‘The Sky in the Palm’: a solo exhibition by Shailesh BR

Vadehra Art Gallery is currently presenting The Sky in the Palm, a solo exhibition by New Delhi–based artist Shailesh BR, on view from November 7 to December 3. Curated by Mario D’Souza, the show is open Monday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM at Vadehra Art Gallery, D-53, Defence Colony.

After nearly eight years since his last solo at the gallery, Shailesh returns with a compelling body of work that brings together his evolving explorations at the intersection of art, technology and metaphysical inquiry. The exhibition showcases seven large-scale kinetic installations alongside a significant suite of works on paper — visual studies, notations and conceptual diagrams that map the inner architectures of his machine-based practice.

Shailesh’s mechanical sculptures operate between ritual, performance and artificial intelligence, probing questions of selfhood, belief, and the shifting terrain of human and post-human experience. His approach draws from years of research-based residencies at institutions such as CERN in Geneva and the Institute of Science and Technology, Vienna, where scientific inquiry and speculative imagination intersected to shape his artistic language.

“In Shailesh B.R.’s practice, the sacred and the speculative converge in acts of questioning,” writes curator Mario D’Souza. “His machines, myths, and metaphors do not offer certainty but open thresholds between the human and the more than human; the ancient and the algorithmic.”

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Alongside the kinetic works, Shailesh’s collaged works on paper — influenced by Benodebehari Mukherjee, Henri Matisse and Man Ray — foreground the spatial play of colour, form and line. They reflect his ongoing attempt to expand the possibilities of medium and expression, approaching artificial intelligence as a subjective collaborator rather than a mere tool.

Born in Karnataka in 1986, Shailesh has exhibited widely in India and internationally, with presentations at the Daejeon Museum of Art, Serendipity Arts Festival, Colomboscope and Villa Arson, among others. He is a recipient of the FICA Emerging Artist Award and the Inlaks Fine Arts Award, and continues to build a practice that bridges science, philosophy and visual art.

When: Until December 3

Where: Vadehra Art Gallery, D-53, Defence Colony, New Delhi