“Between Surface And Depth The Inner Landscapes An Exhibition of Paintings
Bharti Verma
Bharti’s figurative practice unfolds as a quiet, resonant inquiry into the emotional life of the human body. Her paintings are not portraits of individuals but threshold spaces where the figure becomes a vessel for memory, vulnerability, endurance, and inward reflection. Faces are often veiled or absent, and gender dissolves into ambiguity, allowing the body to stand for a shared human presence rather than a fixed identity. The personal opens into the collective, and the figure becomes a bridge between private emotion and universal experience.
Surface is central to her language. Scraped, layered, and washed grounds recall ancient, weathered walls marked by human touch, evoking the primal lineage of cave painting as witness to existence. Figures seem to emerge from and recede into these terrains, shaped by memory, erosion, and return. In works with multiple bodies, forms overlap and merge, suggesting shared emotional states, intimacy, shelter, burden, and co-existence. Gesture becomes an emotional syntax: bowed backs, folded limbs, and weighted postures carry feeling.
Rendered in restrained greys, ash, umber, and muted blues, her palette creates a hushed, contemplative atmosphere. These works meditate on the body as a psychic landscape quietly resilient, grounded in acceptance rather than retreat.
From: 3rd to 9th March 2026 at Jehangir Art Gallery, AC Gallery No. 2, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai
Ruchi Chadha
Ruchi Chadha is a Delhi-based visual artist and a graduate of the College of Art, New Delhi. With over three decades of dedicated practice, she draws profound inspiration from nature’s quiet strength, resilience, and transformative power. A painter and ceramist, Ruchi moves fluidly across mediums, expressing organic rhythms and evolving forms that reflect her deep engagement with the natural world.
In this exhibition, she presents her ongoing series of lotus paintings from a distinctive underwater perspective. By shifting the viewer’s gaze beneath the surface, she reveals the hidden ecosystem that sustains the lotus—murky waters, drifting weeds, and subtle aquatic life. Water becomes both environment and metaphor, its ripples, reflections, and diffused light creating a sense of depth, movement, and introspection.
Delicate leaves and slender stems ascend through shadow toward illumination, symbolizing hope, courage, and perseverance. Rooted in silt yet reaching for light, the lotus emerges as a powerful emblem of resilience and renewal. Through layered textures and tonal contrasts, Ruchi invites viewers into an immersive, contemplative space. Her works evoke stillness and inner strength, leaving a lasting impression of harmony, endurance, and the quiet triumph inherent in nature’s cycles.
This show will be inaugurated on 3rd March 2026 at 5.30pm by Hon. Guests – Ms. Nidhi Choudhari – Director National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, Ms Sapna Kar(Director, Curators.art), Ms Rajneeta Kewalramani(Director, thecurators.art), Mr. Rajendra Patil(President The Bombay Art Society, Founder, India Art Festival).
