Working across multiple mediums, artist Satish Gupta’s practice reflects his deep engagement with concepts of Indian metaphysics, cosmology and nature. His retrospective titled ‘A Haiku of a Still Mind: Continuum · Consciousness · Coherence’, currently on view at Bespoke Art Gallery in Ahmedabad, brings together works that explore these ideas. In this email interview, he reflects on the luminous surfaces of his sculptures and his desire to seek stillness, movement and spiritual resonance through his work.
Your works often engage with ‘shunya’ and emptiness as generative. If you could reflect on this representation.
For me, Shunya is not a void. It is the womb of all creation. When I was younger, I tried to remove forms from my canvases to arrive at emptiness. Later I realised that emptiness and fullness are one; form emerges from Shunya and dissolves back into it. In my sculptures, the space within the form is as important as the metal itself. The work must appear to breathe. If the life-force, the Chi, does not flow through that inner space, it remains inert. My attempt is to create movement in stillness — so that the viewer experiences silence, vastness, and a calm centre amid the noise of the world.
From Satish Gupta’s collection (Photo: Satish Gupta)
Your references have included both ancient cosmology and contemporary astrophysics. If you could reflect on these interconnections, and the association between myth and science?
I do not see a separation between myth and science. The ancient seers spoke of the universe as vibration, energy and interconnectedness. Today, quantum physics tells us that matter is not solid — it is energy in motion. When I weld thousands of small copper squares onto a sculpture, I feel I am working with cells, with particles, with galaxies. The micro and the macro mirror each other. Our myths expressed these truths symbolically; science expresses them analytically. Both are ways of approaching the same mystery — the unity of existence.
Many of your sculptures weigh hundreds of kilograms, yet they speak of lightness and impermanence. Is this tension deliberate?
Yes, very much so. Physically the material is heavy, but philosophically everything is transient. Even what appears solid is only a temporary arrangement of energy. I try to dissolve the sense of weight through rhythm, flow and the play of light on the surface. The form should feel as if it could lift, breathe or dissolve into space. Ultimately, both the sculpture and the sculptor will return to the five elements. When this awareness enters the work, heaviness transforms into a feeling of lightness.
Copper is central to your sculptural language. What does copper allow that bronze or stone does not? You also use gold and silver leaf to create a luminous field. What attracts you to these reflective grounds?
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Copper is a noble and living metal. It is both strong and sensitive, and it develops a beautiful patina with time—it records the passage of life. My technique of welding thousands of small copper pieces allows me to create a skin that has movement, like flesh, like waves. Bronze and stone have their own dignity, but copper allows me to work intuitively, directly, at full scale.
Gold and silver attract me not for their opulence, but for their light. I often mute their shine so that they glow rather than glitter. Light has a spiritual presence — it creates an inner radiance, a sense of the timeless. I am interested in that quiet luminosity which suggests eternity.
You’ve said, “I can’t work with all sorts of rules and regulations. Through the years, I have constantly demolished rules.” What rules did you have to unlearn first?
The first rule I had to unlearn was the fear of stepping outside a defined style. Once an artist becomes known for a certain image or technique, it becomes a prison. I did not want to repeat myself. Each work demands its own medium, scale, and language.
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From Satish Gupta’s collection (Photo: Satish Gupta)
I also let go of the academic process of always working through small models and fixed plans. I prefer to work directly at the actual scale and allow the work to evolve. I try to become a medium rather than a controller.
Creativity begins when you trust the unknown. When you are open, the work tells you what it wants to become, and that is where the real magic happens.
Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice.
With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India.
Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale.
She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters.
Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory.
The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions.
Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović).
Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers.
Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025)
Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India:
1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival
"At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors.
"Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers.
"At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025).
"Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention.
2. M.F. Husain & Modernism
"Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum.
"Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025).
3. Art Market & Records
"Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million.
"All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025).
"What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork.
4. Art Education & History
"Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025).
"A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art.
Signature Beats
Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More
From Satish Gupta’s collection (Photo: Satish Gupta)
From Satish Gupta’s collection (Photo: Satish Gupta)