"Silent Conversations is a landmark exhibition by renowned artist Laxman Aelay (who designed the logo for the newly formed state of Telangana in 2014), marking a powerful and transformative turn in his decades-long art practice. Widely known for his vibrant figurative style rooted in the indigenous visual culture of rural Telangana, Laxman Aelay’s newest body of work steps beyond his celebrated colour-rich canvases to revisit the spontaneity of drawing, reclaim the potency of black ink, and re-engage with the expressionistic impulses that shaped his beginnings.
“We are delighted to present Laxman Aelay’s first-ever solo exhibition in the city of Bangalore, with a collection that will surprise and delight the viewer. These new works are so distinct from his earlier creations, that one might not recognise them as coming from the “Laxman Aelay” that people have come to know and love. Showcasing this important exhibition now is made even more special, as we are celebrating Artisera’s 10th anniversary this year,” says Varun Backliwal, Founder & CEO, Artisera.
The title of the exhibition is a metaphor for the artistic process itself: a space where images emerge through an intimate exchange between the artist and his inner world, between historical influence and personal voice, and between the refined discipline of a veteran artist and the child-like freedom of a doodler. The works reveal an artist who listens deeply — to myths, to literature, to past selves, to the unspoken truths of marginalised lives — and allows these quiet reverberations to guide the evolution of Form.
This transformative body of work marks a return to the foundations of Laxman's early years as an illustrator and designer. The bold, intuitive strokes that once shaped his pen-and-ink drawings resurface here with renewed clarity, converging with cubo-expressionistic structures influenced by F.N. Souza, Diego Rivera, Pablo Picasso and Arshile Gorky. Yet the result is not homage alone; it is a reclaiming of instinct. Across drawings, paintings, and sculptures, Laxman unlearns and relearns the magic of art-making, allowing line, gesture, and subconscious association to guide the emergence of imagery.
The exhibition brings together six distinct series, each a conversation of its own. The Eight Myths comprises hexagonal paintings that reinterpret rural myths and fairy tales through folk-inspired motifs and playful symbolic imagery. Murmured Narratives consists of mostly black-and-white compositions that weave together memory, migration, resilience, and human connection through intricate figurative arrangements. Sixty@60, a series created in the year that Laxman Aelay turned 60, comprises sixty intimate, lyrical works in ink and pigment that form a mosaic of fleeting memories, dreams, and abstracted emotional fragments. The Remembering Souza series pays homage to F.N. Souza through raw, restless portrayals of human struggle and inner conflict. Domesticated Animilia is a collection of toy-inspired animal sculptures that channel the wonder of childhood and the artist’s playful bond with his grandchildren.
And lastly, Inked Reflections are pen-and-ink drawings of animals rendered as metaphors of resilience, empathy, and coexistence, merging intensity with lyrical freedom. In this expansive body of work, Laxman Aelay negotiates the delicate balance between the folk and the contemporary, and the poetic and the structural, revealing a visual language that is expansive, introspective, and deeply human. The result is a body of work that is visually compelling and politically resonant, bridging conventional storytelling with modernist fragmentation. The exhibition stands as a testament to the artist’s continual reinvention — a compelling fusion of memory, modernism, and the expressive force of line."
Date 12.12.2025