5 min readNew DelhiJun 27, 2026 03:09 AM IST
First published on: Jun 23, 2026 at 11:36 AM IST
Sunil Shyam walks through a gallery full of Gond artwork to his piece hung at the corner of one of the white walls of New Delhi’s India International Centre (IIC). “This is called baans (bamboo), we call baans as kanya (girl) as well, that’s why I’ve painted the women,” he says, pointing to the green bamboo trees painted in the centre of the piece and the three women that emerge behind it. “Bamboo is used from birth to death, in everything — we make the cribs for our children from it, we get married with the bamboo tree as our witness and we make the chitah (death bed) also from the bamboo,” says Sunil. He added that they make sabzi from baans ka karil (bamboo shoots) and make their chappads (roofs) from it as well.
There are 21 Gond artists, all from Patangarh, a village in Dindori district, Madhya Pradesh, who have showcased their work at this exhibition titled “Gond Pradhans of Patangarh”.
Sunil Shyam, next to a painting jointly made by him and his wife, Sushma Shyam (Image Credit: Reva Thakkar)
From deer, elephants, lions to trees, fish, cows and the nature that they see around them, these artists bring their everyday lives to the canvas. “This is an alternative kind of world because it is not homo-centric, human beings are very few, and whenever they are, they are painted in a marginal way,” says Ashok Vajpayee, managing trustee, Raza Foundation, which has collaborated with IIC for this exhibition.
“We are trying to assert that there is a new definition of modernity and that the rural, folk, tribal and the urban are all part of the same continuum of contemporaneity,” adds Vajpayee, who helped set up the multi-arts centre Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal in the 1980s, and has been associated with artists in Patangarh and Mandla for years.
The Raza Foundation has been promoting numerous Gond artists through exhibitions across India. Among the pioneers of the art form was late Jangarh Singh Shyam, who belonged to the Pradhan community. They are storytellers who keep the collective memory of the community alive through music, folklore and the oral traditions of songs and myths. With the shift in storytelling towards art, one finds the lines between nature and imagination blurring.
Ram Kumar Shyam standing in front of paintings made by his wife, Champi Shyam and daughter, Durgeshwari Shyam (Express Photo by Reva Thakkar)
The exhibition gives one a feel of Patangarh, of the landscape and villages there. We see fish and peacocks having the same colour palette of light orange and green with a dash of yellow in Ashna Tekam’s work, and on the other end, we see an elephant’s trunk becoming the trunk of a tree in Champi Shyam’s painting.
Ram Kumar Shyam, Champi’s husband, paints a gwala (cowherder) and a gwalin (female cowherder). “Their job is to take the cows out to graze in the forest, so I’ve created the entire forest here,” says Ram.
As the tradition of Gond paintings has been passed down from families, many of these artists have been trained from a young age, at home. Ram too has learned from his Padma Shri-awardee artist-brother Bhajju Shyam. Champi and Ram’s daughter, Durgeshwari Shyam’s artworks are also showcased at the exhibition.
Tamsimram Paraste, who learned from Jangarh Singh’s wife and children when he worked as their assistant, has brought rivers and forests into his work. It was Jangarh’s daughter, Japani Shyam, who encouraged Paraste to try his hand at art and develop his own signature pattern.
Phool Chand Dhurve has been working on developing his own personal style. “I began making small changes to the designs. For instance, I might take a standard rounded shape and add a specific cut or curve to it, introducing a slight variation. I also work on colour combinations, tweaking them slightly to create a different shade or contrast,” he said.
Pool Chand Dhurve’s painting depicting his signature style and colour palette (Express Photo by Reva Thakkar)
Every painting tells a story, a story of the environment that the Pradhans live in. Sunil captures this saying commonly narrated by the elders of the village on canvas:
“Ya maati ke chola ke nav darwala kaun dahar se nikal ke bhaage re?
Myna aela te janaas na mein janaav.
Ye eeshan ka tann ek maati ka putla hai,
Maati se janme, maati mei mil jayenge”
“Through which of the nine gates of this earthen vessel will the soul escape?
Oh Myna, once it departs, it shall be known no more.
This body is but an effigy of clay;
Born of the earth, it shall return to the earth.”
Putting this to paint, Sunil presents a human body with a bird, the myna. The human body branches out like a tree’s roots, with small branches having separate trees, and in its surrounding, there are nine doors, each one has a bird, symbolising a soul waiting to escape.
The show continues till June 26, at the Kamaladevi Complex, India International Centre.
Artist Sunil Shyam explaining the story behind his painting to an attendee at the inauguration of the art exhibit (Express Photo by Reva Thakkar) 
Sunil Shyam, next to a painting jointly made by him and his wife, Sushma Shyam (Image Credit: Reva Thakkar)
Ram Kumar Shyam standing in front of paintings made by his wife, Champi Shyam and daughter, Durgeshwari Shyam (Express Photo by Reva Thakkar)
Pool Chand Dhurve’s painting depicting his signature style and colour palette (Express Photo by Reva Thakkar)
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