Through the Veil of Rangeen

Colour often appears as the most immediate element of visual experience, yet it carries depths far beyond its surface. It moves through perception, mood, and memory—shaping how we sense and respond to the world.

Through the Veil of Rangeen begins with this idea of colour as an affective and cultural force, unfolding into Rangeen—an Urdu word that means colourful yet holds many shades of meaning: joyful, passionate, spirited, and playful. In everyday language, a rangeen mizaj person is one attuned to life’s sensations, its beauty and its excesses.

The exhibition gathers artists whose works stretch this idea of Rangeen—from the abstract to the figurative, from the tactile to the digital. Minal Damani’s delicate mark-making, Rajbhar’s expressionist excess,  Jyotee’s screenplay of abstraction, and Dr Audra’s layered warmth explore colour as emotion and intuition. Abhishek Rathod’s vivid figurations of labour and resilience, Hemant Shinde’s ecological forms, and Koustav’s chromatic politics extend colour into social consciousness. Neha’ fragile forms turn colour into tenderness, while Dipali Gupta and Pankaj Khalode’s erotic forms merge desire and introspection, pushing Rangeen into its corporeal register. In the digital works of Soumya and Neeraj, Rangeen moves through motion and sound—reflecting urban commotion and the lingering rhythm of home.

Through the Veil of Rangeen traces a journey from colour as perception to Rangeen as temperament and lived experience. Here, colour is not merely seen—it is felt, remembered, and desired. It becomes a way of being in the world: shifting, intimate, and inexhaustibly alive. Are you alive?

Curator

Urvi Chheda