Posted on 13 September 2026:
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Art in a Frame
Sculpting Lineages: How Six Women Redefined Indian Sculpture Across 70 Years
New Delhi’s Gallery Espace is rewriting art history, one chisel mark at a time. Its new exhibition, Sculpting Lineages: Women Across Generations, brings together six women sculptors spanning nearly seven decades — from Ira Choudhuri, born in 1927, and Latika Katt (1948–2025), Shambhavi (b. 1966), Sojwal Samant (b. 1972), Radhika Agarwala (b. 1985) to Poojan Gupta, born in 1998.
Curator Nainvi Vora frames the show as a counter-narrative to art histories dominated by men, tracing instead “a network of affinities, continuities, ruptures, and reinventions that connect sculptural practices across time.”
The journey moves from Ira Choudhuri’s folk-inspired studio ceramics and the late Latika Katt’s bronze portraiture, through Shambhavi’s iron sculptures drawn from rural Bihar and Sojwal Samant’s domestic-labour installations, to Radhika Agarwala’s ecological archives and Poojan Gupta’s brass-and-pewter recasting of discarded pharmaceutical blister packs.
“The exhibition opens with two pioneering artists – Katt and Chaudhuri – who emerged during the post-Independence decades, a period when sculpture was deeply entangled with questions of nationhood, identity and modernity,” shares founder Renu Modi, founder Gallery Espace, New Delhi.
“Ira Choudhuri frequently described herself as a studio potter, but Nainvi Vora reframes her practice, situating her ceramic pots, vases and three-dimensional forms within a broader understanding of sculpture.”
“Katt, who passed away last year, is celebrated for her remarkable versatility of medium, technique and subject matter that expanded the parameters of Indian sculpture,” she added.
Gallery founder Renu Modi calls it a continuation of the space’s long commitment to women artists, recalling Katt’s work at a landmark 1997 show: “I hope Sculpting Lineages opens up a more expansive view of the histories and practices that have shaped Indian art.”
Gallery Espace, founded by Renu Modi in 1989, stands as a luminous bridge in New Delhi—where M F Husain’s modernist vision meets Manjit Bawa, Nilima Sheikh, Zarina, and today’s experimental voices, nurturing contemporary Indian art through landmark exhibitions and socially conscious curatorial journeys.
Gallery Espace, New Friends Colony, New Delhi
🗓️ August 22 – September 26, 2026 | Mon–Sat, 10am–7pm
🎨 #YathraCanvas
