imagination.

Shabana Quadri and Jyoti Khushwaha invite viewers into non-representational realms where colour and texture pulse with lived experience. Vrindavan Solanki, a revered figure in Indian modernism, offers meditative figurations that echo spiritual stillness and timeless grace. Supriya Amber’s powerful portrayals of tribal women elevate strength into symbol—transforming local narratives into universal icons of freedom. Yusuf’s abstract compositions, marked by rhythmic lines and luminous colour fields, bridge Indian sensibility with the elegance of high modernism. Meanwhile, Rajesh Singh and Promud Boruah—two voices across generations—construct cosmic terrains that stretch the boundaries of perception, inviting viewers to dwell in the sublime.

Canvas becomes a Mirror to Society’s Shifting Soul.

Kumar Vikas Saxena juxtaposes monumental architecture with human confinement, revealing how history breathes within modern consciousness. Rohit Supakar’s photorealistic lens exposes the stark dualities of abundance and deprivation, critiquing the power structures of contemporary life. Rahul Mitra reimagines Dante’s Inferno as a modern purgatory, where allegory sharpens the irony of greed and dispossession. Kanha Behera revives folk rituals and childhood reverie through vivid tiger dancers and hunting scenes, while Gurmeet Marwah transforms memory into bold graphic compositions that blur the line between fact and imagination.

Dileep Sharma’s hybrid figures—fashionable, divine, and demonic—embody the fluidity of identity in a rapidly evolving world. Laxman Aelay paints rural women with quiet reverence, elevating them into icons of grace and resilience. Ganapati Hegde celebrates nature with humour and tenderness, his flora and fauna rendered in playful, meticulous detail. Anand Panchal captures the stoic optimism of Latur’s villagers, honouring simplicity and endurance. And in monochrome, Manish Chavda evokes the spiritual longing of Kalidasa’s verse—his tones whispering emotion, silence, and timeless calm.

Spiritual, Symbolic & the Sublime converge in a rich Tapestry of Contemporary Indian Art

Sujata Achrekar’s introspective canvases offer moral clarity in a fractured world, while Shubhendu Mishra bridges Odisha’s folk idioms with modern inquiry, preserving heritage through innovation. Nishant Dange’s monochrome renderings of the feminine form evoke both fragility and quiet strength, and Nagesh Goud Bolgum reimagines Krishna’s mythic journey in vibrant, contemporary hues. Santhana Krishnan blurs the line between object and illusion, inviting viewers into philosophical spaces of perception.

Sanghapal Mhaske infuses classical portraiture with expressive vigour, while Aalap Shah’s minimal figuration whispers meditative stillness. Sachin Jaltare’s fusion of abstraction and figuration radiates spiritual harmony, and Bipin Martha’s syncretic compositions blend Krishna, Buddha, and Mahavira into visual meditations on compassion and coexistence. M. Narayana’s recurring motif of the horse gallops with force and freedom, and Asit Kumar Patnaik’s lyrical canvases speak of love and longing through floating alphabets—symbols of emotional depth and communicative silence.

Ramesh Gorjala’s intricate designs revive divine narratives with kaleidoscopic grace, and Gurudas Shenoy sculpts landscapes from colour and rhythm, his luminous forms shimmering with energy and poetic precision.

Living Archive of Emotion, Identity and Artistic evolution

In this panoramic gathering, abstraction meets figuration, tradition dances with experimentation, and memory becomes both muse and mirror.

As curator JohnyML observes, “These artists represent a cross-section of India’s visual culture… a living archive of experience.”

Presenter Kali Charan Padhi, through CanonFire Creatives, extends this vision to wider audiences, affirming that “memory becomes a bridge between the past and the present.”