One impulse, many manifestations: Indian Habitat Centre exhibition celebrates artistic creativity
In this photo essay, we showcase artistic highlights from the ‘One | Many’ exhibition in New Delhi.
Launched in 2014, PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In the earlier 1,015 posts, we featured an art festival, cartoon gallery. world music festival, telecom expo, millets fair, climate change expo, wildlife conference, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, and jazz festival.
The India Habitat Centre (IHC) recently hosted the art exhibition titled ‘One | Many’, featuring the works of 12 artists. It was curated by artist Pabitra Pal (see our coverage of earlier exhibitions at this popular cultural hub in New Delhi here).
“One | Many is a multidisciplinary exhibition that gathers painting, sculpture, ceramics, and mixed media. It celebrates both unity and diversity: the singular impulse to create and the myriad forms that impulse takes,” Pal tells YourStory.
One idea manifests in many voices, each echoing a different shade of the human experience. “Across canvases, bold strokes and quiet washes meet in conversations about identity, memory and belonging,” he describes.
“Sculptures command space with presence and pause — figures, fragments and abstract forms that invite you to circle, reflect and discover new angles. Ceramics bring tactility and ritual: hand-built vessels and fired surfaces carry traces of touch, time and transformation,” Pal adds.
Mixed media works splice and combine image, object and text into layered narratives. “They resist a single reading and reward careful looking,” he suggests.
As shown in this photo essay, art allows individuals to communicate emotions, ideas and experiences that may be difficult to express through ordinary language. Each artist develops a unique style based on their personality and perspectives.
Personal struggles and moments of reflection encourage artists to explore new ideas and forms of expression. In this way, creativity often becomes a means of understanding oneself and making sense of personal experiences.
Presenting a group art exhibition in a large hall as in the India Habitat Centre creates an environment where viewers can move freely from one artwork to another and discover multiple paths of interpretation. The arrangement of the works allows visitors to choose their own route through the space, making the experience personal and even unpredictable.
Each viewer may notice different connections between the artworks depending on their interests and experiences. Because the artists may approach similar subjects in very different ways, viewers are encouraged to compare, question and interpret what they see.
In this sense, a group exhibition becomes more than a collection of artworks. It becomes an open-ended journey in which each person creates their own meaning through movement, observation, inference, and reflection.
The featured exhibition at IHC thus explores how individual stories merge into collective textures. “Some works begin from a personal memory, others from found materials or communal rituals — yet each piece participates in a larger chorus,” Pal describes.
His own artwork explores the fusion of dreams and reality through round, nature-inspired shapes. His works use lines and textures to reflect the challenges of daily life, and foster mindfulness and harmony between external and internal realities.
Deb Dutta’s works reflect the multiple facets of nature. “Nature isn't pure. She is a lovechild of order and chaos. I lean toward order, for in its symmetry I find hope and clarity,” she describes.
“Look to the sky: no planet is a perfect sphere, no orbit a flawless circle. The universe itself deviates. It is in this tension, this elegant imperfection, this controlled wildness, that I find beauty. This is the playfulness I choose to live by,” she poetically describes.
The works of artist Ashis Mridha are based on fragments and traces. Though they may not seem finished or fully resolved, they seem to be expressing a feeling that does not quite settle.
Debangshu Biswas depicts the energies and flows of life. “My work reflects my inner world—a space where reality, history, fantasy, and memory intertwine,” he explains.
His paintings often feature characters from everyday life engaged in conversations and interactions. “I am deeply fascinated by the complexities of human relationships and the subtle ways people connect with one another,” he adds.
“Through my work, I seek to express the nuances of human emotion and the enduring desire for connection. These lie at the core of our shared experience,” he says.
Monika Prasad’s artworks try to show empty space through architecture. “The empty part is not just nothing—it is the most important part of the design,” she observes.
“I also show how nature and women are being mistreated and ignored. I want people to think about this problem in our society,” she affirms.
“Nature is the source of inspiration behind my art work. We tend to overlook the wonders and secrets of the natural world, the beauty behind the transformations, flow, rhythm, and design in each and every natural event,” artist Soumen Basu explains.
He asks: “We are aware of the theories and the science behind the phenomena in nature. But what about our emotions and visualisations with our inner eye?”
Suprakash Nath addresses the constantly changing world in his artworks, while Susnata Chatterjee portrays thoughts and nostalgia through forms and colours. Supriyo Sahoo explores a wide range of techniques and media, including acrylic, charcoal, pencil, pen, textile, and tapestry.
“My paintings emerge from personal recollections—memories of childhood, lived experiences, and quiet observations of life around me. Distorted human figures, portraits, and objects are recurring elements through which I express emotion and inner narratives,” says Swapan Sutradhar.
His recent works are semi-abstract, bringing together diverse motifs. “I work with layered surfaces, often incorporating varied materials and waste elements, applied delicately and transparently,” he describes.
Tarun Maity explores social realities through material-based practice and conceptual inquiry. Working with materials such as metal and wood, his works combine experimentation with traditional craftsmanship.
Titas Das moved from a tranquil, semi-urban landscape to a bustling metropolis. “My work tends to underline a constant tussle between the contrasting nature of the spaces I am living with,” he explains.
“It has been an intensely inquisitive process for me over these years in learning to adjust, and to some extent, find a balance between the two spaces. My works seek to connect my past and my present,” he says.
Together, the artworks in this exhibition thus showcase diversity as well as cohesion. “They trace how a single motive—curiosity, resilience or longing—blossoms into diverse languages of making,” curator Pabrita Pal says.
“Visitors are invited to move freely between disciplines. They can witness how a line in a painting might reappear as a rim in a ceramic bowl, or how a sculptural silhouette answers a collage’s fragmented sky,” he adds.
Viewing a group art exhibition can thus create a strong sense of joy and wonder because it brings together many different forms of imagination and expression in one space. The sense of curiosity and discovery can make a group exhibition an enriching and memorable experience.
Art can also have a therapeutic effect by providing a peaceful space for observation, emotional connection, and reflection. Engaging with art can effectively support emotional well-being.
Exposure to different artistic perspectives encourages people to think beyond familiar patterns and consider alternative solutions to problems they face in their own varied contexts and workplaces. For example, problem solving in the business and social sectors depends on imagination, innovation, collaboration, and the ability to see opportunities from different viewpoints—all qualities that art can stimulate.
“The exhibition is not a conclusion but an unfolding: a moment to witness multiplicity, to listen to difference, and to celebrate the creative threads that bind us. Come to see one voice and leave hearing many,” Pal signs off.
Now what have you done today to pause in your busy schedule and harness your creative side for a better world?
'One | Many' artists
(All photographs taken by Madanmohan Rao on location at IHC.)