Rajesh P Kargutkar, Colour Day, 2024, Oil on canvas, 60 x 90 cm, Copyright Artist, Credits Artist & The Culture Story

 

 

A solo exhibition by Rajesh P Kargutkar

27 July to 4 October 2024

Opens 27 July, from 12 – 5pm. Open House on 3 Aug, from 1 – 5pm. Artist will be present on both days.

All other visits by appointment.

The Culture Story presents Rajesh P Kargutkar’s solo exhibition “Cramped Space”, a new series of paintings that captures the dynamic daily life and rich stories within Mumbai’s historic chawls, which act as a stage for everyday life where individuals traverse, connect, and shape their own narratives. Rooted in personal biography, the artist’s visual storytelling intertwines memories and photographs, blurring the boundaries between reality and imagination. His artworks depict a diverse cast of characters inhabiting these tight quarters, ushering viewers into these intimate yet constricted interiors, from the elderly man engrossed in a newspaper beside a tray of dried mangos and a clothesline laden with various brightly coloured undergarments in Sour Lover (2024), to the topless man symbolically caught between his wife and mother-in-law in MID Day (2024).

 

Kargutkar’s paintings affirm the inherent right to everyday existence, revealing boundless possibilities within the chawls that defy the constraints of time, space, and resources. By highlighting the lived experiences, memories, and routines of chawl inhabitants, Kargutkar underscores the agency, creativity, and resilience of both individuals and communities, recognising their ability to flourish in the face of adversity. For the artist, every moment, no matter how ordinary, teems with unexplored potential, waiting to be discovered.

 

Read the conversation between Rajesh and Yvonne Wang here.