Metaphors and meanings at this Mumbai exhibition

In the Maximum City's storied Jehangir Art Gallery, curator Uma Nair forms unpredictable connections through identity, culture and aesthetics

17 Jul 2025

Namrata Dewanjee

Diving headfirst into the deep end of the pool. Entering an art gallery is close to that split-second disorientation. Flashes of colour, materials and ideas. An unease takes hold, bordering on discomfort. Just until it starts to make sense. As I traced this familiar unfamiliar route around Voices, a group exhibition in Mumbai at Jehangir Art Gallery, I met the curator, Uma Nair.

At the show presented by Ahmedabad’s Bespoke Art Gallery, founded by collector Devin Gawarvala, Uma brings together 26 Indian and international artists (from Devin’s collection). “The role of a curator is about giving people something new, not necessarily an artist but a new experience,” she tells me. Having written about their work and been involved in the arts for over three decades, she can now recall each of their trajectories from memory. Instead of the familiar unfamiliarity so often the case with galleries, she imparts a way of seeing. How to transcribe the multiplicity of voices? How to parse meaning?

"Why do we still mistake intellectualism for intelligence, both for people who create art and those of us who perceive it?"

CURATOR CONNECTS THE DOTS

Uma walks me through the auditorium. Architect and artist Ankon Mitra’s origami folds. Gond Elephants by Padma Shri Bhajju Shyam. Karl Antao’s grids. Across the room, brilliant glittering horses of Timur D’Vatz, a Guniess World Record holder. Disparate identities, unrelated origins, seas and time apart. What could possibly bind them together?

“Look at Bhajju and Ankon’s work,” Uma gestures. On the left, against a red backdrop, patchworks of aqua appear. Uncountable repeating lines carefully adorn the truncated creatures. On the right, blue pottery finds a new expression in the folds of the canvas. Both play with textures, yet emanate from entirely different points. “The uncanny similarity of the dynamics of design. Neither artist knows what the other one is doing,” smiles Uma, “I consider myself an unpredictable curator.”

Between recounting her evocative conversations with FN Souza and her previous career as a teacher, Uma walks towards a panoramic painting by Muzaffar Ali. (Yes, the man behind Umrao Jaan.) His lifelong tryst with horses is alive on the walls. In motion, their manes appear and disappear. Infinite, intangible. Jesus Curia’s human sculptures find an echo in Nilesh Verde’s explorations of duality.

Spring, Summer, Monsoon and The Framed Frame by Ankon Mitra

WHOSE WORK IS IMPORTANT?

Across the gallery, outside of geography or chronology, linkages manifest. Once you notice them, they are everywhere. Not serendipitous, but crafted. “Art is about connecting with people,” she notes, “Art is a voice. And a curator should make you think.” But who is a curator? And who gets to speak about art?

Standing before his hollow frame artwork constructed out of a found object and cardboard, Ankon tells me about his practice. As a creative whose work is multidisciplinary, he evades boxes. He likens it to existing on the outer orbits of a nucleus. “Being on the outside enables conversations. That’s how each discipline is enriched.” Filmmakers, sculptors, architects. The show is replete with people and culture. According to Ankon, art should have no barriers. But why do we still mistake intellectualism for intelligence, both for people who create art and those of us who perceive it?

Voices on view at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai | 16–24 July 2025