‘Elsewhere: Cities That I Carry With Me’ – A solo exhibition by Smitaa V Jain

Triveni Gallery at Triveni Kala Sangam is hosting Elsewhere: Cities That I Carry With Me, a solo exhibition by artist Smitaa V Jain, from October 25 to November 4. Presented by Elke & Bose, the exhibition explores the relationship between architecture, memory, places and personal experiences through paintings inspired by cities and their built environments.

Smitaa’s works draw from ancestral havelis, historic monuments and contemporary cityscapes. Streets, facades, terraces and architectural details become visual expressions of memory, with the artist using abstraction, colour, texture, light and fragmented forms to move beyond conventional representations of buildings and urban spaces.

Rather than documenting places as they appear, the paintings explore how people remember and emotionally connect with them. The works invite viewers to relate the depicted spaces to their own experiences, allowing familiar architectural forms to acquire new meanings through memory and imagination.

The exhibition continues Smitaa’s exploration of how places shape identity and how personal memories transform the cities people carry within themselves. Each painting becomes a journey through both a physical city and the artist’s personal past, bringing together the visible, remembered and imagined.

Lalit Suri of Elke & Bose, the presenters of the exhibition, describes the cities in Smitaa’s paintings as worlds shaped by memories, impressions and imagination. He draws attention to the fairy-tale-like quality of the works, where familiar places take on fantastical forms, creating what he describes as the artist’s own Wonderland.

A professionally trained artist, Smitaa is a Gold Medallist in Textile Design from South Delhi Polytechnic and has been practising independently since 2005. Her works have been exhibited across India and internationally, including in Dubai, Busan, Russia, Singapore and New York. Her solo exhibitions include presentations at Uchaan Art Gallery, Hotel Leela Kempinski and Visual Art Gallery at India Habitat Centre.

When: Until November 4; 11 AM to 8 PM

Where: Triveni Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi