Kalakaar Art Salon is hosting Performing Belief, a group exhibition curated by Rahul Kumar, bringing together works by 22 modern, folk, tribal and contemporary artists. The exhibition opened on August 13 and looks at ritual beyond religious ceremony and sacred imagery, examining it through memory, repetition, labour, devotion and everyday practice.The exhibition features works by S. H. Raza, F. N. Souza, M. F. Husain, Sohan Qadri, G. R. Santosh, Jamini Roy, Haku Shah, Shanti Dave, Bhuri Bai, Lado Bai, Jivya Soma Mashe, Manu Parekh, Madhvi Parekh, Thota Vaikuntam, Shobha Broota, Manisha Gera, Yudhishthir Maharjan, Sheetal Gattani, Satyanarayana Gavara, Savia Lopez, Himmat Gyari and Dibin Thilakan.
Jai Khanna and Shivin Khanna; Suvrat Batra and Manpria Batra
Bringing together artists across generations, the exhibition traces how Indian modernists engaged with mythology, tantric philosophy, folk traditions and collective memory while negotiating local histories and modernism. Contemporary practices revisit some of these concerns through migration, ecology, gender, urbanisation and embodied experience.The exhibition also considers artistic practice itself as a form of ritual. Repeated gestures, sustained making and engagement with materials such as pigment, cloth, paper, earth, wood, thread and found objects become ways of carrying and renewing memory.“Being part of this evolving curatorial vision is particularly rewarding because it moves beyond conventional art historical categories, creating meaningful dialogues between modern, vernacular, and contemporary practices,” says curator Rahul Kumar. “Seeing these works alongside one another reveals unexpected continuities and productive tensions, allowing familiar narratives to be reconsidered while demonstrating how contemporary artists continually reinterpret, challenge, and extend the legacies of modernism.”
The viewer takes back more than an impression of individual works
Salon co-founder Shivin Khanna says, “This exhibition speaks directly to that vision, examining how artists inherit symbols, materials and cultural memories, and continually reinterpret them in response to the present. Ritual survives not by remaining unchanged, but by being repeatedly performed, questioned and renewed.”Co-founder Saira Khanna adds, “Through Performing Belief, we want visitors to recognise ritual as something that connects art to memory, material, repetition and everyday life, and to leave with new associations formed across generations, traditions and artistic practices.”
Shivin Khanna, Rahul Kumar and Saira Khanna; Sonali Anand Baheti and Manish Kumar Baheti
