thesilkroadtoday
Indian contemporary artists Vaishali Narkar and Sanjeev Khandekar have officially launched their new website, offering audiences an extensive retrospective journey through twenty-five years of collaborative artistic practice.
The launch was announced with special appreciation for Chintan, who led the updating process and finalized the website’s release. Reflecting on the project during the launch, Chintan described the platform as “a deeper perspective on a quarter-century of shared creative journey and projects.”
The newly unveiled platform, Vaishali & Sanjeev Official Website, archives a broad range of interdisciplinary works and projects developed by the artistic duo over the past two decades and beyond. Visitors are invited to explore installations, visual experiments, exhibitions, sculptural works, and multimedia projects that have defined their remarkable partnership.
For over twenty years, Vaishali Narkar and Sanjeev Khandekar have maintained one of the rare long-term artistic collaborations in contemporary Indian art. Their practice consistently challenges traditional artistic boundaries through the use of unconventional materials, layered visual narratives, and socially engaged themes.
While Vaishali Narkar brings formal artistic training from the prestigious Sir J. J. School of Art, Sanjeev Khandekar contributes a multidisciplinary perspective shaped by literature, poetry, social activism, and environmental engagement. Together, they have produced a body of work that examines the anxieties and contradictions of the 21st century.
Their artistic vocabulary includes large-scale installations, marble inlays, embroidery, ceramics, sculptural forms, and paintings integrated with digital screens. Across these mediums, the duo addresses themes such as environmental degradation, genetic manipulation, financial systems, virtual reality, and the fragmentation of contemporary existence.
Known for their fearless aesthetic approach, Vaishali and Sanjeev frequently employ provocative visual materials — including stock market imagery, microscopic biological photography, urban waste, microbial forms, and representations of bodily structures — to expose hidden realities within modern society. Their works deliberately confront viewers with discomfort, encouraging deeper reflection on social and biological conditions often ignored or sanitized.
Critics and audiences alike have recognized the duo for the complexity and precision of their artistic execution, as well as for their commitment to maintaining artistic integrity in a cultural climate often favoring safer and more decorative expressions.
The website launch also revisits their successful contribution to cinema through the production design of the Cobalt Blue adaptation, which earned praise for translating painterly aesthetics into cinematic language.
By opening their digital archive to the public, Vaishali and Sanjeev offer an opportunity to revisit a quarter-century of experimentation, inquiry, and collaborative imagination that continues to shape conversations in contemporary art.
Vaishali Narkar
Artist, Environmentalist
Date of Birth: 5 May 1973
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Email: vaishalli.narkars@gmail.com
MFA, Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai
Vaishali Narkar is a Mumbai-based visual artist whose practice engages with environmental and social themes through diverse media — from embroidery and installations to collaborative and participatory projects. Her work often explores gendered experience, ecology, and material transformation.
Solo Exhibition:
• 2002 – …Towards Window of Freedom, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
Collaborations with Sanjeev Khandekar:
• 2005–07 – Collaborated on All That I Wanna Do; La Peau de Chagrin; What Do I Love When I Love You My God; Kegel Exercises; and Acquire, Merge and Collaborate — documented in exhibition catalogs
• 2006 – Tits, Clits, n Elephant Dick, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2007 – Post Visual, curated by Gitanjali Dang, Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2008 – Third Life, curated by Gitanjali Dang
• 2010 – By George…, curated by Gitanjali Dang, Alliance Française de Delhi
• 2010 – Bad Breath, Matthieu Foss Gallery, Mumbai
• 2010–11 – Imp in the Garden & Other Fairy Tales, embroidery on silk, Pundole Art Gallery (Mumbai) and Su-Darshan Art Gallery (Pune)
• 2012 – I’m So Angry…, public installation, Marina Beach, Chennai
• 2012 – De-Stressed Sale, installation, United Art Fair, Delhi
• 2015 – Triumph of Market: Moneyscapes, installation, Museum of Goa, Goa
• 2018 – Ragmala: Songs of Anthropocene, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
• 2018 – Under the Stars, paintings, embroideries and sculptures, ‘In Context’ Residency, Slănic Moldova, Romania
• 2019 – Ragmala: Songs of Anthropocene, Sakshi Art Gallery, India Art Fair, Delhi
• 2020 – Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Bad Breath, But Were Afraid to Ask Alfred Hitchcock, Sakshi Gallery, India Art Fair, Delhi
• 2021 – night of broken glass, Srishti Art, Hyderabad *
• 2024 – Embroidery, Apparao Gallery, Chennai *
• 2025 – Entwined, by Apparao Gallery at Bikaner House, Delhi *
* denotes group show.
Projects:
• 2011 – Moneyscapes, marble inlay and acrylic painting, Mumbai Airport Art Project
• 2014 – Art Enhanced, Workshop Design & Execution, IIT Kanpur
• 2014 – Let’s Have a Fair Play, installation and film with Toy Foundation, India
• 2015 – Fifteen installations for Coro India, Mumbai (women, environment, social empowerment)
• 2021–22 – Head of Production Design, Cobalt Blue (Netflix feature film)
Group Shows:
• 1993–94 – Maharashtra State Art Exhibition; Smt. Ami Saraiya Prize, Bombay Art Society
• 1995 – Crimson Art Gallery, Bangalore
• 1996 – Nehru Centre, Mumbai
• 1997 – Miniature Format, Gallery Sans Tache, Mumbai; Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; Gallery Ganesha, New Delhi; 50 Years of Independence, NGMA, Mumbai; The Black & White, Y.B. Chavan Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 1998 – Miniature Format, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2002 – 50 Years Golden Jubilee Show, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2007 – Rebel Graffiti, Open Eyed Dreams Gallery; Keep Drawing, curated by Chintan Upadhyaya, Pundole Art Gallery; Miniature Format Show, Sans Tache Gallery, Mumbai
• 2008 – Miniature Format Show, Sans Tache Gallery, Mumbai
• 2010 – Print Making, Priyasri Art Gallery, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2011 – Annual Show, Birla Institute of Art & Culture, Kolkata
• 2015 – Morphology of Archive: Connected Histories of Goa, curated by Sabitha T.P. & Lina Vincent
• 2018 – Group show, National Museum, Bucharest, Romania
• 2020 – Entwined, Shrishti Art Gallery, Hyderabad
• 2020 – Speaking Gandhiana: Visual Journeys of Gandhi @150 & Beyond, Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata
• 2023 – Rhizome: Tracing Ecocultural Identities, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai
• 2024 – Entwined, Saran Apparao Gallery, Chennai & Delhi
Catalogs:
• Tits, Clits, & Elephant Dick (2006) – ABN Gallery, Mumbai
• Rx (2008) – Sudarshan Art Gallery, Pune
• Bad Breath (2010) – Matthieu Foss Gallery, Mumbai
• Imp in the Garden & Other Fairy Tales (2011) – Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
Awards & Scholarships:
• 2000–2002 – Fellowship, Government of India
• 1997 – Schesinzer Prize
• 1996 – Bombay Art Society Award
• 1995 – Dr. Babasaheb Deshmukh Art Academy Award, Amravati
• 1994 – S.Z.C.C. Prize, Nagpur; Smt. Ami Saraiya Prize, Bombay Art Society; Lord Harding Prize, J.J. School of Art, Mumbai
• 1993 – Maharashtra State Art Exhibition
Other Professional Contributions:
• Served as Joint Secretary and Secretary, Bombay Art Society (1996–2002)
• Active involvement in curatorial and non-profit art initiatives in Mumbai
Sanjeev Khandekar
Visual Artist, Poet, Writer
Date of Birth: 14 February 1958
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India – 400074
Email: sanjeev.khandekar@gmail.com
Sanjeev Khandekar is a visual artist, poet and writer known for his incisive explorations of environmental, ecological, and socio-political issues within the contexts of markets, globalization, and neoliberal culture. His works often investigate the intersections of consumerism, nature, and the human condition through mixed media, installations, and text.
Solo Exhibitions:
• 2003 – Apparao Art Gallery, Chennai; Triveni Gallery, Delhi
• 2003 – Rumours of the Truth, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2005 – All That I Wanna Do, Museum Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2005 – La Peau de Chagrin, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2006 – What Do I Love When I Love You, My God? (Forbidden Entices), Kitab Mahal, Mumbai
• 2007 – Kegel Exercises, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2007 – Acquire, Merge or Collaborate, ABN Gallery, Mumbai
• 2008 – Rx, Sudarshan Art Gallery, Pune
• 2008 – Everything You Wanted to Know About Bad Breath, Bombay Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2010 – Rx, Birla Academy, Kolkata
• 2013 – Triumph of Market, Selma Feriani Gallery, London
Collaborations with Vaishali Narkar:
• 2006 – Tits, Clits, n Elephant Dick, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2007 – Post Visual, Priyadarshani / Priyasri Art Gallery, Mumbai — curated by Gitanjali Dang *
• 2008 – Third Life, Bombay Art Gallery, Mumbai — curated by Gitanjali Dang *
• 2010 – By George…, Alliance Française de Delhi — curated by Gitanjali Dang *
• 2010 – Bad Breath, Matthieu Foss Gallery, Mumbai
• 2010 – Imp in the Garden & Other Fairy Tales, embroidery on silk, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2011 – Imp in the Garden & Other Fairy Tales, embroidery on silk, Su-Darshan Art Gallery, Pune
• 2012 – I’m So Angry…, public installation, Marina Beach, Chennai *
• 2012 – De-Stressed Sale, installation, United Art Fair, Delhi
• 2015 – Triumph of Market: Moneyscapes, installation, Museum of Goa, Goa
• 2018 – Ragmala: Songs of Anthropocene, embroideries, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai
• 2018 – Under the Stars, paintings, embroideries and sculptures, ‘In Context’ Residency, Slănic Moldova, Romania *
• 2019 – Ragmala: Songs of Anthropocene, Sakshi Art Gallery, India Art Fair, Delhi *
• 2020 – Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Bad Breath, But Were Afraid to Ask Alfred Hitchcock, Sakshi Gallery, India Art Fair, Delhi *
• 2021 – night of broken glass, Srishti Art, Hyderabad *
• 2024 – Embroidery, Apparao Gallery, Chennai *
• 2025 – Entwined, by Apparao Gallery at Bikaner House, Delhi *
* denotes group show.
Projects:
• 2011 – Moneyscapes, marble inlay and acrylic painting, Mumbai Airport Art Project
• 2012 – I Am So Angry That I Made This Sign, 1.5 km long, 150 ft tall public installation, Art Chennai — curated by Kaumudi Patil
• 2014 – Art Enhanced, Workshop Design & Execution, IIT Kanpur
• 2014 – Let’s Have a Fair Play, installation and a short film ‘Disquieting Innocence’ with Toy Foundation, India
• 2015 – Fifteen public installations for Coro India, Mumbai (women’s empowerment, environment, social upliftment)
• 2021–22 – Head of Production Design, feature film Cobalt Blue, Netflix
Group Shows:
• 2004 – Flex: The Fluid Less Sex, Apparao Gallery, New Delhi
• 2007 – Mumbai, Art & Soul Gallery, Mumbai
• 2007 – Keep Drawing, curated by Chintan Upadhyaya, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2007 – Rebel Graffiti, Open Eyed Dreams Gallery, Kochi
• 2007 – Contemporary Indian Art, Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery, Moscow
• 2007–08 – Miniature Format Show, Sans Tache Gallery, Mumbai
• 2008 – Keep Drawing, Gallery Espass, New Delhi
• 2009 – Tihar Jail Project, curated by Anubhav Nath, New Delhi
• 2009 – Spectrum, curated by Saryu Doshi, Abu Dhabi Art Fair, UAE
• 2010 – Print Making, Priyasri Art Gallery, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
• 2010 – Summer Group Show, Matthieu Foss Gallery, Mumbai
• 2011 – Annual Show, Birla Institute of Art & Culture, Kolkata
• 2011 – (M)other India, Galerie du Jour, Agnès b., Paris
• 2011 – Caution: Children at Work, curated by Gitanjali Dang
• 2015 – Morphology of Archive: Connected Histories of Goa, curated by Sabitha T.P. & Lina Vincent
• 2018 – Group show, National Museum, Bucharest, Romania
• 2020 – Entwined, Shrishti Art Gallery, Hyderabad
• 2020 – Speaking Gandhiana: Visual Journeys of Gandhi @150 & Beyond, Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata
• 2023 – Rhizome: Tracing Ecocultural Identities, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai
• 2024 – Saran Apparao Gallery, Chennai & Delhi
Books:
• Sankalp (1982) – History of social movements in Maharashtra, Marathi, Granthali
• Ashant Parv (1992) – Novel on industrial Mumbai, Marathi, Granthali
• Kavita (1993) – Poetry collection, Marathi, Granthali
• Fucking Mad (2003), Abhidanantar
• Search Engine (2004), Marathi, Granthali
• Smiles (2007), Marathi & English, Abhidanantar
• Mutatis Mutandis (2007), Marathi & English, Abhidanantar
• 1, 2, 3,…Happy Galaxy (2008), graphic book with Vaishali Narkar, Abhidanantar
• Sanshayaspad Tippane (2009), Marathi, Granthali
• Bimb (2018), Paperwall
• Smiles (Expanded edition, 2018), Marathi & English, Paperwall
• Rutusanhar (2019), essays, Lokvangmay Griha
• Popatpanchi Chaturki Jaan, Suno Parvati Shiri Bhagwan (2025), Varnamudra
Catalogs:
• Rumour of the Truth (2003)
• All That I Wanna Do (2005)
• Who Is Afraid of a Shrinking Skin? (2005) – Pundole Art Gallery
• Tits, Clits, & Elephant Dick (2006) – ABN Gallery, Mumbai
• Kegel Exercises (2007) – Pundole Art Gallery
• Acquire, Merge or Collaborate (2007) – ABN Gallery, Mumbai
• Rx (2008) – Sudarshan Art Gallery, Pune
• Everything You Wanted to Know About Bad Breath, But Were Afraid to Ask Alfred Hitchcock (2008) – Bombay Art Gallery
• Bad Breath (2010) – Matthieu Foss Gallery, Mumbai
• Imp in the Garden & Other Fairy Tales (2011) – Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai
Columns & Articles:
• Sunday Observer & Inside Outside Magazine: Tropical gardens, environment, and landscape
• The Economic Times: Art, politics, and ecology
• Loksatta Daily: Art, politics, and environmental commentary
• Numerous Marathi journals: Poetry, environmental, and cultural criticism
