Two artists reflect on change, memory, and belonging through stories shaped by land, sky, and time, says TEAM VIVA
It’s not every day that one walks into an art exhibition and leaves feeling as if the canvases have whispered stories into your ears. The dual solo exhibitions presented by Gallerie Nvya — “Silent Echoes of a Flight Beyond… and Whispers of the Earth Beneath…” by Lal Bahadur Singh, and “Whimsical Lines: Urban Refrain Through Tribal Abstraction” by Bhuwal Prasad — do exactly that. These two distinct yet thematically intertwined exhibitions reflect the fragility of our times and the stories that pulse beneath the surface of urban evolution.
Lal Bahadur Singh’s works paintings; they quietly echo nature’s resilience. Each canvas is soaked in symbolism, where birds-parrots, sparrows, woodpeckers-perch delicately on bricks, ears of wheat, or amongst crumbling remnants of old homes. In his series, nature does not surrender; it adapts.
Birds find sanctuary not in trees, but in the cold cracks of human construction. Singh’s strength lies in rendering this tension with such delicate beauty that the pain of displacement is felt even through the vibrant colours and calm compositions.
One striking piece depicts a city of red rocks and a vast sky that fades into darkness. Here, absence becomes presence-the lack of human interference becomes the artwork’s most powerful element. It’s a scene untouched, where even the rocks seem alive, and water bodies mirror a serene resistance. In contrast, another work features birds flying away, cradling a giant nest above the clouds-a flight of hope, of transcendence, of liberation from the mechanised noise of modernity.
Bhuwal Prasad, showing just a floor above, introduces a different yet equally compelling visual vocabulary. His exhibition feels like a playful interaction of tribal sensibilities and contemporary abstraction. Prasad’s Whimsical Linesseries invites the viewer into a space where faces emerge from bold lines and birds, telephones and fish hide within geometric chaos.
There is spontaneity, a childlike joy, yet behind it all lies a deeper narrative of identity, movement, and rootedness. Drawing from tribal influences-perhaps Gond, Warli or Khovar-Sohrai-Prasad brings new life into tradition by merging it with modern materiality: corrugated cardboard, jute, fibreglass. His surfaces are tactile, textured, almost sculptural, demanding both visual and physical engagement.
Together, these exhibitions display lived experiences, ancestral memory and the urgency of adaptation. Whether it is Lal Bahadur’s meditative birds or Bhuwal’s playful crowds, both artists navigate the space between what was and what is becoming.
