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Thousands of lines come together to create a shadow, give shape to a figure or draw light out of a dense field of marks. This is the painstaking language of cross-hatching that defines much of Ashok Bhowmick’s art, a technique that has developed into a distinct mode of expression over five decades of practice. Intersections, presented by Artisera in collaboration with Delhi-based Dhoomimal Gallery, marks Ashok’s first solo exhibition in Bengaluru and brings together works from across his career. The exhibition reflects a practice that reaches beyond painting and drawing. His engagement with sculpture, writing, literature and theatre adds further dimensions to an artistic career that has extended across India and internationally. By bringing together works from different periods and mediums, Intersections allows these varied pursuits to be seen alongside one another. We catch up with Ashok to find out more.
What are the different intersections you see across the works brought together here?
To me, Intersections describes the way different experiences meet in an artwork. It begins quite literally with cross-hatching, where one mark meets another until a figure takes shape. My work has always been influenced by the world around me, particularly the lives of ordinary people, their struggles, their relationships and their resilience. There are many intersections within the works.
This is your first solo exhibition in Bengaluru. What made this the right moment to present your art in the city?
It is a pleasure to have my first solo exhibition in Bengaluru. What makes this presentation meaningful is the chance to meet a new audience through works made at very different moments of my life. Artisera and Dhoomimal Gallery have brought together early drawings from the 1970s, works from later decades and recent canvases and bronzes. I hope visitors will see both the changes in my work and the concerns that have remained with me. I am especially interested in what people encountering these images for the first time bring to them.
How many works are being presented in the exhibition and how are they divided across paintings, drawings and sculptures?
There are 60 works being presented, including 33 works on canvas and board, five sculptures and 22 drawings. We wanted different parts of the practice to speak to one another. The early penand-ink drawings from the 1970s, such as The Protest and United We Stand, reveal a direct engagement with the human condition. Works from the 1980s and 1990s, such as Interrogation and The Procession of Masks, show how the figures and compositions developed. Recent works, such as Fowlers, 24 Miners and A Bird and Amina & Her Bird, carry some of those interests forward in a different visual language. The exhibition is as much about continuity as change.
Cross-hatching is one of the most recognisable aspects of your work. When did you first begin working with the technique and what initially attracted you to it?
I began exploring cross-hatching in the 1970s, working with pen and ink and limited materials. What interested me was how simple marks could build a world of light, darkness, shape and feeling. Some of the drawings in this exhibition let viewers see those early investigations. With crosshatching, density and direction matter: one mark changes the effect of the next. I can construct a form gradually and make the light seem to emerge from the dark. It is demanding work, but it gives me a very particular relationship with the image.
Do ideas move between your paintings, drawings and sculptures or do you approach each medium as a separate language?
Absolutely. I see a continuing conversation between the mediums. The four kingfisher works on archival paper from 2000 – 01 and the bronze Kingfisher (2025) make that especially visible. The subject remains recognisable, but the experience changes when it has weight and occupies space. The same is true of the miners, who appear in works on paper and canvas and in the bronze Coal Miners (2025). Drawing allows me to construct a world through marks; painting with colour changes its atmosphere, while sculpture asks me to think through volume and balance. Each medium has its own demands, but the questions behind the works are connected.
Entry free. On till November 5. At Indiranagar
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