Indigenous Accents, a new solo exhibition by Raj Kishore Gupta in New Delhi, transforms indigenous visual traditions into intimate works on live-edge wood and resin.
About the exhibition
Indigenous Accents, curated by Uma Nair, opens at LTC, Bikaner House, with a preview on 2 July 2026 and runs from 2–6 July 2026. Created during the Covid pandemic, the series draws on Warli, Gond, Phulkari, Pahadi, African and Australian Aboriginal art.
Gupta blends those influences into layered paintings and reliefs on resin and live-edge sheesham and kikar wood slabs.
Artist practice
Raj Kishore Gupta trained in printmaking at the Government College of Art, Chandigarh. His early work with woodcuts and linocuts shaped a taste for line, repetition and surface. Decades later, those printmaking principles return here as intricate mark-making, rhythmic patterning and carefully constructed surfaces. Gupta treats wood as a collaborator: grain becomes pathways, knots become focal points, and natural fissures guide the image.
Key themes
The works turn indigenous visual languages into a private archive of memory, landscape and material form. Butterflies, flowering shapes, trees, animals and ancestral motifs recur across compositions. Rather than isolated symbols, these elements weave together to make dense, immersive fields. Gupta says, “I found that the paintings of all the tribals were about their soil, their land, and their traditions… stories of my childhood, my family, and the landscapes where I grew up began finding their way into these works.”
Material and method
A defining feature of Indigenous Accents is the use of live-edge wood and circular tree trunks. Gupta leaves contours, bark, knots and cracks intact. This choice makes the pieces part painting, part relief, part sculpture. Curator Uma Nair notes that the live-edge substrates turn each work into “a sculptural exploration of time and mutability,” adding a wabi-sabi quality that celebrates imperfection.
Curatorial vision
Uma Nair frames the show as a dialogue between the artist’s interventions and the material memory of the tree. She highlights how leaving natural marks—the grain, the fissures—allows the works to hover between image and object. The exhibition emphasises cultural continuity and migration of forms, not mimicry.
Highlights
Among the most distinctive works are vertical wooden beams that extend Gupta’s motifs into sculptural space. These beams act as repositories of memory, layered with symbols and references gathered from years of study. The show also includes the ‘Medley’ series, in which multiple indigenous styles converge within a single field to create works rooted in cross-cultural dialogue rather than imitation. Photographer Avani Rai contributes portraits of Gupta, offering an intimate view of the artist alongside his works.
About the artist and foundation
Born in Kasauli in 1957, Raj Kishore Gupta lives and works in Chandigarh. His four-decade practice spans printmaking, painting and material exploration. The Raj Kishore Gupta Foundation, founded by his daughter, Aashita Gupta, supports artists and curated this inaugural exhibition.
Exhibition details
Title: Indigenous Accents
Artist: Raj Kishore Gupta
Curator: Uma Nair
Venue: LTC, Bikaner House, New Delhi
Preview: 2 July 2026
On view: 2–6 July 2026
Mediums: Acrylic on resin, live-edge wood slabs, circular tree trunks
This article has been created from the press kit shared with Abir Pothi. For press releases and related queries, write to editor@abirpothi.com.
Cover Image: Untitled Wood | Acrylic | Resin 50” x 15” | Image Credit: Bikaner House
Akanksha is an Associate Editor at Abir Pothi, writing on contemporary art and creating engaging videos that highlight artists and make art accessible to wider audiences.
