PEAKLIFE

Tao Art Gallery, one of the leading art galleries in Mumbai, announces a solo show by the young and upcoming artist Viraj Khanna – “What My Mother Didn’t Teach Me… & Some Things She Did!”. With its preview aired on February 25th, Friday, the exhibition will be on display until April 3rd, Sunday.

With the primary base being a paper collage, Viraj Khanna builds up a captivating narrative using different elements from various magazines, encyclopedias, and other books to give it a shape. These pictorial elements could be anything ranging from different trees, parts of peoples’ bodies, and different accessories/shapes.

The mix and match lead to a piece that is a journey for the artist as it is for the artwork! It is fluid and organic, removing all forms of restriction in the creative process. The mediums and techniques explored by Khanna show the level of an experimentation that is characteristic of the various thematic layers he dapples with.

Viraj Khanna says, “My sculptures and paintings with their exaggerated features and multiple faces depict this behavioural adaptation due to the influences of society. There is a constant battle between our raw, natural, and conditioned forms. Eventually, the artwork reflects my life and its influences because I have to consciously decide what works in the experiment and what does not. It has to agree with my sense of balance, colour and taste.”

Additionally, Viraj Khanna’s art also marks the launch of Tao Art Gallery’s first-ever NFT showcase which will be on display for Mumbai Gallery Weekend 2022. Along with the physical canvas and sculpture works, Viraj will be launching three NFTs exclusively for this solo exhibition.

Speaking on the NFT, he adds, “They say that in a few years, we could see digital recreations of ourselves in the metaverse living there just like the real world. So, the NFTs available now could be significant collectables or assets owned by people on the metaverse!”

Commenting on the upcoming show, Sanjana Shah, Independent Curator and Creative Director, Tao Art Gallery, shares, “When I first interacted with Viraj’s work, I was completely taken in by how evocative each piece was. The shapes, forms, and colours stood out starkly but then came together in an incredibly aesthetic form. The mediums and processes explored by him show the level of an experiment that is characteristic of the myriad thematic layers he is dappling with.”

At “What My Mother Didn’t Teach Me… & Some Things She Did!”, audiences will get an opportunity to witness a glorious deconstruction and reconstruction of identities and ideologies.