Process and precision: Artisera exhibition showcases contemporary Indian printmaking
In this photo essay, we showcase artistic highlights from a printmaking exhibition at Bengaluru’s Artisera gallery.
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Art platform Artisera wraps up its exhibition in Bengaluru this week, titled The Mark of the Matrix — Impressions from Contemporary Indian Printmaking. It features the works of eleven Indian contemporary printmakers (see our coverage of its earlier shows here).
Founded in 2025, Artisera is a gallery and online platform promoting contemporary Indian art, traditional art, and collectibles. Located in Indiranagar, Bengaluru, it aims to create an offline-online experience via physical exhibitions as well as a digital touchpoint.
“This exhibition reflects our belief that Bengaluru deserves a stronger platform for printmaking,” Varun Backliwal, Founder and CEO of Artisera tells YourStory.
Printmaking is an artistic process that involves transferring an inked image from a prepared template or matrix onto another surface, like paper or fabric. As compared to drawing directly on a page, printmaking allows an artist to create multiple original copies or editions from a single surface.
As seen in this photo essay, the exhibition celebrates the richness and complexity of printmaking. Featured exhibitors are senior, mid-career and emerging artists from across India.
The artist lineup, some of whose works are featured here, includes Durgadas Garai, Dushyant Patel, Jayasimha Chandrashekar, Leticia Alvares, Nisha Dhinwa, Priyoum Talukdar, Swapnesh Vaigankar, Tsering Negi, Venugopal VG, Vijay Bagodi, and Vishakha Apte.
Walking through the exhibition hall invites viewers into a world of not just imagery but processes as well. Each printmaking technique leaves its own distinct trace, rhythm and character on paper.
Such characteristics include direct marks of woodcuts, delicacy of etching, tonal subtlety of lithography, and graphic immediacy of serigraphy. To experience these techniques together is to become more attentive to the surface of the image.
Features that come to the fore are the pressure of the line, the grain of the paper, the density of ink, the variations in tone, and the edge where one colour meets another. The very act of looking itself seems to become more tactile.
“Every print begins with a matrix – a carved woodblock, an etched copper plate, a lithographic stone, or a silkscreen. The matrix is where the image is conceived, refined, revised and ultimately brought to life,” Backliwal says, describing the concept behind the exhibition.
“The matrix is the invisible origin of every print. It carries within it the marks of labour, experimentation and countless artistic decisions,” he adds.
A range of printmaking techniques is featured in the exhibition. It includes woodcut, etching, aquatint, engraving, drypoint, lithography, serigraphy, and algraphy.
“The exhibition celebrates printmaking not just as a means of reproduction, but as an original artistic practice in which every impression bears the evidence of craft, precision and intent,” Backliwal affirms.
Artisera hopes this exhibition is the first in its annual series dedicated to contemporary Indian printmaking. “While printmaking has a rich history and has played a significant role in the development of modern and contemporary Indian art, it has often remained under-represented within mainstream exhibition programming,” he observes.
Artisera hopes to showcase the innovation as well as collectability of contemporary printmaking. “The gallery brings greater visibility to the artists working within the medium,” he says.
There are interactive features in the gallery as well – visitors can hold some of the tools, matrices and proofs that shape a print before it becomes a finished work. “The exhibition celebrates not only the final impression but also the journey of experimentation that precedes it,” Backliwal says.
“At its heart, this exhibition is an invitation to look beyond the finished image – to recognise the matrix as the true beginning of every print, and to appreciate the dialogue between artist, material and process that gives printmaking its enduring vitality,” he says.
A group exhibition makes this dialogue especially vivid. Techniques begin to converse across the gallery, and differences become discoveries.
There is also delight in the surprises that a printmaking exhibition can deliver. What initially appears to be a quiet, flat image can reveal extraordinary depth when seen up close.
It opens up the chance to encounter art through the intelligence of the hand, the chemistry of materials, and the discipline of process. In an increasingly AI-driven age, printmaking brings the focus of creativity back to the human at the core.
Artisera and the Brigade Group have also launched THRESHOLD, a national artist development programme. It supports six practising Indian visual artists through a financial grant, mentorship, professional development, and three exhibitions across Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.
This gives the finalists the opportunity to connect their practices with new audiences, collectors and the wider art ecosystem. Artists will also gain access to Artisera’s verified client and collector network, alongside professional visibility and the possibility of continued gallery support.
“Cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Baroda, and Kolkata have long nurtured important printmaking traditions. But opportunities for artists and audiences to engage deeply with the medium in Bengaluru have remained relatively limited. We hope this exhibition contributes to building a lasting community around printmaking in the city,” Backliwal signs off.
Now what have you done today to pause in your busy schedule and harness your creative side for a better world?
(All photographs taken by Madanmohan Rao on location at Artisera.)