08 May,2026 09:53 AM IST | Mumbai | Shriram Iyengar
Sakalathinum porul. Sangeeta Sreenivasan. Pics courtesy/Tom Vattakuzhy
Figures appear in my works as representations of people I grew up seeing from my younger age - the ordinary, the oppressive, the vulnerable and the marginalised who are destined to be in the outskirts of our political discourses. They dwell in the twilight zone between the truth and lie, propriety and impropriety," writes Tom Vattakuzhy. The Ernakulam-based printmaker and illustrator has been a known name across India. Yet, Where Words End, marks the artist's first solo show at Kala Ghoda.
"Although Mumbai remained in my thoughts through these associations, I was not destined to study here. I sometimes wonder whether, had I made this city the centre of my artistic life, it might have shaped my work through its urban experience - much like it did for Sudhir Patwardhan," he admits.
Complete scenes in themselves, Vattakuzhy's works hold attention like unspoken stories. It is little surprise then that he terms them as âstory paintings'.
He elaborates about his evolution saying, "It is a process much like a plant growing from a seed."
TILL May 17; 11 am to 7 pm
AT ICIA Gallery, K Dubash Marg, Kala Ghoda, Fort.
Valley of Flowers
It was in 1987 that Vyoma Parikh exchanged her table tennis paddles for the brush. "You know, the years of discipline does not simply vanish," she admits. Whispers in the Wild carries influences of an atmospheric resonance that hold your attention. And so, a lone deer turns a golden abstraction into a landscape. Hypnotic, in every sense.
TILL May 10; 11 am to 7 pm
AT Jehangir Art Gallery, MG Road, Kala Ghoda, Fort.
An illustration of Kuntala Ranjini Hair Oil by MV Dhurandhar. Pic courtesy/Dag
The rise of modern Indian art owes a lot to the early radical movers of the 19th and 20th Century. The ongoing Epochal - The Period of Pioneers, spread across DAG and Chatterjee & Lal, captures this broad network of artistic influences that reshaped Indian views of tradition and modernity.
Curator Mortimer Chatterjee writes, "The exhibition provides a retelling of a period informed by its past, and yet staking a firm claim to represent a young and independent India." Works from Nandalal Bose, MV Dhurandhar, Abanindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, to MF Husain, capture this spread of ideas. Head over, if you seek a reminder of the ideas of India.
TILL June 11; 10.30 am to 7 pm (Monday to Saturday)
AT DAG, Gallery 1 and 2, The Taj Mahal Palace, Colaba; Chatterjee & Lal, Kamal Mansion, Arthur Bunder Road, Colaba.
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