In Varanasi, ‘City Lines’ Explores The Many Ways A City Shapes Art

At Ram Chhatpar Shilp Nyas in Varanasi, ‘City Lines’, a group exhibition presented by Ether Project, examines how cities shape the people who inhabit them and how these relationships are expressed through diverse artistic practices. On view from October 16 to November 2, 2026, the exhibition brings together eight contemporary artists whose works explore the intersections of urban life, migration, memory, identity, ecology, labour and belonging.

The exhibition is the first in a proposed series of group shows that brings together practitioners working in and around Varanasi. Instead of treating the city as a fixed geographical entity or a singular cultural identity, ‘City Lines’ approaches this ancient settlement as a layered network of relationships and movements. Naturally, all participating artists have some connection to Varanasi: some were born there, others studied there, and others have since moved elsewhere. These varied trajectories inform an exhibition that resists the idea of a unified artistic vocabulary emerging from a shared place.

The exhibition spans painting, ceramics, and textile-based practices, bringing distinct material and conceptual concerns into conversation within the same space. David Malaker’s paintings draw on the visual language of Bengal’s traditional scroll painting to construct nocturnal landscapes in which architecture, vegetation and fantastical imagery coexist. His work considers urban transformation alongside questions of cultural memory and power.

Anikesh Verma, meanwhile, examines the cityscape through oil painting, looking beyond the picturesque to consider the social and political conditions embedded in seemingly ordinary scenes. Gyanwant Yadav’s practice explores changing agricultural landscapes and the relationships between human and non-human life, and Dumiduni Illangasinghe draws on fungi and mycelial networks to consider interdependence, kinship networks, regeneration, and collective survival.

Anshu Singh reworks textile traditions using found materials and embroidery, foregrounding the histories of labour and inherited knowledge embedded in handcraft. Upendra Ram’s ceramic sculptures investigate caste, ritual, and social memory through clay. Mohita Suri’s paintings blur the female body with the landscape, while Sumit Srivastava draws on Indian miniature painting traditions to explore queer desire, intimacy and the social structures that constrain their expression.

This wide range of practices gives the exhibition its conceptual breadth, although the relationship between the works is not always reducible to a single, clearly articulated argument. The artists’ shared connection to Varanasi functions as a point of departure for examining different social worlds and material histories. That approach also raises a larger question about where contemporary art is exhibited, encountered, and discussed.

While India’s contemporary art infrastructure remains concentrated in major metropolitan centres, where galleries, institutions, collectors and professional networks are more readily accessible, exhibitions in smaller cities and towns can help address this imbalance by bringing contemporary practices into closer proximity with audiences who may have fewer opportunities to experience them in institutional settings. They can also create spaces for local artists, students and cultural practitioners to engage with wider conversations without requiring them to relocate to metropolitan centres.

The ancient city of Varanasi, with its layered artistic, religious, and craft histories, offers a productive setting for such an initiative. Yet the value of decentralising art cannot rest on location alone. Sustained programming, accessible interpretation, public engagement and continued support for artists are essential if such exhibitions are to develop lasting cultural networks rather than remain isolated events. With ‘City Lines’, Ether Project proposes one way of building these connections. The exhibition’s most interesting premise is that a city’s influence on art extends beyond its recognisable landmarks or cultural image. It persists in the materials people use, the relationships they form, and the histories they contain.

‘City Lines’ is on view at Ram Chhatpar Shilp Nyas, Varanasi, till 2 November 2026. Follow @etherproject.in on Instagram to learn more.

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