New Delhi, October 2025: Melange of Memories brings together thirty accomplished artists from across India in a significant group exhibition curated by noted art critic and curator JohnyML, and presented by Kali Charan Padhi, artist and director of CanonFire Creatives, Bhubaneswar. The exhibition will be held from 31st October to 4th November 2025 at the LTC Gallery, Bikaner House, New Delhi, and offers a rare opportunity to experience the diversity and vitality of contemporary Indian art under one roof.
As the title suggests, Melange of Memories is a confluence of artistic reflections rooted in memory — personal, cultural, and historical. The show highlights artists who share academic grounding from India’s leading art institutions but have evolved individual vocabularies shaped by distinct geographies and experiences. Curator JohnyML notes, “Each artist reflects how memory becomes the foundation of identity — shaping visual thought, emotion, and style across time and space.” Rejecting rigid thematic confines, the exhibition instead celebrates multiplicity and freedom in artistic expression, uniting painters of different generations, sensibilities, and approaches into a cohesive visual dialogue.
Among the featured artists, Shabana Quadri and Jyoti Khushwaha offer non-representational works where colour, movement, and texture evoke lived experience and emotional resonance. Vrindavan Solanki, one of the senior-most artists, brings the meditative calm of early Indian modernism, his figurative style retaining a timeless poise and spiritual stillness. Supriya Amber celebrates womanhood through her powerful depictions of tribal women, transforming their strength and dignity into universal icons of freedom. Yusuf contributes abstract compositions defined by rhythmic lines and colour fields, aligning Indian sensibility with the grace of high modernism. Rajesh Singh and Promud Boruah, representing two generations of abstraction, construct cosmic and experiential spaces that explore the boundaries of perception and imagination.
Kumar Vikas Saxena explores the tension between history and the contemporary moment, juxtaposing monumental architecture with human confinement to reveal how the past inhabits modern consciousness. Rohit Supakar engages with the dualities of material abundance and social deprivation through a photorealistic lens, critiquing power and inequality in modern life. Rahul Mitra transforms Dante’s Inferno into a modern purgatory, exposing the irony of human greed and dispossession through allegorical sophistication. Kanha Behera revives folk traditions and childhood memories through his vivid depictions of tiger dancers and hunting rituals, while Gurmeet Marwah reinterprets the stories of his childhood into bold graphic compositions that straddle memory and imagination.
Dileep Sharma creates hybrid, fashionable figures who oscillate between divine and demonic, reflecting the changing faces of identity in contemporary society. Laxman Aelay, on the other hand, paints rural women with empathy and reverence, his compositions transforming them into embodiments of grace and resilience. Ganapati Hegde injects humour and tenderness into his love for flora and fauna, using meticulous detail and playful form to celebrate the wonder of nature. Anand Panchal, known for his portrayals of rural Maharashtra, captures the stoic optimism of Latur’s villagers, celebrating simplicity and human endurance. Manish Chavda evokes lyrical emotion through monochromatic tones, capturing the spiritual calm and longing reminiscent of Kalidasa’s poetry.
Sujata Achrekar turns to spirituality as a counterpoint to divisive ideologies, her paintings radiating introspection and moral clarity. Shubhendu Mishra bridges Odisha’s traditional folk idioms with contemporary thought, his works preserving craft heritage while advancing modern visual inquiry. Nishant Dange celebrates transformation and endurance through the feminine form, capturing fragility and strength in his delicate monochrome renderings. Nagesh Goud Bolgum reinterprets the life of Krishna, the blue god, through vibrant imagery that fuses mythology with contemporary expression. Santhana Krishnan creates illusionary spaces that merge painting and object, exploring philosophical dimensions of perception and the physicality of art.
Sanghapal Mhaske, trained at Sir J.J. School of Art, blends classical portraiture with expressive vigour, giving human faces and figures emotional intensity and structural elegance. Aalap Shah works in minimal figuration and conceptual restraint, using subtle colours and form to evoke meditative quietude. Sachin Jaltare seamlessly fuses abstraction and figuration, his works resonating with spiritual energy and the fluid harmony of emotion and geometry. Bipin Martha takes a syncretic view of religion, blending images of Krishna, Buddha, and Mahavira into meditative compositions of compassion and coexistence.
M. Narayana channels dynamic energy through his recurring motif of the horse — not as decorative form, but as an embodiment of force, freedom, and vitality. Asit Kumar Patnaik speaks the language of love and longing through lyrical canvases filled with floating alphabets that symbolize the limits of communication and the poetics of emotion. Ramesh Gorjala bridges classical mural traditions with contemporary design, his intricate, kaleidoscopic compositions celebrating divine narratives in a modern idiom. Finally, Gurudas Shenoy paints with sculptural discipline, carving form from colour and rhythm, creating luminous landscapes that shimmer with energy and grace.
Together, these artists represent a panoramic view of contemporary Indian art — where abstraction and figuration, tradition and experimentation, spirituality and modernity coexist in visual harmony. Through the lens of memory, each artist constructs a world that is both intimate and universal, offering the viewer reflections of personal emotion and collective experience.
Curator JohnyML writes, “These artists represent a cross-section of India’s visual culture. Their works embody memory — not as nostalgia, but as a living archive of experience. Through their art, we glimpse the evolving pulse of contemporary India.”
Presenter Kali Charan Padhi, through his initiative CanonFire Creatives, seeks to make modern and contemporary Indian art more accessible and engaging for diverse audiences. “Melange of Memories is a celebration of our shared aesthetic and emotional landscape — where memory becomes a bridge between the past and the present,” he adds.
The exhibition thus becomes a vibrant meditation on memory, identity, and imagination — a visual symphony of recollections and revelations.
Featuring Image Courtesy: Canon Creatives
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