Thank you to everyone who dropped by the gallery throughout the exhibition, and for workshops, art nights and events to support Pushpa Kumariās first solo exhibition: Almost Known.
Todayās the last day to see the show at the gallery if you havenāt seen it yet! š
Artwork:
Sweet and Sour
14 x 17 in
Birds and feathers šŖ¶
The āBirds and Feathersā series draws from the memory of a rescue, of Pushpa briefly holding a small Oriental magpie robin before letting it return to its own flight. āWithin it, continues my inquiry into how experiences of care, control, and release are felt and carried through the bodyā, she says. The figure holds traces of feathers, as if softening at its edges, while the hand shifts between bird, shadow, and gesture. The magpie robin, familiar and close to the everyday, becomes a subtle counterpart to the figure,fragile, alert, and momentary. The work lingers in that delicate space where holding and letting go remain unresolved.
Artwork details:
1. Bird hand
20.6 x 13.5 in
2. Plucked feathers
21.8 x 15 in
3. Bird in hold
14.25 x 13.5
4. Some part rests
21.75 x 15 in
Amrita Dreaming š
During the summer residency, Pushpa borrowed books from the @chemouldprescottroad library. One book that drew her interest was āRetake of Amritaā by Vivan Sundaram (Slide 3). About the work created inspired by it, Pushpa says āThis work began with an archival photograph of Amrita Sher-Gil (slide 4) that stayed with me for its intensity, probably subjective. The body in the image feels open, yet it does not fully return the gaze.
What drew me was this tension, the sense of freedom alongside a distance I couldnāt fully inhabit. In response, my work unfolds as a doubled form,two sides that echo each other but never fully align.ā
Using ink blotting, reduction, impression and transfer techniques, she created her own version of āAmrita Dreamingā. The work becomes a shifting memory of an image, visible yet resisting clarity.
Cool cats at CoLab š
Lazing, dreaming, playing or wandering, you canāt miss spotting all the cats in Pushpaās solo exhibition: Almost Known. Join us after hours at the gallery, this #ArtNightThursday on 9th April, between 6ā9PM.
What does a body hold when it refuses to explain itself?
In Almost Known, Pushpa Kumari traces intimacy as it slips, shifts, and refuses to fully reveal itself.
@11_noises
This show is on view till 18 April.
In Pushpa Kumariās body of works titled āAlmost Knownā, faces are partially recognisable or unresolved, gestures do not fully explain themselves, and relationships are left open.
These are not stylistic effects, but instead a bold statement made by Pushpa to resist the expectation that an image must be displayed only and only, in its most complete form.
Artwork details:
Untitled, 2024
Watercolour and Ink on paper
47 x 43 1/2 in
@11_noises
On view till April 18
Pushpa paints people, often women from her immediate surroundings.
In this series of works, she looks at how people care for one another, the intimacies of everyday moments carrying hesitation, fatigue, sensuality, agency and small moments of joy.
Artwork details:
Watercolour and ink on paper
1. A Hand Given, 2026
36 x 30 in
2. Familiar with distance, 2025
6 x 4 in
3. Hair Tying, 2025
30 x 36 in
4. Permanent trace, 2025
7.7 x 7.7 in
5. Untitled, 2024
30 x 37 in
6. Installation view, Chemould CoLab
If lifeās imperfections make it beautiful, Pushpa Kumari embodies that truth in her work.
Her works confront the viewer with the possibility that emotional experience like the image before them, may remain partial, incomplete and unresolved.
Artwork details:
Could Eat A Flower, 2026
Watercolour and ink on paper
22x15 in
Cake and cream: bend, 2025
Watercolour on Handmade paper
15x22 in
Cake and cream: hand, 2025
Watercolour on Handmade paper
15x22 in
Cake and cream: spill, 2025
Watercolour on Handmade paper
15x22 in
On view till April 18.
What is seen, what is withheld, and what lingers in between.
Pushpa traces the quiet moments that emerge between bodies as distance dissolves. In lived experience, feeling is rarely singular or stable, she allows that fluidity to remain, and its demonstrated ever-so-gently across these works.
On view till April 18.
@11_noises
Through her body of work āAlmost Knownā, Pushpa Kumari doesnāt attempt to dissect the female nude but questions the history of how itās been used. The portrayal of the female body and its vulnerability as a playground is what she is resisting and trying to reposition, through this series.
Artwork details:
Nude II, 2023
Watercolour on paper
27 1/2 x 39 in
Nude I, 2023
Watercolour on paper
30 x 22 in
Untitled, 2025
Watercolour on paper
38 x 30 in
The show is currently on display @chemouldcolab until April 18.
@11_noises
