SEEING FROM THE INSIDE OUT
January 08 - February 14 , 2026
Utkarsh Makwana’s practice locates archetypal tropes across ordinary and often overlooked moments. Unearthing universal themes embedded within mythological stories and daily encounters alike, his new body of work explores enduring concerns surrounding desire, ritual, thought patterns, and impermanence. By adapting the intricate sensibilities of miniature painting traditions to larger scales, Makwana draws attention to the quiet dramas that structure human experience. In these works, he traverses subjects ranging from domestic routines to cosmological origins, harnessing formal strategies to construct surreal visual compositions and blur boundaries between the palpable and the perceived.A central question Makwana raises in his practice concerns how realities are constructed as he explores ways in which perception operates across diverse scales of reference. His works remind us that what we see is usually partial or indefinite—shaped by disposition, recall, and habit—and ask how we might navigate a world composed of overlapping perspectives. This inquiry is articulated potently in the diptych Which Reality? where the image of a crescent moon becomes a metaphor for cognition. The artist notes that while shifting angles produce illusions of phases, the Moon itself remains whole. Through this example, he emphasises the friction between what is recognised and what exists in its entirety. Whether physiologically—through light, distance, and the constraints of human vision—or informed by social conditioning, individuals construct distinct interpretations of reality. Here, Makwana positions celestial imagery as a lens through which ideas of truth, subjectivity, and belief can be considered. For him, understanding reality is not about seeking objective truths, as much as it is about traversing the multidimensional and shifting conditions through which meaning can be generated. This also applies cogently to the painting, Hiranyagarbha / Birth of the Universe, which is less concerned with substantiating or endorsing origin myths, and more invested in broader considerations of how we can navigate life.
Makwana has been influenced by miniature painting traditions since his college years, and over time his close engagement with historic works has evolved from direct quotation to a more expansive visual language. In Hiranyagarbha, he draws on the 18th-century Pahari painter Manaku of Guler’s titular work, uniting the cosmic inquiry it evokes with lived experience, shaped by philosophical conversations with his grandfather – a devoted reader of spiritual literature. These discussions centered on the interdependence of body and soul: how desire originates in the soul, animates the body, and consequently drives the world. Within the vast, outward reference to cosmic origins, Makwana locates a more intimate examination of how we live; how desire can lead equally toward greater worldly engagement or material renunciation. In Hiranyagarbha, desire emerges as a generative force, while balance is framed as a constant negotiation between action and restraint, care and caution. This tension is reflected formally through the painting’s symmetry and structural equilibrium, where cosmological order might mirror ethical balance. Rather than treating mythology as distant allegory, Makwana appropriates it as a structure through which we can explore our unconscious mind .
Further extracting contemplative experiences from historical painting traditions, Makwana considers psychological states conjured in divine and folk narratives. In Lovers’ Dream, he draws on nocturnal representations of love in stories such as Radha and Krishna, Chandra and Bhaga, and the Nayaka–Nayika tradition. The work situates intimacy within the universal symbolism of night: as a shared psychical space marked by longing, stillness, and interior calm. Across cultures, night recurs as a site of connection, reflection, and emotional suspension. Whether experienced collectively—in gatherings with friends and family, late-night conversations, rooftop celebrations, or moments under the open sky—or in solitude, through quiet acts of creation or contemplation, the nighttime becomes a space where memory, desire, and imagination might converge. In this work, Makwana gives form to these intangible states, endeavouring to express what resists clear articulation.
Colour plays a central role in shaping mood in his works. Interweaving subjects drawn from myth, observation, and memory, Makwana tends to employ darker palettes to evoke nocturnal interiority as we see in Lovers’ Dream and other works, while lighter yellows signal the clarity of day. Accents of red introduce pulses of energy and thought. Blue—his colour of choice—appears across the body of work, recalling the boundlessness of seas or skies, and opening space for mythic narration and heightened consciousness. For Makwana, this blue also recalls architectural blueprints, from which his spatial designs often emerge, laying further ground for his exploration of interior landscapes and topographies.
Architectural forms—in which Makwana has long been interested—appear as frameworks rather than direct references, guiding viewing experiences. In his paintings, structures serve as psychological and narrative anchors; at times imagined contours of mountainous expanses, at others metaphors for cognitive networks. His Tales from the Valley works build on earlier paintings, where topographic forms drawn from Himalayan folklore operate as navigational devices, holding myth, memory, and imagination. They emulate both the terrains of land and mind, while introducing a sense of dynamism to ostensibly still scenes. For the artist, such patterns can lead us from one point to another, offering a way to order thought and recollection. This logic of spatial navigation extends into Makwana’s sustained engagement with movement, whether physical or cognitive. In Journey, for instance, the idea of travel—in this case, a pilgrimage—is governed by transformation rather than destination. Here, we see a solitary figure riding through a vast and carefully constructed landscape, atop a qilin. The itinerant carries a sack of masks symbolising the shifting identities accumulated along life’s path, and their reflected gaze depicted in the painting becomes one of introspection: confronting the inner self rather than the visible body. Makwana posits how journeys can operate as acts of self-encounter, revealing interior states shaped by solitude and discipline. The repeating elements that compose the landscape evade specificity in relation to time or space; physical movement here doesn’t promise a change in surroundings – instead it echoes a more meditative passage.
Across Makwana’s paintings, we see geometric forms construct rhythmic patterns and compositional scaffolding, generating dynamic relationships between foreground and background. Recurring motifs— cubes, orbs, and multi-dimensional forms—operate simultaneously as formal structures and conceptual tools. They echo the clockwork of life while actively positioning time as cyclical, looping, and folding back upon itself. Repetition offers rhythm and orientation within uncertainty. This temporal sensibility finds expression in Morning Rituals, a work informed by photographs and memories of the artist’s grandmother engaged in devotional practices: reading religious texts, writing Ram Ram, and counting prayers on her mala in the winter morning sun. These actions materialise as habits through which life is structured and steadied. Ritual becomes a means of anchoring the restless mind, and precision, symmetry, and placement once again take on heightened importance – paralleling the ways order is constructed both externally and internally. A similar ethic of care and tenderness, where intimacy is sustained through routine is seen in Portrait of Father and Son, which is based on a photograph the artist took in a friend’s home in Delhi. Here, a shaving cream and a pair of brushes represent an entire relational history. Domestic objects become repositories of shared lives, responsibilities, connections, and devotion, while remaining rooted in contemporary life.
Makwana’s paintings actively suggest that meaning does not arise from clarity or resolution, but through persistent attention. Paintings such as Man with 100 Ideas (The Overthinker) visualise a familiar psychological state in which thoughts overflow and proliferate. Through this work, and across his practice, he invites viewers to slow down and recognise how the present moment is shaped by memory and anticipation. In a world increasingly defined by information overload, fractured realities, and competing truths, Makwana proposes an alternative mode of engagement: learning how to remain vigilant rather than constantly seeking coherence. Choices are framed as ongoing dialogues between agency and surrender, while encounters—whether physical, emotional, or spiritual—become formative processes that shape temperament.
Makwana has been influenced by miniature painting traditions since his college years, and over time his close engagement with historic works has evolved from direct quotation to a more expansive visual language. In Hiranyagarbha, he draws on the 18th-century Pahari painter Manaku of Guler’s titular work, uniting the cosmic inquiry it evokes with lived experience, shaped by philosophical conversations with his grandfather – a devoted reader of spiritual literature. These discussions centered on the interdependence of body and soul: how desire originates in the soul, animates the body, and consequently drives the world. Within the vast, outward reference to cosmic origins, Makwana locates a more intimate examination of how we live; how desire can lead equally toward greater worldly engagement or material renunciation. In Hiranyagarbha, desire emerges as a generative force, while balance is framed as a constant negotiation between action and restraint, care and caution. This tension is reflected formally through the painting’s symmetry and structural equilibrium, where cosmological order might mirror ethical balance. Rather than treating mythology as distant allegory, Makwana appropriates it as a structure through which we can explore our unconscious mind .
Further extracting contemplative experiences from historical painting traditions, Makwana considers psychological states conjured in divine and folk narratives. In Lovers’ Dream, he draws on nocturnal representations of love in stories such as Radha and Krishna, Chandra and Bhaga, and the Nayaka–Nayika tradition. The work situates intimacy within the universal symbolism of night: as a shared psychical space marked by longing, stillness, and interior calm. Across cultures, night recurs as a site of connection, reflection, and emotional suspension. Whether experienced collectively—in gatherings with friends and family, late-night conversations, rooftop celebrations, or moments under the open sky—or in solitude, through quiet acts of creation or contemplation, the nighttime becomes a space where memory, desire, and imagination might converge. In this work, Makwana gives form to these intangible states, endeavouring to express what resists clear articulation.
Colour plays a central role in shaping mood in his works. Interweaving subjects drawn from myth, observation, and memory, Makwana tends to employ darker palettes to evoke nocturnal interiority as we see in Lovers’ Dream and other works, while lighter yellows signal the clarity of day. Accents of red introduce pulses of energy and thought. Blue—his colour of choice—appears across the body of work, recalling the boundlessness of seas or skies, and opening space for mythic narration and heightened consciousness. For Makwana, this blue also recalls architectural blueprints, from which his spatial designs often emerge, laying further ground for his exploration of interior landscapes and topographies.
Architectural forms—in which Makwana has long been interested—appear as frameworks rather than direct references, guiding viewing experiences. In his paintings, structures serve as psychological and narrative anchors; at times imagined contours of mountainous expanses, at others metaphors for cognitive networks. His Tales from the Valley works build on earlier paintings, where topographic forms drawn from Himalayan folklore operate as navigational devices, holding myth, memory, and imagination. They emulate both the terrains of land and mind, while introducing a sense of dynamism to ostensibly still scenes. For the artist, such patterns can lead us from one point to another, offering a way to order thought and recollection. This logic of spatial navigation extends into Makwana’s sustained engagement with movement, whether physical or cognitive. In Journey, for instance, the idea of travel—in this case, a pilgrimage—is governed by transformation rather than destination. Here, we see a solitary figure riding through a vast and carefully constructed landscape, atop a qilin. The itinerant carries a sack of masks symbolising the shifting identities accumulated along life’s path, and their reflected gaze depicted in the painting becomes one of introspection: confronting the inner self rather than the visible body. Makwana posits how journeys can operate as acts of self-encounter, revealing interior states shaped by solitude and discipline. The repeating elements that compose the landscape evade specificity in relation to time or space; physical movement here doesn’t promise a change in surroundings – instead it echoes a more meditative passage.
Across Makwana’s paintings, we see geometric forms construct rhythmic patterns and compositional scaffolding, generating dynamic relationships between foreground and background. Recurring motifs— cubes, orbs, and multi-dimensional forms—operate simultaneously as formal structures and conceptual tools. They echo the clockwork of life while actively positioning time as cyclical, looping, and folding back upon itself. Repetition offers rhythm and orientation within uncertainty. This temporal sensibility finds expression in Morning Rituals, a work informed by photographs and memories of the artist’s grandmother engaged in devotional practices: reading religious texts, writing Ram Ram, and counting prayers on her mala in the winter morning sun. These actions materialise as habits through which life is structured and steadied. Ritual becomes a means of anchoring the restless mind, and precision, symmetry, and placement once again take on heightened importance – paralleling the ways order is constructed both externally and internally. A similar ethic of care and tenderness, where intimacy is sustained through routine is seen in Portrait of Father and Son, which is based on a photograph the artist took in a friend’s home in Delhi. Here, a shaving cream and a pair of brushes represent an entire relational history. Domestic objects become repositories of shared lives, responsibilities, connections, and devotion, while remaining rooted in contemporary life.
Makwana’s paintings actively suggest that meaning does not arise from clarity or resolution, but through persistent attention. Paintings such as Man with 100 Ideas (The Overthinker) visualise a familiar psychological state in which thoughts overflow and proliferate. Through this work, and across his practice, he invites viewers to slow down and recognise how the present moment is shaped by memory and anticipation. In a world increasingly defined by information overload, fractured realities, and competing truths, Makwana proposes an alternative mode of engagement: learning how to remain vigilant rather than constantly seeking coherence. Choices are framed as ongoing dialogues between agency and surrender, while encounters—whether physical, emotional, or spiritual—become formative processes that shape temperament.
Makwana’s paintings embody a sense of extimacy, as inner states and fleeting memories surface onto exterior forms. Minute gestures and symbolic objects become conduits through which the intimate is made visible. In The Secret Keeper, we see this quite literally as a figure gingerly grasps a golden egg. Through this representation, the artist reflects upon how we safeguard our most private memories and inner worlds, pointing toward the unconscious drivers that tacitly dictate how we live. Although we are often unaware of the desires that inform our decisions, predelictions, and the way we present ourselves outwardly, these forces nonetheless leave traces in our actions. What we conceal—or cannot express eloquently—becomes a map of the self, suggesting that what is most closely guarded or remains partially unknown can produce our most defining traits, much like the unseen contents of the egg itself.
The enigmatic nature of our lives and realities manifest through the surreal qualities permeating Makwana’s work. His compositions play fluidly with scale and perspective, moving between the vastness of the cosmos to the intricate minutiae of the inner self, where myth and memory intersect. Forms fluctuate between closeness and distance, familiarity and alienation, collapsing the boundaries between interior and exterior worlds. Through these shifting surfaces, domestic relationships, emotional journeys, and even ordinary moments transform into dreamlike spaces. Ultimately, the works highlight the very act and experience of close looking: whether recursively, from up close or afar, or from the inside out.
- Pooja Savansukha
Images
Installation
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