Marching from the Margins, taking place from 15 September to 12 October 2026 at the Bihar Museum, Patna, presents a landmark exhibition of works by Krishen Khanna, one of India’s most distinguished modern masters and the last surviving member of the Progressive Artists’ Group of Bombay. The exhibition traces lines of artistic persistence, examining themes of memory, labour, music, and the human condition through recurring motifs such as Bandwallas, journeys, solitary figures, and scenes drawn from memory and epic. Showcasing key works from Khanna’s iconic series, the presentation highlights his technical mastery across diverse mediums, ranging from oil on canvas and mixed media to large-scale triptychs and pentaptychs, as well as recent sculptures in resinated fibreglass and bronze. It stands as a testament to the artist’s lifelong inquiry into renewal through revisitation, where familiar subjects acquire fresh psychological depth through layered surfaces, earthy palettes, and pared-down forms. The margins are not peripheral to history; they are places from which some of its most necessary stories emerge.

Where Words End… begins from a simple but insistent premise: that there are experiences which cannot be carried by language—and that painting begins precisely there.

In Tom’s practice, this is not a metaphor but a method. His early years as an illustrator for malayalam periodicals placed him within the logic of the text—images that clarified, accompanied, and moved at the speed of reading. But these “story paintings” emerge from a different necessity. The fictional and non-fictional texts are no longer something to be served. It is something to be exceeded.

Tom does not paint what a story says. He paints what it cannot.

A story may describe an event, a character, a condition. But what remains—after the telling—is often something more elusive: a hesitation, a weight, a silence that resists articulation. It is this remainder that his paintings hold. Figures appear suspended, as if unable to complete their gesture. Spaces seem to contain more than they reveal. Time does not unfold—it gathers, thickens, and lingers.

If illustration belongs to the speed of language, these works claim duration. They refuse resolution. They ask the viewer not to read, but to remain.

Even when drawing from literature or art history, these references do not anchor meaning—they unsettle it, allowing the image to move beyond its source without severing itself from it. What emerges is not an explanation, but an experience.

Where Words End… is not about silence. It is about that point at which language reaches its limit—and painting takes over.

– Siddharth Sivakumar

A curated selection of works by Jagannath Mohapatra brings into focus a practice rooted in close observation of landscape and lived experience. His works engage with nature, ecology, and everyday human presence, rendered through a layered and contemplative visual language. Rivers, vegetation, figures, and built environments recur across the compositions, creating spaces marked by stillness, movement, and quiet continuity. Spanning several years, this presentation highlights the artist’s sustained engagement with place, texture, and atmosphere, where repetition and subtle variation reflect endurance, memory, and the rhythms of life.

A focused presentation of works by Suryakant Lokhande foregrounds a practice shaped by popular visual culture and narrative imagery. Drawing upon familiar animated figures, the artist creates imaginative compositions that engage with memory, fantasy, and contemporary visual experience. Through vibrant colour and carefully constructed scenes, the works explore storytelling as a form of visual play, reworking shared cultural references into expressive and engaging images.

Across the Century, held from 21 to 25 January 2026, presented a curated selection of works by Krishen Khanna, an artist renowned for his searching and humane exploration of the post-Independence Indian experience across seven decades. The exhibition traced lines of artistic persistence, examining themes of everyday life, moral ambiguity, and human vulnerability through recurring motifs such as Bandwallas, episodes from the Mahabharata, and solitary figures. Showcasing key works from Khanna’s iconic series, the presentation highlighted his technical mastery across diverse mediums, ranging from mixed media on canvas and paper to large-scale triptychs and pentaptychs. It stood as a testament to the artist’s lifelong inquiry into renewal through revisitation, where familiar subjects acquired fresh psychological depth through layered surfaces, earthy palettes, and pared-down forms.

Lineages, held from November 6th to 14th, 2025, presented a curated decade of work by Tsherin Sherpa, an artist renowned for his unique dialogue between traditional Himalayan iconography and contemporary global culture. The exhibition traced the lines of artistic lineage, exploring themes of diaspora, identity, and the metamorphosis of cultural memory through a masterful blend of thangka inspired detail and modern visual language. Showcasing key works from his acclaimed Spirits and Fragments series, the exhibition highlighted Sherpas technical mastery across diverse mediums, from intricate gold leaf paintings on cotton to monumental Tibetan wool tapestries. The presentation stood as a testament to the artists ongoing investigation into the evolution of tradition and the complex emotional landscape of cultural displacement.

Himmat Shah: Innocence & Creativity,” held from November 16th to 18th, 2024, was a profound celebration of the visionary work of Himmat Shah, one of India’s foremost modern sculptors. This exhibition brought together key pieces that highlighted his enduring search for simplicity, innocence, and creative expression, showcasing his unique philosophy that art transcends reason and technique.