Reshma Chordia’s Art Explore Presents “Tap and Tapish” — Recent Works by Vipul Kumar

Reshma Chordia’s Art Explore presents Tap and Tapish, a new exhibition of ceramic works by artist Vipul Kumar, curated by Anita Dube, currently on view at the CCA Building, Bikaner House, New Delhi.

The exhibition brings together two forces that have shaped Kumar’s life and practice. Tap, तप, speaks of sustained practice, concentration and the discipline of returning to the work. Tapish brings heat into the equation — the force of the kiln that transforms fragile clay into fired form.

A special evening on 19 September saw the presence of eminent guests, including ambassadors and notable names from the art, design and cultural community. The evening was attended by H.E. Mr. Siniša Pavić, Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to India, Art Collector Lekha Poddar, Artist  & Fashion Designer Harpreet Narula, Aurora Russi, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Italy, Architect  Edoardo Fontana, Tehseen Poonawalla,Dilip Cherian, Neelam Pratap Rudy, Advocate Nalin Kohli, Samir Kohli,  Shabri and many more.

Kumar works from Bhainslana in Rajasthan, a village known for its black marble quarries. Far from the metropolitan centres of India’s art world, he has built a studio practice around the physical realities of making. Clay, stone, tools and finished sculptures occupy the same space. Classical music accompanies long hours in the studio. The work develops through time, repetition and close attention to material.

His relationship with sculpture began through stone carving. That training continues to inform his handling of clay. Stone taught him about weight, resistance and the physical demands of working with form. Clay offered a different kind of material possibility. It could be built, shaped and changed before entering the kiln, where heat would complete a transformation that the artist had begun by hand.

Ceramics entered Kumar’s life almost by chance. What began as an unexpected direction gradually became a lifelong commitment. Years of working with clay have since produced a body of sculpture that moves between abstraction and recognisable form, drawing from mythology, cultural memory, landscape and the physical qualities of earth.

The physical presence of the recent works comes from Kumar’s understanding of material, while their forms carry a quieter engagement with nature, memory and thought.

Anita Dube, curator of the exhibition, describes the works as transforming “the fragility and tenderness of wet clay into a fired strength of bone”. The phrase captures the physical journey at the heart of the exhibition. Wet clay is responsive and vulnerable. Fire changes its nature permanently. What emerges from the kiln carries the history of the hand, the material, the time spent building the form and the heat that finally fixes it.

Reshma Chordia, Director, Art Explore, says, “Vipul builds from where he comes from, and it shows in every surface, the heat of the making still in it, the weight of hands that know their material. The work carries a rare sensitivity, and it stands with real strength. He works at a scale you seldom see, and he takes the risks that scale demands. Expect sculpture that holds its ground and asks you to slow down and stay with it.”

For Kumar, the relationship with material extends to the environment itself. “The environment is what I am interested in,” he has said. His understanding begins with the material he works with. Clay is earth. Water makes it workable. Air prepares it. Fire transforms it. The sculpture becomes part of a much older process.

His artistic thinking has also been shaped by encounters with Kabir, Gandhi and Buddhist thought, alongside his experiences in Varanasi and Sarnath. These influences form part of his intellectual landscape, while Kumar has developed a language that remains distinctly his own. “I have something to say on my own,” he says.

His artistic formation includes the influence of teachers and mentors such as Balbir Singh Katt and Himmat Shah. Over time, Bhainslana became the place where these experiences could settle into an individual practice. The distance from the metropolitan art world has given his work a particular rhythm, allowing the studio, the material and the act of making to remain at its centre.

Tap and Tapish brings these elements together through recent works that speak of practice and transformation. The title describes the journey itself. Tap is the discipline of making. Tapish is the heat that changes what has been made.

Earth becomes form. Form enters fire. What emerges carries the touch of the artist and the force of transformation.

Exhibition Details

Exhibition: Tap and Tapish — Recent Works by Vipul Kumar
On view: 14–21 September 2026
Time: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Venue: CCA Building, Bikaner House, New Delhi