Mehak Garg’s paintings are not merely to be seen but to be lived in and entered. The scale draws the viewer closer, and slowly the intensity of the visuals seep inside. The subtlety of the colors and the creases of skin, fabric, objects, walls, doors, windows and corners slowly emerge like a warm embrace. The moment is almost intimate between the viewer and the image, and at this point the usualness of the domestic spaces attains an unusual stir. Based out of Faridabad, Haryana, Garg’s paintings, in all its unusualness, invite the viewer to the artist’s most sacred space, nest, shelter – the home. Home, in this case, transcends physicality, materiality or time, but rather becomes an act of intimacy. The show title, Fragile creases whisper softly, draws from these lines of intimacy from Garg’s visual language of exploration of sites of daydreaming, reverie, slumber and imagination.
The curator, Lakshmi Nivas Collective notes, “Intimacy is at the heart of Mehak’s paintings. The boundaries between inside and outside blur and the home becomes an archaeological site to explore, where do the people in the images find solace, silence, daydream or heal after distress, banality, labor or conflict. While pondering, the viewers slip into their own memories of homes, sites of intimacy – distant or present. That slippage into solace in the silence of one’s thoughts is one of the most powerful aspects in Mehak’s works.” In the age of digital alienation and overconsumption, more than ever, we need to think about intimacy, sites for contemplation, daydream and imagination and that becomes the most radical act in times of distress today. Mehak Garg’s paintings offers that sliver of passage to sites of interiority and silence, solitude and reveries and imagination emerges from here.
A curator’s walkthrough and a public talk between Mehak Garg and sociologist Shivani Rajput, moderated by Lakshmi Nivas Collective, is stipulated between 31st July and 6th August 2025, at Bikaner House, New Delhi. After its completion in Bikaner House, New Delhi, Fragile creases whisper slowly will continue in Gallery Dotwalk, Gurgaon, Delhi NCR from 16th August 2025 until 15th September 2025. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring all the displayed works and curatorial essay.
EXHIBITION PROGRAMS
- Preview at Bikaner House | Venue: Main building, Bikaner House, New Delhi
31st July 2025, Thursday | Time: 5:30 pm onwards
- Curated walkthrough | Venue: Main building, Bikaner House, New Delhi
31st July 2025, Thursday | Time: 6 pm
- Conversation between the Artist Mehak Garg and Sociologist, Ms Shivani Rajput Conversation moderated by Namrata Neog (Lakshmi Nivas Collective) | Main building, Bikaner House, New Delhi
3rd August 2025, Sunday | Time: 4: 00 pm
- Conversation between Sibdas Sengupta, Program manager at Dotwalk Ajitara Art Residency and Mehak Garg |
Gallery Dotwalk, Golf course road, Gurugram
Description: Discussion on Mehak Garg’s journey to Gallery Dotwalk through Dotwalk Ajitara Art Residency.
17th August 2025, Sunday | Time: 4:00 pm
