Manish Pushkale
Manish Pushkale (b. 1973) is an autodidact who honed his artistic style and sensibility in the fertile and creative ambience of Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal. The intellectual rigour of Bharat Bhavan’s founders in its early decades, its deeply held Indian values and its uncompromising artistic mission to foster these values in art have formed the foundation of Pushkale’s subsequent career as a celebrated abstract artist. His calm, contemplative canvases dwell upon the ebb and flow of civilisation and its underlying spirituality through themes of genesis, progress and change. This reflective consciousness is tied to his deep interests in archaeology and geology, of which the latter he studied during his Master’s in Bhopal.
Pushkale’s works have been widely exhibited in India and internationally over the last 25 years. He has participated in several group shows, including Multitudes & Assemblages at Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, Turin, Italy, in 2021; Musée de Guéthary, with Akar Prakar and ICCR, representing the country at the Festival of India in France in 2016; a two-person show with his guru S.H. Raza as a parallel exhibition to the Venice Biennale in 2010. Some of his solo shows include Carte Blanche: To Whom the Bird Should Speak? at Musée Guimet, Paris in 2023-24; Consistent (in)consistency at Akar Prakar, Kolkata in 2023; Tracing the Cartographer’s Trail at Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, in 2022 and at Akar Prakar in 2021; Lamina at Akar Prakar, 2018; Painter of Light, Akar Prakar, 2017. He is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies such as a fellowship at the Nantes Institute of Advanced Study in 2014; and the Grand Award at Bharat Bhavan Biennale, Bhopal, in 2018.
The artist lives and works in New Delhi.
Manish Pushkale | Shreenath | Acrylic on canvas | 77 x 123 in | 2020
Manish Pushkale | Cocoon I |Acrylic on canvas | 60 x 48 in | 2020
Manish Pushkale | Cocoon II |Acrylic on canvas | 60 x 48 in | 2020
Manish Pushkale | The flying pebbles | Acrylic on canvas | 60 x 96 in | 2021
Manish Pushkale | Metaphors of my terrain | Acrylic on canvas | 36 x 78 in | 2020
Manish Pushkale | Sound of my land | Acrylic on canvas | 48 x 20 in | 2020
Manish Pushkale | Truly equivocal 1 | Acrylic on handmade paper | 29 x 22 in | 2021
Manish Pushkale | Truly equivocal 2 | Acrylic on handmade paper | 29 x 22 in | 2021
Manish Pushkale | Truly equivocal 3 | Acrylic on handmade paper | 29 x 22 in | 2021