Artist Pooja Bhansali unveils Grid & Garden exhibition in Mumbai

Mumbai-based contemporary artist, Pooja Bhansali's practice is shaped by a multidisciplinary background spanning fashion, textiles and fine art. With over two decades of creative experience, her work reflects a deep engagement with materiality, surface and the emotional possibilities of abstraction. Moving beyond traditional canvas, she often works with materials such as herringbone tweed, silk brocade and wool felt, integrating them with custom wooden structures to create works that exist between painting, textile and sculptural form.

The artist is now making debut solo exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery in Kala Ghoda. The exhibition represents both a personal homecoming and a significant moment of artistic arrival. Through this collection, she presents works that are intimate yet universal — inviting viewers into spaces of reflection, memory and quiet strength.

The Golden Realm is a series of four artworks that explores the poetic intersection of nature and civilisation. Using circular wooden forms reminiscent of tree rings, each piece layers intricate heritage architecture in gold against the raw, organic textures of natural wood, symbolising the passage of time and the enduring dialogue between what we inherit from the earth and what we build upon it.

"I choose materials the way a composer chooses instruments — herringbone tweed for warmth, silk brocade for opulence, ceramic for its unpredictable, flowing glaze. Each surface has a voice, and my job is simply to let them speak together," the artist tells us.

The Beehive Series draws inspiration from the quiet opulence of nature’s most perfect architectural form—the honeycomb —reimagined through an imperial and luxury design language. Crafted with custom wooden hexagonal frames of varying scales, the composition features rich silk brocade woven with metallic silver honeycomb patterns against a deep black ground, evoking both regal textiles and the precision of natural geometry. Accents of solid gold, silver and black panels introduce rhythm and contrast, while carefully placed enamelled bee brooches add a jewel-like narrative, symbolizing industry, order and prosperity.

"The hive series taught me something I already knew instinctively — that nature is the original architect of luxury. The honeycomb existed long before gold leaf did. I simply brought them into the same conversation," she shares.

Inspired by the timeless rhythm of water, the Wave Grid Series interprets the wave as a flowing, abstract force that moves through a disciplined grid of custom wooden frames, symbolising how nature’s fluidity exists within the structures we create. Each composition brings together tactile materials — deep black felt, muted grey herringbone tweed and reflective mirror surfaces — while a continuous sculptural wave in white, black and metallic gold travels across the panels, sometimes spilling across the wooden edges.

The Water Garden Triptych extends the narrative of the collection by returning to nature in its most poetic and contemplative form—the quiet surface of water. Spanning three herringbone tweed-clad panels, the work draws inspiration from the language of Impressionism, where water lilies, reflections and shifting light are interpreted through expressive palette-knife strokes rather than literal representation. Metallic silver replaces gold in areas of reflected light, introducing a cooler luminosity, while deliberate moments of exposed tweed allow the textile itself to become part of the landscape.

Bougainvillaea Reflections draws from the spirit of Monet’s water lilies yet rooted in a distinctly tropical landscape, the work captures bougainvillea petals drifting across the reflective surface of a pond, where the silhouettes of palm trees dissolve into layered strokes of light and shadow. Balancing impressionistic movement with moments of realism, the textured surface and translucent petals.

Ethereal Horizons explores nature not as a literal landscape but as a memory of it — fluid, atmospheric and ever-changing. Created with alcohol inks and finished with resin, these works transform pigment into movement, allowing colour to flow and settle like geological strata, distant horizons or shifting skies. Soft textural interventions in matte white, touched with gentle gold, suggest light breaking through clouds at different hours of the day, adding a quiet sense of time and atmosphere.

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