A fresh perspective on abstraction in art

A new exhibition in Mumbai showcases different approaches to abstraction by artists like Zarina, Seher Shah and Mehlli Gobhai

- Abhilasha Ojha

At the Spacell8 Art Foundation, Mumbai, works by established and emerging contemporary artists share space. Krishna Reddy’s prints, resplendent in colour, are juxtaposed against Zarina’s minimalist maps of Shahjahanabad. Dashrath Patel’s paper on plywood, titled Collages, Seher Shah’s etchings and Manisha Parekh’s sculptural Wings also come into view at the exhibition, The Presence of Absence. What unites each of these artists is their own unique approach to abstraction.

“Absence is never empty; it becomes a field charged with resonance and possibility. What remains instead is not silence, but presence; the quiet pulse of colour, form and thought,” writes curator Kunal Shah in his note.