7 sets of 11 works each.
Solidified paints and acrylic paints on canford coloured card paper 300 gsm acid free paper.
Size: 8.3 x 11.7 inches each
Memphis Nagara exhibited at ‘LIMITS OF THE TOWN…’, Kulavoor’s solo show curated by Tasneem Zakaria Mehta at Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai, between 11th Nov and 28th Dec 2025
Text from BDL Museum:
Memphis Nagara refers to the Memphis Design movement of the early 80s while drawing from the informal urban architecture the artist observed in Bangalore during a residency at 1Shanthiroad, Bengaluru, in 2023. In Bangalore, the neighbourhoods called nagaras are dotted with low-rise houses, often built without architects. As a result, these structures he encountered characterised bold forms, irregular details, and strikingly vibrant colors.
Kulavoor notes that not every part of the built structures followed logic or function, that is otherwise ‘customary’ in modern design. Thus, these structures driven by personal choice rather than strict design logic, echoed the postmodern spirit of Memphis for the artist.
Kulavoor further attempts at linking back to Ettore Sottsass’s own encounters with Indian towns in the 1970s that prompted his work and subsequently giving rise to the movement. The series reflects on how architectural forms in the subcontinent embody a kind of postmodernism that emerges not as a reaction to modernism, but as a lived, intuitive way of shaping space.
Below photographs by Anil Rane, courtesy of Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum.
All images and site content copyright ©️ 2010-2022 Sameer Kulavoor.
