This upcoming Mumbai exhibition focuses on raw emotions

Unfiltered and fluid, the exhibition invites viewers into a deeply personal space of transformation and vulnerability
This upcoming Mumbai exhibition focuses on raw emotions
Artwork by Manoj Jain
Published on
Updated on
1 min read

Mumbai’s Soho House is set to host It Didn’t Ask to Be Art, the debut solo exhibition by artist Manoj Jain, offering audiences an intimate and unconventional encounter with creativity. Curated by Dheeya Soumaiya, the show will preview on 31 May from 5 to 10 pm and open to the public on 1 June, running from 11 am to 8 pm.

What is Manoj Jain's Mumbai exhibition all about?

This collection of works doesn’t follow the traditional arc of artistic intention. Instead, it embraces the raw, instinctive impulse to create — art made not for display, but out of need. In spirit and substance, Jain’s works echo the philosophy of Art Brut or “raw art”, a term coined by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe works untainted by convention or institutional influence.

There is no pretence of perfection here. The exhibition unfolds as a deeply personal, spiritual journey — one of navigating internal disquiet, confronting emotional vulnerability, and emerging with a kind of lucid honesty. Manoj's pieces are not static or polished; they are shifting, fluid, and unapologetically incomplete.

“I didn’t set out to make art,” Manoj explains. “The work was born out of necessity — a way to move through darkness, to face the chaos within and find clarity. It still feels alive, still transforming. Though personal, I believe there’s something universal in that experience.”

Far from being a neatly tied narrative, It Didn’t Ask to Be Art resists categorisation and resounds as an open-ended question — one that invites viewers to reflect on their own inner worlds and states of becoming.

This upcoming Mumbai exhibition focuses on raw emotions
This Hyderabad art exhibition spotlights expressions in Contemporary Indian Art

Related Stories

No stories found.
X
Indulgexpress
www.indulgexpress.com