The Art and The Artist
With the New Year knocking, Kolkata’s artscape is even more thrilled to host events of a plethora of genres. Emami Art is no anomaly. Starting from January 9, 2026, Emami Art is set to transform its Gallery 1 into a purlieu by hosting the solo debut exhibition of Vishal Kumar Gupta, titled ‘Field Notes (On the Afterlife of Trees).’ The exhibition will continue on display till March 7, 2026. Vishal is one of the most promising evolving artistic practitioners in India.
He is a graduate of both the legendary Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan (BFA), and the Faculty of Fine Arts at MSU Baroda (MFA), where he graduated with a gold medal. The exhibition is a watershed moment in Vishal’s career, as it is a judicious showcase of his most trenchant artworks to date. Vishal has developed an astute perspicacity towards ecology, form, and visual memory. He was awarded the Nasreen Mohamedi Award (2022–2023), a distinguished recognition for excellence in painting that aligns him with the legacy of deep visual inquiry in Indian contemporary art.
The Saga of Growth And Decay
The quiddity of the exhibition lies in the concept of the “afterlife” of trees. Vishal does not perceive the afterlife phase as the death of a tree; his perception, rather, discerns it as a “continuation” of form, texture, and ecological anamnesis. His artistic practice appears to be an exercise to develop assiduousness.
As people today are more habituated to the rapid consumption of digitally produced art, Vishal’s handcrafted masterpieces mandate a slower pace. The exhibition features a diverse range of media, including large-scale oil paintings, delicate watercolor drawings, and graphite works.
His signature is to reengineer the perceptibility by bridging the gap between what is observed and what is felt. His canvases do not just pose as bark, root, or leaf; they epitomise the palpability of these elements of nature. He employs the techniques of accumulation and fragmentation as he moulds surfaces that belie three-dimensionality. He possesses a captivating quality of crystallising the viewer’s eyes onto the interstitial spaces where his images oscillate between the “known” and the “unknown.”
Peeping At The Solo Debut
| Aspects | Details |
|---|---|
| Artist | Vishal Kumar Gupta (b. 1996, Ranchi) |
| Exhibition Title | Field Notes (On the Afterlife of Trees) |
| Exhibition Dates | January 9 – March 7, 2026 |
| Preview | January 9, 5:00 PM |
| Venue | Gallery 1, Emami Art, Kolkata |
| Media | Oil on canvas, watercolours, graphite on paper |
| Artistic Focus | Landscape, trees, tactile abstraction |
| Core Themes | Temporality, tactile abstraction, ecological memory |
| Academic Pedigree | Kala Bhavana (BFA), MSU Baroda (MVA – Gold Medalist) |
| Major Accolades | Nasreen Mohamedi Award (2022–2023) |
Key Highlights
- Debut solo exhibition by Vishal Kumar Gupta at Emami Art, Kolkata.
- The exhibition spans oil paintings, watercolour drawings, and graphite works.
- Vishal’s artistic method is shaped by accumulation, fragmentation, and sustained acts of looking.
- Works explore the liminal space between abstraction and physical presence with tactile intensity.
- The exhibition will run from January 9 to March 7, 2026, with a public preview on January 9 at 5:00 PM.
- Exhibited work invites sensory engagement, a hallmark of Gupta’s practice.
- The works are designed to be “seen with a sense of touch.”
- Vishal’s work reflects a unique stylistic lineage.
- He carries the organic, nature-centric ethos of Santiniketan’s landscape tradition while integrating the rigorous, experimental, and conceptual framework associated with the Baroda School.
- Each piece serves as a “field note,” a quiet, documented observation of the passage of time.
- The “afterlife” suggests a focus on the scars, rings, and weathered surfaces that trees acquire over decades.
- From expansive canvases that swallow the viewer’s periphery to intimate drawings that require close-up inspection, the exhibition plays with the scale of observation.
The Exhibits and Artistic Practice
View this post on Instagram
Field Notes (On the Afterlife of Trees) is a significant corpus of art that is reflective and sensory in nature. The core philosophy of this exhibition is to pose a query in the heart of the viewer to re-evaluate their relationship with nature, especially trees. Vishal birthed these artworks through oil paint, watercolours, and graphite, each medium lending itself to a sui generis. The oil paint adds weight and density, watercolour offers a contrast with delicacy, and graphite makes the art appear “raw.”
Vishal displays a sense of nonconformity in representing direct figurative forms. Instead, he amalgamates abstractions and physical presence as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which makes his art appear more realistic and tangible. He emphasizes visual sensitivity and enables his audience to “see with a sense of touch,” merging perception with sensory abilities.
Thematic Understanding of The Solo Through The Curatorial Lens
The Title of the exhibition, Field Notes (On the Afterlife of Trees), itself suggests a deeper view of the residual presence trees retain after being subjected to environmental or temporal change. This way of looking at nature encourages introspection and a focused synthesis of ecological transformation, memory, and how nature imprints itself on human consciousness. Vishal’s works are metamorphic muniments of these impressions. This solo debut is a part of Emami Art’s program of contemporary initiatives, placing Vishal’s artwork within the wider ambit of Indian artists who engage staunchly with ecology.
This exhibition focuses on the nuances of “micro-landscapes” found within nature. These gradations often go unnoticed by casual observers, but when observed minutely, they reveal the structural complexity of the environment. The exhibition seamlessly blends a higher degree of scientific quotient with poetic license and results in a beautiful representation of nature that is seldom perceived by the “digital man.” Even when a tree is no longer “living” in the biological sense, its structure remains a testament to its history.
Takeaway
This exhibition invites people to slow down and observe how art records experiences. There is a profound humility in Vishal’s work, a refusal to “conquer” the subject on canvas. Instead, he allows the subject to reveal itself through layers of paint and graphite. This exhibition is a testament to the power of the “slow gaze,” and for anyone interested in the future of Indian abstraction, it is an unmissable debut. It is a deeply tactile and introspective presentation that situates Gupta as a significant new voice in Indian contemporary art. For those in Kolkata and beyond, this exhibition at Emami Art is a must-visit, not only for its aesthetic rigor but for its capacity to shift how we engage with the visual and natural worlds.
