“I am scared of constant peace… I paint to disrupt myself.” – Manish Pushkale

The concept of Sparsh Rekha (the tangent line) provides a powerful metaphor for Manish Pushkale’s artistic practice. It is the moment when a straight line just brushes against a curve, touching but not fully merging, marking an interlude in a continuous journey. This exhibition represents such an interlude in Pushkale’s work, a fleeting moment of reflection, questioning, and transformation.

Sparsh Rekha reflects how Pushkale's artistic language oscillates between memory and imagination. His search for meaning is an ongoing process, driven by the desire to disrupt his peace and provoke new ideas. In this exhibition, his works embody a strange newness—where the known and the unknown converge, and imagery rises from the gaps between them.

A recurring motif in Pushkale's practice is the form of the "stitch." While this may bring to mind traditional forms of stitching, he invites the viewer to consider a deeper question: What happens when we encounter the blank space—when we are asked to "fill in the blank"? For Pushkale, the blank, represents a space for personal reflection, where its interpretation isn’t available for the audience, but rather discovered within themselves. This act of filling in the blank becomes a metaphor for the creative process itself; a place for thought, imagination, and interpretation to converge.

The evolution of Manish’s practice doesn’t have a linear trajectory. The work in this exhibition stands as an exploration into the nature of material and its influence on his creative process. “Materials can guide us, if our dialogue with it is based on sincere conviction,” Pushkale reflects.

A central theme of Pushkale’s practice is his belief in the uniqueness of individual identity, what we refer to as "swabhava" in Indian aesthetics. This intrinsic, irreplaceable element defines who we are beyond any physical or digital markers. His latest series, much like the philosophy, a reflection of his distinctive qualities. The works invite the viewer to engage deeply with the personal and the universal, to recognise their elements within the work.

In this exhibition, Pushkale offers us a glimpse into a new chapter of his artistic journey, sharing his personal discoveries through an aesthetic language that is wholly and completely both abstract and concrete. Through Sparsh Rekha, he encourages us to see not just the tangents and the curves, but the spaces between them, the fleeting moments that shape the ongoing narrative of his ever-evolving practice.

- Siddhi Shailendra

Manish Pushkale (b. 1973)

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.