“IN THE FACE OF IT ALL” Solo Exhibition of Sculptures by Dr. Venkata at Jehangir Art Gallery
Renowned sculptor Dr. Venkata presents “IN THE FACE OF IT ALL”, a solo exhibition of his recent sculptures at Jehangir Art Gallery, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai, on view 14–20 April 2026, from 11 am to 7 pm.
Working with bamboo, paper, resin, and draped fabric, Dr. Venkata Rao transforms humble materials into striking sculptural presences. At times enhanced with paint, the works take on a semi-realistic quality, further enriched by the enduring sculptural traditions of the temples of Andhra Pradesh. The result is a compelling visual field where humanity and environment remain inseparably bound in a tense coexistence.
Nature, in this exhibition, is not passive scenery but the structuring principle of existence. Fishermen, women, and hybrid anthropomorphic forms emerge as tidal beings shaped by wind, salt, soil, and the memory of coastal labour. Their bodies inhabit porous, honeycomb-like landscapes suggestive of multiple, entangled worlds.
The exhibition emerges from Venkata Rao’s sustained engagement with the sea as both memory and material condition. His sculptures pulse with the unruly energy of water, responding to the violence of human excess and the ecological aftermath it leaves behind.
Dr. Venkata Rao’s sculptural language moves with the force and unpredictability of water, surging in response to the consequences of human excess. Rooted in the memory of a place once called home and layered with nostalgia, his works unfold through profound spatial and emotional depth. Rather than moralising, he excavates enduring archetypes of time and transformation.
These sculptures resonate with the lived realities of seaside communities for whom the sea remains a lifeline. Here, nature is not a backdrop but the governing force that shapes labour, survival, and everyday life. The works also bear witness to polluted waters, altered coastlines, and bodies marked by ecological imbalance.
As the artist reflects: “My reaction to humanity’s savage flaws has transformed into forms that are partly human and partly animal. Yet my concern for humankind has altered my judgment, turning them into gorgeous gargoyles, metaphorical depictions of metropolitan life and its convoluted existence.”
The sculptures also open a conversation around memory as an ecological archive. In Venkata Rao’s practice, the coastline is not merely a site but a living repository of labour, ritual, erosion, and resilience. Each surface seems to retain traces of weathered histories, allowing the viewer to encounter not only the form itself but the sediment of lives shaped in proximity to the sea.
A compelling tension runs through the exhibition between fragility and monumentality. While the use of bamboo, paper, and fabric suggests delicacy and impermanence, the figures assert an undeniable physical authority. This duality mirrors the condition of the communities they evoke, vulnerable to environmental change, yet enduring through inherited knowledge, collective memory, and adaptation.
What ultimately emerges is a sculptural meditation on coexistence: between the human and the animal, the urban and the elemental, memory and transformation. The works invite viewers to consider how bodies, landscapes, and systems remain deeply entangled, and how the restoration of this relationship may be as much an act of remembrance as it is of responsibility.
