An elephant balances on a football. A blue fish jumps out of a bowl standing on two disembodied legs. Flowers drift out of a gramophone. A woman looks away into the distant.

There's a sense of surrealist whimsy masking contemporary despondence in Odisha-based artist Sudhanshu Sutar's paintings. Sutar's work is deeply rooted in the historical and cultural landscape of Odisha, drawing inspiration from Kanika Palace — an opulent mansion in Rajkanika which once served as the residence of Odisha's erstwhile royal family.

The Kanika Palace was once a royal residence reminiscent of the Buckingham Palace in London, but it's past grandeur has long since faded into an image of decay. Sutar's series on kingship and royalty uses the Palace as a backdrop as well as a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of power and identity. Through his paintings, he resurrects forgotten histories, capturing the echoes of a past that still lingers in contemporary consciousness. Stripped of their individuality, the figures in his paintings embody broader concepts of kingship, power, and historical displacement. Using archival photographs, literary references, and surrealist aesthetics, Sutar constructs a dialogue between the past, present, and future, where history does not remain static but is constantly reinterpreted.

Sutar's family history plays an instrumental role in his artistic practice. Growing up in Odisha, he absorbed stories of Indian independence, royal life, and theatre from his father and grandfather, all of which find expression in his work. His father, a theatre director and writer, and his grandfather, a carpenter for the Palace, provided him with a unique perspective on both the grandeur and decay. These influences manifest in his highly staged compositions, where each painting functions as a meticulously arranged set-piece evoking the dramatic tradition of Indian natak (stageplay) that Sutar has witnessed throughout his life.

In April, Sutar's works will be in conversation with works of Italian artist Andrea Zucchi as part of 'Kindred DichotomisI', a duo exhibition at Sanya Malik's Black Cube Gallery in Hauz Khas, New Delhi.

Zucchi’s artistic practice is characterized by his engagement with historical imagery, which he transforms through the lens of contemporary visual culture. Unlike Sutar, who reconstructs lost narratives through deeply personal connections, Zucchi engages in a playful yet critical examination of how history is preserved, copied, and repurposed. His work taps into the modern phenomenon of endless reproduction and recontextualization of images enabled by modern technology. This interrogation of appropriation extends beyond mere aesthetic exercise — in Zucchi's works, it becomes a commentary on globalisation, memory, and the fluidity of historical interpretation.

His latest series involves the appropriation of 19th-century photographs, which he reimagines through exaggerated, almost psychedelic colours and compositions. This process of "psychedelic plagiarism" imbues historical figures and classical subjects with a disorienting, contemporary sensibility. By manipulating these images, Zucchi questions notions of authenticity, originality, and the way history is mediated through visual representation.

Sutar and Zucchi both work with imagery that blurs temporal boundaries, merging past and present through visual storytelling. They delve into historical materials — archival photographs, literature, cultural symbols, and family history — reinterpreting them to address contemporary concerns. Their approaches, however, differ in tone and execution: while Sutar constructs narratives rooted in his personal and cultural history, focusing on shifting identities and decay, Zucchi plays with appropriation and juxtaposition, layering historical imagery with an irreverent, almost surreal energy. Although the artists do not speak a common spoken language, their practices speak to one another in a way that transcends verbal communication, exploring themes of historical continuity, identity, memory, reinterpretation, and transcultural dialogues.

Kindred Dichotomies, featuring Sudhanshu Sutar and Andrea Zucchi, is on view from April 10 to April 27, 2025, at Black Cube Gallery, G12A, 2nd Floor, Hauz Khas, New Delhi.

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