“Mysterium: Exploring the Numinous,” a new contemporary art exhibition by Ahmedabad-based artist Ravi Joshi, will take place in Ahmedabad during Ahmedabad Cultural Week. The exhibition, held in association with Anupa Mehta Contemporary Art, will have a preview on March 20, 2026, at the Kanoria Centre for Arts’ Urmila Kailash Black Box.
An artist-led walkthrough is planned for March 21 from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., and the preview evening is set for 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The public can view the show until March 24, 2026.
Ravi Joshi, who is originally from the seaside town of Porbandar, began his artistic career at his family’s photographic studio, where darkroom techniques and portrait photography shaped his early perceptions of memory and images. His sensitivity to colour, texture, and visual change was affected by the process of hand-colouring black-and-white photos in the studio using transparent inks.
Ravi Joshi regularly blurs the lines between portrait, body, and landscape in his artwork, drawing inspiration from the rolling hills, mangroves, and seaside settings of the Gujarati Kathiyawar region. His paintings frequently result from a process that he compares to creating images from memory, converting memories of location into evocative shapes.
Ravi Joshi has had numerous exhibitions since being introduced by curator and gallerist Anupa Mehta in 2009 through The Loft at Lower Parel. Gallery OED and the renowned subterranean gallery Amdavad ni Gufa are two locations where his work has been exhibited.
His investigation of the landscape as a figure-like presence is continued in the pieces included in “Mysterium: Exploring the Numinous.” The artist uses materials from Saurashtra’s hills and coastal belts, including gypsum, bauxite, limestone, soot, coal dust, cement, and indigo, to produce textured surfaces that serve as memory bearers and evoke film grain and photographic exposure.
Joshi presently resides and works in Ahmedabad, where he continues to experiment with natural colours and alchemical techniques, such as locally made lime baths and indigo vats, to create paintings that capture the tangible landscape and its residual impressions.
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