An Eye on the Silent Majority: Inauguration of Manoj Aggarwal's solo show

‘Silent Viewer’, a solo show primarily of sculptures but also drawings and paintings by Manoj Aggarwal, was launched by Dhoomimal Gallery at the Visual Arts Gallery (VAG), India Habitat Centre, on August 1. Curated by Georgina Maddox, the show has now shifted to the Dhoomimal Gallery at G-42 Connaught Place, where it will remain on view till the end of the month.

The highlight of the exhibition remains Aggarwal’s robust, hefty and modernist bronzes that evoke the trials and tribulations of the working class in urban India, but without any sense of despondency. Instead, they are imbued with a spirit that celebrates their resilience in the face of adversity.

The exhibition was launched with the traditional lighting of the lamp, led by Uma Ravi Jain of Dhoomimal Gallery. Speaking on the occasion, Uday Jain, director of the gallery, said, “With this exhibition, we want to bring in more sculpture shows from the gallery in future. I also hope that an opportunity presents itself when a big sculpture retrospective of the past 100 years can be done, looking at the entire breadth of the evolution of modern sculpture in India.”

The show curator, Georgina Maddox, said, “What I like about Manoj Aggarwal’s sculptures is that he has not shied away from showing that female physiognomy can be really powerful, and not just remain ‘delicate darlings’.”

Among those present included Sunaina Jain, critic and curator Prayag Shukla, artists Shridhar Iyer, Hemraj, Neerja Peters, and Rashmi Khurana, director of Art Pilgrim gallery Geeta Singh, and critic and filmmaker Vinod Bhardwaj, among others.