MUMBAI.- Sakshi Gallery presents sabr | صبر, a solo exhibition of recent works by Delhi-based artist Chetnaa. This exhibition marks the artist's first solo presentation in our gallery. Curated by Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi, sabr | صبر brings together a body of work that includes the artist's experiments with form, scale, and materiality rooted in the language of minimalism.

Chetnaa's relationship with geometry and minimalism developed during her time at art school. Her daily travels through Delhi are absorbed into her subconscious as lines and shapes. The intersections and entanglements of the urban grids became sites of her artistic investigation, with maps and windows becoming a recurrence in her work.

In preparing for this exhibition, the artist reflected on geometry and minimalism as her modes of expression. "When I think of it today, the emphasis on structure and form came into my work during a crucial time when I was going through personal turmoil. My art became a safe space to process whatever I was going through. The grid I often find myself returning to gave me a sense of clarity and led me to a different relationship with time."

Echoing these personal trajectories, sabr | صبر brings together large-scale drawings, sculptures, textile works, and the artist's signature grids. The drawings in this exhibition flow onto paper, reflect light, are woven in silk, and cast on metal. They invite the viewers to respond to forms beyond their meaning, guiding them to a sensorium between balance and ethereality, patience, and geometry.

Chetnaa’s artistic practice centers on the delicate interplay between the white of paper and the black of ink. Through techniques like plotting, dotting, drawing, stitching, and foiling, predominantly on paper, she explores the journey of a moving point — sometimes linearly or converging with others. Her quest is for harmony and equilibrium of positive and negative space through altering lines, grids, and color.

In recent years, she has explored the square shape within its confines and through its dissolution. This ongoing exploration has yielded a constant evolution, with innumerable permutations and combinations emerging. From this foundation, she ventured into three-dimensional metal sculptures that build upon her paper-based explorations. These sculptures remain deeply rooted in the core ethos of her practice, bridging the gap between two-dimensional representation and tangible form.

Her work invites the viewers to contemplate the essence of our urban surroundings, revealing the beauty inherent in the simplicity of form and the complexities of urban life.

Chetnaa recently presented a solo show, Here I Am, with Silvia’s Mother Gallery in London, United Kingdom, in 2024. Her solo focus booth, Sacred Square: 101 Meditations on Paper, was shown at the India Art Fair 2022 with Anupa Mehta Contemporary Arts. The artist has received the AIFACS - All India Drawing Award; Emerging Artist of the Year by Glenfiddich + Best College Art Award; Special Mention Award, SCZCC, Nagpur. She is widely shown in numerous well-established galleries all across India.

Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi is a writer and curator based in New Delhi. In the past decade, he was involved in research and curatorial projects with Park Avenue Armory and Asia Society in New York. He held positions with Devi Art Foundation, Raqs Media Collective, and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He was the Chief Curator at Terrain.art and a Special Projects Curator at Nature Morte, New Delhi. A graduate of the M.S. University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard, He is a visiting professor of visual arts at Ashoka University, India. His recent curatorial projects include Sustaina India (2023-ongoing with Thukral and Tagra), Climate Recipes (2023 - ongoing with Srinivas Mangipudi,) Infinite Reminders, and Non-Fungible Speculations at Nature Morte, New Delhi (2022). Terrain Offline, Bikaner House, New Delhi (2021), Missing Hue of the Rainbow, Hessel Museum of Art, NY (2019).

Mopidevi’s single and collaborative writing has appeared in John Akomfrah: Signs of Empire, New Museum, New York (2018), Songs for Sabotage, New Museum + Phaidon (New York / London, 2018), Information: Documents of Contemporary Art, MIT Press +Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2016), Raqs Media Collective: Case Book (Toronto, 2014), INSERT2014 Publication (Delhi, 2014), An Autocorrected Journal (Manila, 2014), Hong Kong-based OCULA among others. He also contributed to STIRworld Magazine, India. He is currently the principal investigator at the experimental arts lab pollinator.io.