A five-day showcase at the National Crafts Museum invited viewers into the intimate emotional landscapes shaped by contemporary women artists.
From 8–12 November, the National Crafts Museum and Hastkala Academy in New Delhi presented “Layers of Her,” an evocative exhibition curated by Akira that celebrated the inner worlds women carry, create, and protect. Featuring five dynamic artists working across painting, design, curation, and narrative expression, the show reflected on identity, memory, resilience, and the quiet spaces where women rebuild themselves.
The participating artists — Dyuti Mittal, Monisha Tripathy, Shana Sood, Bandhna, and Priyamvada Rathore — contributed works that differed in medium and mood yet were united by sincerity and emotional depth.
Dyuti Mittal’s artworks urged viewers to slow their gaze and reconsider beauty through honesty, sensitivity, and sensuality. Monisha’s Safety Pin Collection transformed twisted, everyday pins into metaphors of conformity, safety, and the subtle resistance that shapes a woman’s inner negotiation with society. Indian-born, US-based portrait artist Shana infused the gallery with diasporic warmth, capturing faces and memories that speak of longing, belonging, and identity across borders.
Working after hours shaped by motherhood, Bandhna offered canvases born from late-night introspection—paintings that hummed with healing, solitude, and rediscovery. Priyamvada Rathore, grounded in scholarly insight and multidisciplinary practice, explored mythology and belief systems with both intellectual clarity and poetic softness.
Together, these five voices created a tender, immersive environment where visitors could travel between emotional geographies — from nostalgia to resilience, from mythic imagination to personal memory, from introspection to shared dialogue.
The exhibition drew impressive footfall, but more significantly, it fostered deep engagement. Visitors lingered, journaled, and returned multiple times. Many described the experience as “healing,” “personal,” and “surprisingly grounding,” affirming the show’s intent to create a space where art resonated beyond visual appreciation.
A guided walkthrough led by curator Akira drew a highly absorbed audience, offering thoughtful insights into artistic processes and the curatorial thread connecting the works. The event was honoured by the presence of Mr. Qazi M Raghib, renowned art director and critic, whose reflections on elevating women’s artistic voices struck a meaningful chord with attendees.
As “Layers of Her” came to a close, it left behind more than an aesthetic imprint — it created a moment in Delhi’s contemporary art landscape where vulnerability, strength, and storytelling braided together. The exhibition stood as a powerful reminder of the creative force of women artists and the spaces that allow them to be truly seen.
A resonant success, it marks the beginning of many conversations these artists are destined to ignite in the years ahead.
