At Ojas Art, a set of objects appears to hover between states. A carved wooden form suggests a temple frieze, yet stops short of narrative. A brass surface catches light, then withdraws into shadow. A textile seems to dissolve at its edges, as if the image were still deciding whether to hold. The Space Between, a new exhibition bringing together the work of Siddhartha Das and Chiara Nath, proceeds from a deceptively simple premise: that what is absent may carry as much weight as what is made.
The show, which opens this week and runs through early May, spans more than two decades of individual practice alongside a recent period of collaboration under Siddhartha Das Studio. It draws from architecture, craft traditions, and contemporary design, but resists settling into any one discipline.
For Siddhartha Das, whose background includes scenographic work in museums and heritage sites, space has long been something to be shaped rather than merely occupied. Here, that sensibility is distilled into a series of sculptural forms and studies. Stepwells appear abstracted into geometric fragments. Temple gateways are reduced to thresholds, frames without fixed interiors.
Chiara Nath approaches from a different direction. Trained at the Rhode Island School of Design and shaped by work across fashion, graphic design, and industry, her practice carries a certain fluidity between mediums. Yet in this exhibition, those differences do not resolve into harmony. They remain visible, active, part of the work's internal tension.
"Our sensibilities and exposures to the world of creativity are starkly different, but as we work together, it draws us to each other's sensibilities," Das explains. "We work at the cusp of art, craft, design and architecture. This has meanderingly led us to this exhibition." Nath extends the thought: "In our differences or 'spaces in between'… we are able to inform and harness each other's perspectives. Not always easy this… but ultimately it results in works that are aware of all the wonderful influences we each carry."
That sense of negotiation runs through the exhibition. Materials shift from the fragile to the enduring. Paper and fabric give way to stone, wood, and metal. A serrated brass form sits against a smooth plane, its edges catching light like a blade. Elsewhere, ripple-like geometries spread across a surface, only to be interrupted by recesses that pull the eye inward.
Das describes this interplay in almost architectural terms. "We both are drawn to the ambivalence of making and life, and how opposites coexist. Light and shade… form and counterform, clusters and spaces in between. It's like pauses in between."
Nath gestures towards a similar idea. "The Space Between is indeed about the complimentary negatives and reciprocal shapes… that shift of focus from object to interval. We are attempting to reveal how absence and adjacency generate meaning as forcefully as presence."
This is perhaps most evident in a series of glass works that reinterpret the symmetry of Indian columns. The forms are reduced to their essential geometries, rendered with a delicacy that makes them appear almost provisional. The eye moves through them rather than stopping at their surface.
Elsewhere, embroidered works suggest systems of construction that are in the process of dissolving. Modules repeat, then falter. Patterns hold, then erode. Nath describes this as a kind of living structure. "The underlying space between is one of organisation and structure that is also breathing, growing, or sometimes dissolving."
The exhibition's engagement with traditional artisans adds another layer. Many of the works are produced in collaboration with craftspeople across India, drawing on techniques associated with temple carving, inlay, and casting. Yet these are not straightforward revivals of tradition. They operate more like translations, where inherited forms are reconfigured through contemporary processes.
Anubhav Nath, Director of Ojas Art, frames the show as part of an ongoing conversation. "This show will be pivotal in talking about Indian art amalgamated with design as the Siddhartha Das Studio has been imbibing the traditional arts in their vocabulary for a very long time."
What emerges across The Space Between is a sustained attention to thresholds. Between object and environment. Between tradition and experiment. Between two distinct practices that refuse to collapse into one. The exhibition does not attempt to resolve these tensions. It holds them open, allowing the viewer to move through them.
In one corner, a sculptural gateway stands without a destination. It frames nothing in particular, yet alters the space around it.
That, perhaps, is where the exhibition lingers. In the moment of transition. In the interval that is usually overlooked. In the space between.
What: The Space Between
Where: Ojas Art, Mehrauli Road, New Delhi
Preview: April 3, 2026, 5–8 pm
When: April 4 – May 3, 2026 Time: 11 am to 7 pm every day.
For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels.