Acrylic on Canva, 2025 – By Viren Bhaika
By: Chahat Sharma
From 13th to 18th September 2025, the Open Palm Court Gallery at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, comes alive with Tyger Tyger Burning Bright, a solo exhibition by the young and compelling artist Virenpratap Singh Bhaika, curated by eminent art historian Dr. Alka Pande. The exhibition presents 15 paintings, the 30-minute award-winning film Roar and Resilience, and a selection of the artist’s sketchbooks, weaving together painting, collage, film, and indigenous inspiration into a profound meditation on conservation, coexistence, and creativity.
At once poetic and urgent, Bhaika’s work situates itself at the intersection of art, ecology, and lived experience. Currently a Fine Art Scholar at Harrow School, UK, Bhaika draws upon formative encounters in India’s national parks, his conservation volunteering in Namibia and Tadoba, and his dialogue with Gond communities of central India. His practice shifts from graphite sketches and precise acrylics to collage and mixed media mirror the very fragmentation and connection that defines the relationship between humans and nature.
Viren Bhaika
The Vision of Contrasts and Connections
Bhaika’s trajectory as an artist is marked by his evolving understanding of the fragile balance between urban expansion and the survival of the wild. “Contrasts and connections—for me, that is not just art, but also my native India and even, in a way, life itself,” he reflects in his statement. This philosophy finds vivid expression across four major projects featured in the exhibition:
Project 1 – Documentary & Collage: Inspired by his own film on tiger conservation, Bhaika’s collages juxtapose tigers against excavators and flames, contrasting beauty with destruction.
Project 2 – Jungle Vitality: Abstract acrylic works and collaged compositions that channel the exuberant energy of the Indian jungle into vibrant signs installed against the monotony of urban backdrops.
Project 3 – Gond-Inspired Narratives: Works that weave in Gond art’s symbolic visual language, shaped by Bhaika’s immersion with communities on the forest’s edge. The exhibition also presents three works by Japani Shyam, daughter of legendary Gond master Jangarh Singh Shyam, situating Bhaika’s art within a living lineage of indigenous creativity.
Project 4 – Classical & Modernist Dialogues: Paintings that bring together references from Graeco-Roman sculpture, Italian mosaics, and American modernism, highlighting Bhaika’s cosmopolitan fluency and ability to reframe ecology through global art histories.
Acrylic on Canvas, 2025 – By Viren Bhaika
Roar and Resilience
Complementing the visual works is Roar and Resilience, Bhaika’s 30-minute documentary filmed in Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, one of the world’s most intense hotspots for human-tiger conflict. The film reframes conservation as a multi-stakeholder issue, acknowledging the losses faced by local communities as well as the challenges of sustaining wildlife populations. With over 60 hours of footage distilled into a moving narrative, the film amplifies voices often left unheard in ecological debates and embodies the resilience required for coexistence.
The Curatorial Frame: Dr. Alka Pande’s Vision
The exhibition gains depth and resonance under the curatorship of Dr. Alka Pande, whose longstanding scholarship in Indian art, aesthetics, and cultural narratives lends an expansive frame to Bhaika’s practice. Drawing inspiration from William Blake’s The Tyger (1794), Dr. Pande positions Bhaika’s explorations within a continuum that spans classical Indian iconography, tribal traditions, and modern art.
For Dr. Pande, Bhaika’s contrasts, the tiger and the excavator, myth and modernity, tradition and technology, echo the Blakean dialectic of innocence and experience. Her curatorial statement situates the tiger not merely as an animal, but as a symbol deeply rooted in Indian mythology, sacred architecture, and folk traditions. From Durga astride her tiger at Ellora to the living shrines of Waghoba in Maharashtra, in doing so, she elevates Bhaika’s works from personal explorations to part of a larger cultural and ecological discourse.
As she notes, “What I am particularly interested in Virenpratap’s art practice is how he will juxtapose and amalgamate the traditional into the modern language of art in his visual narrative. How will he further develop his deep and abiding concern with the eternal human conflict by bringing in AI, Augmented Reality, and other immersive technologies in the next phase of his learning?”
This curatorial lens, rooted in both erudition and foresight makes Tyger Tyger Burning Bright not just an exhibition, but an evolving conversation on the future of art, ecology, and technology.
Dr. Alka Pande
A Collective Experience
The scenography, supported by Dr. Mandakini Devi’s research, underscores the exhibition’s immersive quality. Bhaika’s sketchbooks, filled with preparatory studies and fragmented thoughts, bring audiences into the intimacy of process, while the inclusion of Gond artist Japani Shyam’s works highlights dialogue rather than appropriation. The accompanying public discussion, Human-Animal Conflict and Peaceful Coexistence, further extends the exhibition’s reach, inviting audiences into critical reflection.
Art as a Call to Reimagine Coexistence
At its heart, Tyger Tyger Burning Bright is an artistic call to reimagine humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Through charcoal sketches, collages, abstract canvases, Gond-inspired narratives, and film, Bhaika transforms conservation into a visual language that is as deeply personal as it is globally urgent.
Mixed Media: Acrylic on Canvas and Pen, 2025 – By Viren Bhaika
The exhibition is a testament not only to the artist’s precocious talent but also to the discerning eye of Dr. Alka Pande, whose curatorship ensures that the works resonate within broader cultural, mythological, and ecological contexts. Together, artist and curator create a space where resilience, reverence, and responsibility converge, urging us to reflect on the fragile yet enduring coexistence between humans and the wild.
Charcoal on Paper, 2025 – By Viren Bhaika
