Faith in Colour: Tina Chandroji’s exhibition recognises the god in small things

Tina Chandroji’s canvases are an altar to deities and details, offering an exhibition that recognises the god in small things.

Tina Chandroji draws spaces from memory.

On one frame that hangs on the wall of the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, a room full of antiques comes alive with surprising vigour. There are rows of elegant chandeliers hanging from the wooden ceiling, the walls, papered with a gay yellow print, have old grandfather clocks and ceramic plates adorning it.

On the floor, over a lush carpet, stand grandly-carved wooden furniture — an ornate piano and a gramophone, cabinets, and low stools. On another oil on canvas, the local kirana store with its stock of everyday essentials are neatly etched out, down to the large framed photograph of the Buddha that hangs behind the counter.

It’s easy to mistake the paintings for photographs, but Mumbai-based Tina Chandroji, says that’s the effect she was striving for when she set out to paint the series, “Cityscapes”, which is on display until September 19 in Delhi. Curated by Alka Pande, the show includes 19 paintings.

From a lowly vegetable stall in the market to a private office, every canvas is dominated by an image of a deity. “When I began painting this series in 2007-08, I wanted to capture this omnipresence of divinity in our lives. So, I have depicted various city landscapes and shown how nearly every public or private space has some space for a deity,” she says.

The canvases are well over seven feet in height and it lends the images an almost three-dimensional photographic perspective. Chandroji draws from memory and there is a generic quality to the spaces depicted on her canvas. The sabzi-mandi or the office could just as easily be found in Chennai as in Mumbai. It took the artist, who works on several canvases simultaneously, nearly four-five months to finish each artwork, packed as they are with minute details.

A photography major from the JJ School of Art in Mumbai, Chandroji, 34, had always been interested in craftsmanship. Her Gujarati family ran a jewellery business and Chandroji had seen her father spend painstaking hours making gold bangles by hand. “That was how I learned the importance of attention to detail,” she says.

Then, during her course at JJ, she had joined art director Nitin Desai to work under him on Bollywood projects that would help her pick up the nitty-gritties of working on a large scale. She was an assistant art director on the set of the first season of Kaun Banega Crorepati and worked on the Salman Khan-starrer Lucky-No Time for Love (2005). She moved to painting after the birth of her children, and had her first solo show at Lalit Kala Akademi in 2012. After Delhi, she has another show coming up in the UAE.

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“Cityscapes” is on display until September 19 at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre. Contact: 43663333

Paromita Chakrabarti

Paromita Chakrabarti is Senior Associate Editor at the The Indian Express. She is a key member of the National Editorial and Opinion desk and writes on books and literature, gender discourse, workplace policies and contemporary socio-cultural trends. Professional Profile With a career spanning over 20 years, her work is characterized by a "deep culture" approach—examining how literature, gender, and social policy intersect with contemporary life. Specialization: Books and publishing, gender discourse (specifically workplace dynamics), and modern socio-cultural trends. Editorial Role: She curates the literary coverage for the paper, overseeing reviews, author profiles, and long-form features on global literary awards. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent writing highlights a blend of literary expertise and sharp social commentary: 1. Literary Coverage & Nobel/Booker Awards "2025 Nobel Prize in Literature | Hungarian master of apocalypse" (Oct 10, 2025): An in-depth analysis of László Krasznahorkai’s win, exploring his themes of despair and grace. "Everything you need to know about the Booker Prize 2025" (Nov 10, 2025): A comprehensive guide to the history and top contenders of the year. "Katie Kitamura's Audition turns life into a stage" (Nov 8, 2025): A review of the novel’s exploration of self-recognition and performance. 2. Gender & Workplace Policy "Karnataka’s menstrual leave policy: The problem isn’t periods. It’s that workplaces are built for men" (Oct 13, 2025): A viral opinion piece arguing that modern workplace patterns are calibrated to male biology, making women's rights feel like "concessions." "Best of Both Sides: For women’s cricket, it’s 1978, not 1983" (Nov 7, 2025): A piece on how the yardstick of men's cricket cannot accurately measure the revolution in the women's game. 3. Social Trends & Childhood Crisis "The kids are not alright: An unprecedented crisis is brewing in schools and homes" (Nov 23, 2025): Writing as the Opinions Editor, she analyzed how rising competition and digital overload are overwhelming children. 4. Author Interviews & Profiles "Fame is another kind of loneliness: Kiran Desai on her Booker-shortlisted novel" (Sept 23, 2025): An interview regarding The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. "Once you’ve had a rocky and unsafe childhood, you can’t trust safety: Arundhati Roy" (Aug 30, 2025): A profile on Roy’s recent reflections on personal and political violence. Signature Beats Gender Lens: She frequently critiques the "borrowed terms" on which women navigate pregnancy, menstruation, and caregiving in the corporate world. Book Reviews: Her reviews often draw parallels between literature and other media, such as comparing Richard Osman’s The Impossible Fortune to the series Only Murders in the Building (Oct 25, 2025). ... Read More

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