Where the Flowers Keep Their Counsel Opens at Gallerie Splash with 80 Works by Aishwaryan K

GURGAON: Contemporary art institution Gallerie Splash is presenting Where the Flowers Keep Their Counsel, the first solo exhibition in Delhi NCR by Bengaluru-based artist Aishwaryan K. Curated by Satyajit Dave, the exhibition opened on 22 August 2026 and will remain on view until 15 September 2026. Featuring around 80 drawings and works on paper, the exhibition explores memory, childhood play, botanical forms, queer experience and everyday life through a practice rooted in observation and drawing.

Drawing from Everyday Life

The exhibition brings together works developed through Aishwaryan’s long engagement with familiar environments in Bengaluru. Public parks, flower and vegetable markets, garden paths and ordinary objects appear throughout the exhibition, transformed through drawing, repetition and scale.

Working primarily on wasli paper and elephant dung paper, the artist constructs images that emerge from personal memories and close observation. Botanical forms, human gestures and everyday objects are reconfigured into compositions that invite multiple interpretations rather than offering fixed narratives.

Plants as Carriers of Meaning

Flowers, leaves, trees and vines occupy a central place in the exhibition. Rather than functioning as botanical studies, these elements become visual structures through which ideas of touch, shelter, attraction and privacy are explored.

According to curator Satyajit Dave, the exhibition examines how forms can communicate without revealing everything at once. The recurring flower motif operates as an image that is both familiar and open-ended, allowing viewers to bring their own experiences and associations to the work. The exhibition title itself reflects this notion of meanings that are shared selectively and understood differently by different audiences.

Memory and the Language of Play

Another recurring theme is childhood play. Games involving marbles, thread, spinning tops and folded paper appear across the works, often represented through hands performing simple actions.

Highlights of the Exhibition

• Around 80 drawings and works on paper
• Works created on wasli paper and elephant dung paper
• Botanical imagery inspired by Bengaluru’s public spaces
• Visual references to childhood games and memory
• Explorations of identity, intimacy and everyday experience

The artist uses these familiar activities as a way to explore transformation and imagination. Ordinary objects become symbolic through gesture, while repeated motifs create connections between past and present experiences.

Queer Experience and Visual Identity

Queer identity forms an important layer within the exhibition. Rather than relying on explicit representation, Aishwaryan approaches the subject through gesture, proximity, orientation and recognition.

Human figures appear among plants, across distances or in subtle relationships with one another. The works consider how identity may be communicated through everyday forms and visual cues. This approach reflects the artist’s broader interest in how personal experience can be expressed through indirect and nuanced visual language.

An Artist Shaped by Printmaking and Observation

Born in Palakkad, Kerala, in 1986, Aishwaryan K lives and works in Bengaluru. He studied painting at KEN School of Art and later completed a Post-Diploma in Printmaking from Bangalore University. His practice has been recognised through the Karnataka Lalit Kala Akademi State Award and the Shenoy Art Foundation Emerging Artist Award. He has exhibited widely in India and internationally, including presentations at the Seattle Art Fair and other contemporary art platforms.

Previous solo projects include The Artist’s World at Mumbai Art Room and Archive of Memory at Gallery Sumukha in Bengaluru. His work often draws on personal experiences, memory and everyday surroundings while maintaining a strong emphasis on drawing and material experimentation.

Gallerie Splash’s Continuing Curatorial Focus

Founded in 2010 by Jinoy Payyappilly, Gallerie Splash has established itself as a research-oriented contemporary art institution in Gurgaon. Through exhibitions, workshops and its Curatorial Fellowship Programme, the gallery supports artists and curators working across contemporary visual culture.

Visitor Information

Conclusion

Where the Flowers Keep Their Counsel offers an extended view of Aishwaryan K’s artistic practice through drawings that connect memory, nature, play and identity. By bringing together personal narratives and familiar visual forms, the exhibition encourages viewers to reflect on how meaning is created through experience and observation. In doing so, it contributes to ongoing conversations around contemporary art, representation and the role of everyday life in shaping cultural expression.