Bloom at Dusk: A retrospective exhibition

In the forests of Umaria, Madhya Pradesh, Jodhaiya Bai Baiga spent most of her life working with her hands. She gathered firewood, collected forest produce, and laboured to support her family. Art arrived late. When she began painting in her late sixties, it was not with the expectation of exhibitions or accolades, but as an extension of memory, ritual and the forest world that had shaped her since childhood.

A major retrospective at Ojas Art traces the life and work of a Baiga artist

Bloom at Dusk, opening January 23, 2026, at Ojas Art in New Delhi, brings together more than 50 works by the Padma Shri awardee in her first major retrospective. Curated by Minhazz Majumdar, the exhibition spans her early experiments with clay, gourds and papier mâché to the luminous acrylic paintings that would later define her practice. Seen together, the works trace an artistic journey that unfolded quietly, yet with striking clarity and resolve.

Majumdar first encountered Jodhaiya Bai in Lorha, her village near the Ashish Swami Centre for Arts. “What struck me immediately was her deep certainty: of herself as a Baiga, as a woman, and as a creative artist,” he says. That sense of self, he explains, became central to the exhibition’s structure. “In conceiving this retrospective, my aim was to reveal the many dimensions of her presence: her personal strength, her cultural rootedness, and her artistic vision.”

Raised within the forest, Jodhaiya Bai’s worldview was shaped by Baiga cosmology, where nature is understood as alive and sentient rather than a backdrop. She painted from memory as much as belief, drawing on what she had lived alongside for decades. At the same time, her work reflects a clear awareness of loss. “She was acutely aware of what is being lost,” Majumdar notes, pointing to her responses to forest fires and the erosion of forest cover in Bandhavgarh.

The exhibition holds these currents in balance. Works filled with deities, ancestral spirits, animals and ritual dancers sit alongside paintings that confront environmental destruction directly. Majumdar was careful not to frame her practice through an idealised lens. “I was careful not to frame her practice as an idealised, naïve vision of nature,” he says. “Rather, it is rooted in remembrance—of what the forest once was—and a consciousness of the contemporary threats.”

Recurring motifs anchor this visual world. The mahua tree appears repeatedly, its presence tied to sustenance, gathering and ritual. Lord Bholenath enters her compositions as a wandering deity of the forest rather than distant iconography. Baghesur, the tiger spirit, reflects a Baiga understanding of coexistence rather than control. “These motifs are not symbols borrowed or constructed,” Majumdar explains. “They are presences she has lived alongside.”

Her self-taught approach shapes how these figures take form. Unbound by academic training, her compositions unfold intuitively, guided by repetition, belief and recollection. Colour carries emotional weight, at times joyful and dense, at others edged with foreboding. “Together, these elements form a visual language that is neither nostalgic nor illustrative,” Majumdar says. “It is rooted in ancestral knowledge but speaks fluently to contemporary concerns.”

The exhibition’s title gestures to the late emergence of her career. “Bloom at Dusk reflects Jodhaiya Bai’s extraordinary late emergence as an artist,” Majumdar says. “She began painting later in life, at a moment when many narratives would suggest closure rather than emergence.” He places her within contemporary Indian art, rather than limiting her to indigenous categories. “Her work asserts that contemporaneity is not defined by formal training or age, but by the ability to speak meaningfully to the present.”

For Anubhav Nath, director of Ojas Art, the retrospective carries emotional weight. “We have been following the artistic evolution of Jodhaiya Bai Baiga since the pre-pandemic era,” he says. While COVID-19 paused physical exhibitions, the gallery continued to present her work, including showcases at Bikaner House and the Mumbai Art Fair in late 2025.

Central to her journey, Nath emphasises, is the Ashish Swami Centre for Arts in Umaria. “Though the founder, Ashish Swami ji, passed away during the pandemic, his legacy thrives as a sanctuary for grassroots talent,” he says. Bloom at Dusk is presented in association with the centre and the Ramchander Nath Foundation, extending that support into a larger institutional context.

Internationally, Jodhaiya Bai’s work has resonated strongly. Exhibitions in Milan, Paris and New Delhi have drawn collectors and institutions alike. Nath sees this as part of a broader shift. “We are currently witnessing a historic surge in interest,” he says, noting a growing global desire to engage with indigenous artistic practices as living, evolving forms.

Following the retrospective, Ojas Art is preparing a 250-page monograph documenting Jodhaiya Bai Baiga’s life and work, alongside efforts to place her paintings in museum collections in India and abroad. For now, Bloom at Dusk offers the most comprehensive view of her practice to date, situating her work where it belongs: within the wider conversations of contemporary art, shaped by memory, belief and a forest world she never left behind.

What: Bloom at Dusk

Where: Ojas Art, Mehrauli, New Delhi

When: Opening on January 23

Exhibition Dates: January 23–March 11

Time: 11 am to 7 pm

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