Before the Canvas, an exhibition put together by Vaishnavi Ramanathan at Piramal Museum of Art, weaves history with art. Ramanathan, an award-winning artist, curator and art historian, will be showcasing an unique collection of paintings that were done on other surfaces, before using the canvas became mainstream.

"Our previous exhibition focussed on how artists work with certain material to give form to their ideas. In this one, we decided to talk about surfaces that an artist can work on, to bring about their ideas. We decided to concentrate on materials, which were used as surfaces in India during the colonial era," says Ramanathan.