A group exhibition titled The Architecture of the Void: Lines on a Postcolonial Skeleton, featuring works by leading modern Indian artists including Badri Narayan, Bhupen Khakhar, Bireswar Sen, FN Souza, GR Santosh, J Swaminathan, Jangarh Singh Shyam, Jogen Chowdhury, KH Ara, Meera Mukherji, Piraji Sagara, Prabhakar Barwe, Ram Kumar, Sadanand K. Bakre and Somnath Hore, will be on view at Gallery Dotwalk, Defence Colony, from April 18 to May 30.
Marking the gallery’s second exhibition at its new space, the show brings together a significant selection of drawings, watercolours, etchings and works on paper. By centring paper as a medium, it foregrounds a surface often overlooked, yet central to how artists first shaped ideas of form, memory and identity. Set against the backdrop of Independence and Partition, the exhibition reflects on a period when India was redefining itself politically and culturally. For many artists of the time, paper became an immediate and responsive surface — one that retained hesitation, erasure and fragility, allowing for an intimate expression of a society in transition.
Rather than organising works by region or movement, the exhibition follows the journey of the line itself. Across the works, lines appear architectural, wounded, intimate and expansive, creating unexpected conversations between artists rarely seen together. In doing so, the exhibition suggests that postcolonial modernism in India emerged not as a singular style, but as a constellation of varied artistic responses.
For Gallery Dotwalk, the exhibition also signals a deepening engagement with modern Indian art. Known for its focus on contemporary practices and experimental formats, the gallery here extends its curatorial inquiry to build connections between historical works and present-day discourse.
Speaking on the show, founder-director Sreejith C N notes that the move to Defence Colony has opened up space to revisit how modernism in India first took shape, while also reflecting on its continuing relevance.
The Architecture of the Void ultimately positions these works on paper not as archival remnants, but as active sites of thought — continuing to shape how artists and audiences engage with questions of form, history and identity today.
When: April 18 to May 30
Where: Gallery Dotwalk, Defence Colony, New Delhi
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