Women sculptors claim space at Art Mumbai's Sculpture Park

At the third edition of Art Mumbai, starting on 13 November, women artists are breaking stereotypes about sculptors

- Avantika Bhuyan

(clockwise, from above) 'Nadi Yogini' by Natasha Singh, 'Let's Go to the Park' by Tayeba Begum Lipi, and 'The Crowd that Carries the Sea' by Sudipta Das, at the Sculpture Park at Mahalaxmi Racecourse in Mumbai.

A monumental cast bronze sculpture by Meera Mukherjee, titled Balance, offers a window to the artist's thought process. On one of the panels, a man sits with a weighing scale. On the other side are two women balancing pots on their heads. Like most of Mukherjee’s practice, this sculptural piece also features the “juxtaposition of purusha and prakriti, and the idea of gendered labour”.

The relief work offers a softness to the mammoth metal panels, creating a delicate sense of equilibrium. Balance, the largest of Mukherjee’s nonpublic sculptures, will be on show at the Sculpture Park, a special segment curated by Veerangana Solanki at the upcoming Art Mumbai 2025.

This section focuses on women artists shaping sculptural languages in India. With works placed in both indoor and outdoor settings at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, the Sculpture Park investigates the female gaze at scale and materials such as ceramics, steel, bronze, fibreglass and found material. A number of artists, including Adeela Suleiman, Chetnaa, Madhvi Parekh, Savia Mahajan, Shambhavi Singh and Sudipta Das, address themes such as identity, migration, labour and collective memory.

“The Sculpture Park is enmeshed within the overall layout of the fair. It acts as a great navigational tool to Art Mumbai, and ties in well with our continued focus on topics related to women in the arts,” says Minal Vazirani, who has co-founded Art Mumbai with her husband Dinesh and gallerists Conor Macklin and Nakul Dev Chawla. “Last year, we had a talk on women artists in conflict zones and the year before that on institutional representation for women in the arts.”