Cartographies of Mischief reflects the unruly geographies of the artist’s studio at a moment when space itself has become precarious, insistently political, and portable.

This exhibition looks into the fluid threshold where home becomes a studio and the studio folds back into home. As homes and studios shrink within contemporary urban economies, these overlapping geographies reveal both comfort and constraint. Through the works of Asma Kazi, Aditya Chadar, Cyrus Penuganti, Purnima Yaduvanshi and Supriyo Karmakar, that map terrains, interiors, and the architectures of lived experience, the exhibition explores on how these artists inhabit, imagine, and reshape their worlds. Autobiographical in nature, their practices reveal studios that function not only as physical spaces but as method, material, and sites of subtle mischief, where personal life and artistic intention blur into one. 

In her mixed media paintings, Asma Kazi draws microscopic landscapes from her training in zoology, and the contained environment of her home. Observation becomes a method of wandering, allowing her studio-home to unfold into imagined terrains. Aditya Chadar turns to his everyday life in Indore, where the community is both grounded and fragile. His experience of discrimination transforms into colourful, optimistic dreamscapes that imagine a more unified world. For Cyrus Penuganti whose upbringing was shaped by his life in Andhra Pradesh, shifts after moving cities toward a layered inquiry into emotional and physical presence. His studio becomes the epicentre of this evolving inner geography through his marble sculptures. Whereas, Purnima Yaduvanshi positions home as both dwelling and escape. In her surreal landscapes, fragments of memory that are lost, blurred, and renewed intersect within her new home-studio, where mixed feelings of belonging and departure coexist. Supriyo Karmakar renders the everyday architectures of textile layering through his meticulous drawings on paper. Textiles that are protective, intimate, and structural, become a lens for understanding the lived environments that shape him.

A collaboration between Akar Prakar and Ether Project, Cartographies of Mischief complicates the assumed neutrality of studios as a production site. It presents the home-studio as a theatre of friction, restlessness, and possibility, where the everyday becomes the ground of artistic becoming. This exhibition asks not only where art is made, but also how spaces of making shapes the work.

~Yash Vikram

Artist’s Bio

Aditya Chadar

Aditya Chadar, born in 1998 in Indore, India completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Government Institute of Fine Arts, Indore, in 2020. He later pursued his Master's degree at the same institution, graduating in 2022. Through his artworks, Chadar captures the tumultuous energy of crowded, public spaces while aiming for a sense of equilibrium in his compositions. His pieces often evoke contemplation on individuality, and the roles one plays within society at large.

Chadar had his first solo presentation with Cultivate Art Global at India Design in New Delhi (2025). His artworks have also been featured in numerous group exhibitions which include Views From Within at Vadehra Art Gallery, Delhi (2025); Iterations at Vida Heydari Contemporary, Pune (2024); The Future Of Imagination at Space 118, Mumbai (2024); Natura Urbana by Ether Project held at Academy of Fine Arts, Delhi (2023) and Ravi Jain Memorial Exhibition at Dhoomimal Gallery, Delhi (2021), among others. He also showcased his work at the Kochi Muziris ‘Students’ Biennale in 2016 and 2018. Furthermore, he engaged in a winter residency at Space Studio, Vadodara, in 2022-23, and a MAIR residency in Bombay from 2023-24. He is also a recipient of the Meera Kala Samman Award, 2023, adding to the recognition of his artistic endeavours.

Aditya Chadar lives and practices in Indore, India.

Asma Kazi

Asma Kazi, born in Kuwait in 1976, is a self-taught artist. Before dedicating herself fully to the arts, Kazi built a diverse background in Zoology, Business Strategy, Real Estate, and Analytics. Her career highlights include stints at the Analytics Centre of Excellence with GE Card Services in Bangalore and Cushman & Wakefield’s Tenant Strategies & Solutions division in Bombay. These experiences, combined with her upbringing in Pune and Kuwait, her many hours spent illustrating biology journals, and her fascination with chaos theory, organic ecosystems, evolution, post-apocalyptic mutating worlds, and parallel universes, deeply inform her work. Her practice reflects a unique blend of these influences, characterized by biomorphic forms, intricate patterns, and an overarching theme of metamorphosis and finding order amidst chaos.

Kazi embarked on her artistic journey in 2012, and since then she has participated in group exhibitions both in India and the US. Some of her recent exhibitions include The Centre of the Universe Tastes like Raspberry Sour Sticks and Popping Candy, the first of two shows in a travelling exhibition of miniature art at AKG Micro Gallery, Chicago, United States (2024); I Interpret at Nine Fish Art Gallery, Mumbai (2024); Kaleidoscope, group show at TAO Art Gallery, Mumbai (2024); Common Ground at Vida Heydari Contemporary, Pune (2023); The Davos Tentacle at OCAM, Davos, Switzerland (2022); I’m Speaking, online group show with PXP Contemporary, United States (2021); and Ancient Tongues and Tales at Fernie Brae, Portland, United States (2019), amongst others. Noteworthy among her commercial art endeavours is her collaboration on artwork created for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hachette Books, Zee TV and Hoshruba Repertory. Alongside her visual artistry, Kazi explores the realms of magical realism and speculative fiction through her writing. Her story “Bahameen” was published as part of a 13-story anthology titled Magical Women, by Hachette Books India.

Asma Kazi lives and practices in Pune, India.

Cyrus Penuganti

Born in 1988 in Srungavarapukota, Cyrus Penuganti completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Andhra University in 2011, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the College of Art, Delhi. Rooted in childhood memories of nature, architecture, and an enduring sense of time, his practice centers on the use of found marble. Through this material, he shapes abstract forms that exist in the interstice between memory, built environment, and the natural world.

He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the collaborative show between 079 Stories and Vis-a-Vis Studio (2024); World Within World Without at IFBE Gallery, Mumbai, by Art Incept (2023); the 62nd National Award Exhibition at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (2022); the Ravi Jain Memorial Exhibition at Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi (2021); and Infinite Continuum at IHC Gallery, Delhi, presented by Art Pilgrim (2019). Penuganti has received several distinctions, among them the National Award from Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi (2022); the Ravi Jain Memorial Annual Fellowship Award (2021); and the Kalasankranti Puraskar National Award from the Karnataka Lalit Kala Akademi (2017), among others.

Cyrus Penuganti lives and practices in Vadodara, India.

Purnima Yaduvanshi

Purnima Yaduvanshi, born in 1993 in Indore, is a painter who completed both her Bachelor’s (2018) and Master’s (2020) degrees in Fine Arts from the Government Institute of Fine Arts, Indore. Her practice draws upon imagery from her hometown, reimagined through a distorted and magical lens. She creates dreamlike landscapes that weave together past, present, and future, exploring how land shapes identity and communities.

She has participated in several group exhibitions, including Rang Rekha at Pretamlal Sabhagrah Art Gallery, Indore (2019); a group exhibition marking Raja Mansingh’s birth anniversary at Tansen Kala Vithika, Gwalior (2019); the Student Biennale at Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2018–19); and Finext group exhibition in Bhopal (2017), among others.

Purnima Yadhuvanshi lives and practices in Greater Noida, India.

Supriyo Karmakar

Supriyo Karmakar(b. 1991) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Kolkata, India. An art practitioner and educator, he completed his BFA from IKSV, Khairagarh and MFA from the University of Kalyani, West Bengal. His core practice is drawing and painting, he also works on collaborative research-based projects, kinetic sculpture, performance and video art. After completing his post-graduation he has participated in residences such as “Kala Setu” at Utsha Foundation for Contemporary Art, Kalakriti Art Residency, Hyderabad.

He has been involved in several art projects like “Visible and Invisible Line,” “Wave of the City” at Kochi Muziris Students Biennale 2018, a Collaborative project with artist Niroj Satpathy at FICA Reading Room in 2019, ‘Black on Black’ organised by “Philosophy Unbound” at JNU, Delhi. He had his first solo exhibition, The Threads that connect (2024) at Akar prakar and also participated in a group exhibition like Kiran Nadar Museum of art, Extraordinary Line (2025-2026), Bare Liminal at Akar Prakar, Kolkata (2024), Svikriti at Birla Academy of Arts, kolkata (2023). He is the recipient of several grants and awards such as the Khoj Support Grant 2020, Pandemic as Portal Art Grant, One Shanti Road 2021, and Sarala-Basant Kumar Birla Award at Birla Academy of Art and Culture 2023.