Tracing back the journey and practice of artist and sculptor Adip Dutta and the influence of the late, revered artist Meera Mukherjee on his art through the unique relationship that he shared with his “Meera mashi” is Nestled, Experimenter’s latest exhibit at their Hindustan Road gallery space.

The nomenclature of the exhibition itself bears testimony to the nature of Dutta and Mukherjee’s relationship as one being ensconced within the studio space by moments of dialogue and influences that mark “a loving, yet restrained, mentoring” by the latter of the former.

In a curatorial note for the exhibition, Experimenter says: “The conversation between the two artists at the exhibition, physically confronts the viewer with a punctured display mechanism that allows for their practices to be seen together and through the lens of each other instead of approaching them in singularity. A common yet distinctly connected language is immediately apparent between the two where drawings, stitched paintings, sculptures and sketches coalesce into a sophisticated, multi-affected response to nature, human and non-human forms”.

Mukherjee’s practice of incorporating folk traditions and indigenous practices into her art finds place in the form of hand-embroidered works of kantha in this exhibition that are a product of her “constant push in imbibing and expanding processes juxtaposing them with Dutta’s works on paper, sculptures and drawings”. Dutta’s method of repetitive mark-making within his drawings establish a conversation between Mukherjee’s kantha works with the commonality between them spanning small lines, dots and dashes.

Nestled, that is presented in collaboration with The Seagull Foundation for the Arts, is available for viewing at Experimenter’s Hindustan Road gallery from 11am to 6pm from January 22 to March 31, except Sundays and government holidays.