The current exhibition at the Avtar Foundat for Arts Hit Home. Sometimes you’re looking at someone else’s home, sometimes you’re in the middle of their living room, quietly taking in the surroundings, sometimes you’re standing in front of barbed wire that divides two countries and, perhaps, homes.
At Home – An Exploration of Space, Belonging, Identity and Memory, curated by Shruti Parthasarathy, marks a significant beginning for the exhibition of modern and contemporary art in Chennai, at the foundation’s new permanent space at MRC Nagar, Ra Puram.
“The main objective of the foundation is to address the lack of public or private institutions in Chennai that showcase contemporary and modern South Asian art to the public. It aims to bridge the gap in access to information about current developments in the South Asian art scene, both in the field of modern and contemporary art,” says Jaiveer Johal, collector and founder of Avtar Founds.
The exhibition showcases works by artists like VS Gaitonde, Zarina Hashmi and explores contemporary art through the works of Shilpa Gupta, Arshi irhad Ahmadzai, Baaraan Ijlal. | Photo credit: Special arrangement
The exhibition delves into the idea of what home really means – whether it’s a physical structure or a living space, as a marker of cultural identity, or as a memory of a time lost to time, displacement or longing. “The idea is to have different connotations of home, home as a refuge or sanctuary, and what it means to different people,” says Shruti.
Featuring works by artists such as Vet Gaitonde, Zarina and exploring contemporary art through works by Shilpa Gupta, Arshi irhad Ahmadzai, Baaraan Ijlal and many others, the exhibition begins with the concept of the house, starting with a concrete, architectural understanding of space, line and volume for built-in houses and progressing to architecture.
There is artist Ayushi Anil Panchal’s Inside Story II, 2023, with a zinc plate, the plate depicts two fans, reflecting the memory of using a fan to cool off when returning home in the heat. The plate, with minute carvings, shows a cramped but beloved space, something that represents the house she grew up in.
Cityscape
There is VS Gaitonde’s abstract piece titled Untitled (Cityscape) -1971, a depiction of the Bombay skyline. “Gaitonde’s large watercolor washes are from a brief, lesser-known phase just before he moved into the large monochrome oils, often attributed to his deep interest in Zen Buddhism. The forms in this work suggest a built-in view of the Bombay city skyline, where he lived at the time, but very atmospheric, suggestive of the sky-green water, and have the same airiness as the transquility and stilsport of the Oils.
Artist Zarina’s series Mango Tree-1988, made in 1988, depicts ripe mango seeds in various forms, perhaps a representation of the artist’s mango tree in her yard. “Here, Homer lives only in memory; it’s about longing and the loss of a childhood home. Her work house is a recurring theme,” says Shruti.
Shilpa Gupta’s 100 Hand-Drawn Maps of India (2019) invited gallery visitors to draw maps of India, which were then layered to show that no map is definitive and that borders are not imaginary.
The show is open to everyone from Wednesday to Sunday, at
Published – August 26, 2025 01:08 PM IST
