Emerging artist Shivangi Kalra explores 'what is and what is not' from memories of spaces in her Mumbai exhibition
Dutch Royal Painting Prize 2024 winner Shivangi Kalra is having her solo exhibition at Method, Kala Ghoda in Mumbai. Titled, “You’re Growing on Me”, the exhibition is on till March 30, 2025. A rising name in the European art scene which reflects on her works, the artworks explore themes like memory, architecture, social dynamics and more through a series of oil paintings. The basis of the artworks is a time highlighting days of a bygone Delhi where grand houses hushed the struggles in the hearts and minds of those living in them.
What does Shivangi Kalra have to say about her artworks on display at Method Kala Ghoda in Mumbai?
Shivangi is a visual artist currently based in Amsterdam. After completing her Bachelors in painting from College of Art Delhi, she moved to Netherlands to pursue her Master’s degree in Painting. She is the winner of the Dutch Royal Painting Prize in 2024 . Her works have been displayed in the Groningen Museum, Sweden Art Fair, Museum of Goa and several other group shows.
Reminiscing the inspiration behind the artworks she mentions, “Growing up in a fast-pacing ever-growing city of people quarrelling, celebrating, condescending, and picking at each other, I absorbed micro stories from nameless parties hosted much too often, which stayed with me for a long time. While things seemed happy and okay from the outside in these parties of wealth and privilege; the longer I observed, the more I found, feelings, people, women, unheard, even when they screamed in silence. I ponder over the overwhelm, extravagance and vanity of such events in my super-real memoirs.”
Shivangi continues, “My work often depicts interiors and architectural qualities of houses/domestic spaces from my childhood, with a hint of nostalgia, as it decayed when the city started growing vertically in the past two decades. I must acknowledge that such archives become witness of a certain class. The beautiful bungalow built in the centre of lush gardens is a great set up for a beautiful painting, but how can I paint it so it also talks about everything that it is not? How can it be, what else?”
What: You’re Growing on Me
Where: Method, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai
When: till March 30, 2025