Elsewhere from Within A solo exhibition by Veenita Chendvankar

Dates: 10 November – 6 December 2026

Venue: KYNKYNY

Address: 4th floor, 20, Gool Mansion, Homji St, Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001

Timings: Tuesday – Sunday | 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Closed on Mondays)

Free Entry

Description – KYNKYNY Mumbai presents Elsewhere from Within, a solo exhibition by Veenita Chendvankar, featuring paintings characterised by a distinctive interplay of colour, texture and form. Drawing from folklore, nursery rhymes and the uninhibited imagination of childhood, the exhibition opens up spaces in which the real and the imagined coexist, moving beyond the familiar contours of everyday experience. The exhibition will be on view from 10 November to 6 December 2026.

Veenita Chendvankar’s paintings are characterised by a distinctive interplay of colour, texture and form. Delicate washes of pale grey, luminous blue, mauve and teal sit alongside muted tones of olive, ochre, pink and brown, creating richly layered picture planes. Intricate patterns, floating forms and an array of fantastical creatures, flora and fauna inhabit these compositions, lending them a sense of movement and quiet animation. Drawing from folklore, nursery rhymes and the uninhibited imagination of childhood, Veenita has developed a visual language that moves beyond the familiar contours of everyday experience, opening up spaces in which the real and the imagined coexist.

The process of making is central to Veenita’s practice. Rather than imposing a predetermined image upon the canvas, she allows the behaviour of the surface to guide the development of each work. The blank canvas becomes a point of departure, with successive layers of acrylic pigment, applied through a variety of tools and techniques, gradually establishing a field of colour, texture and tonal variation. Working with fine washes, often across eight or more layers, she observes the unexpected formations that emerge through their interaction. Much like pareidolia, these incidental marks suggest shapes, figures and associations, which she then develops intuitively into an unfolding visual narrative. Fine linework and intricate detailing bring coherence to these shifting forms, while the relationships between figures and the spaces they occupy establish a carefully considered sense of rhythm and balance.

Her compositions are animated by forms that appear to stretch, bend and move across the picture plane, creating a subtle interplay of volume, direction, density and spatial tension. Vines, insects, celestial bodies and other elements of the natural world contribute to an atmosphere that is at once whimsical and contemplative. Conventional perspective gives way to a more fluid organisation of space, where scale and orientation are determined by the internal logic of the composition rather than by the rules of physical reality.

This intuitive approach is underpinned by years of sustained research and experimentation with pigments. Veenita’s close observation of colour, its behaviour and its interaction with different surfaces has informed a remarkable sensitivity to tonal gradation and subtle colour relationships. Her command of the medium lends the paintings their particular spatial harmony and visual coherence. This dedication to the material possibilities of painting also reflects an inheritance from her father, Sadguru Chendavankar, whose artistic legacy continues to inform her engagement with the medium.

Veenita’s paintings resist fixed interpretations. Their narratives remain open-ended, inviting the viewer to make connections and discover meanings that are suggested rather than explicitly stated. The worlds she creates offer a gentle counterpoint to the uncertainties and complexities of contemporary life. Here, strangeness is not something to be resolved or explained, but an accepted part of existence; the unfamiliar is accommodated with the same ease as the familiar. Through these imagined landscapes, Veenita returns us to a way of seeing that is receptive, curious and free from the constraints of convention. Her paintings ultimately celebrate the possibilities of imagination and the enduring capacity to find wonder in the natural world.