'Gallery Pristine Contemporary presents Yeh Kab Ki Baat Hai?, a solo exhibition by Irum Rahat, opening on Thursday, 23rd April 2026. The exhibition brings together sixteen paintings that engage with memory as something continually shifting, rather than fixed or retrievable. Yeh Kab Ki Baat Hai will be on view until Tuesday, 12th May 2026.
Rahat’s practice draws from domestic spaces, often centred on feminine presence and interior life, where the familiar becomes a site of inquiry. In this body of work, she returns to recurring interiors, figures, and gestures, each revisited with subtle variations. These repetitions form a visual language in which memory unfolds as layered and non-linear. Past and present appear within the same frame, where identity is shaped through both presence and disappearance, and familiarity is constantly reconfigured.
Across works such as Sanaata (2026), Diva-coded (2026), and Offline (2025), Rahat constructs interiors where stillness carries a palpable weight, and presence is often split across reflections, screens, and shared spaces. Figures occupy the same environments without necessarily engaging one another, their attention dispersed, their proximity unsettled. Mirrors, devices, and shifting points of view introduce a sense of doubling and distraction, complicating the act of looking and recalling.
Drawing from cinematic approaches to framing and staging, the works unfold as fragments of an open narrative. A rhythm between nocturnal scenes and quieter daytime interiors creates a movement between introspection and continuity. Her engagement with domestic imagery and everyday moments lends the works an emotional charge, where intimacy, memory, and spatial experience intersect.
Speaking on the exhibition, Co-founders of Pristine Contemporary gallerists Arjun Sawhney and Arjun Butani note, “Irum’s work holds a tension between what is seen and what slips away. There is a attention to how memory forms through repetition, where each return alters the image slightly. This exhibition reflects our interest in practices that engage with perception and the instability of images, while remaining personal in their language.”
Founded in 2023, Gallery Pristine Contemporary presents a programme of artists whose work engages with image-making, memory, and shifting cultural narratives, a line of inquiry that finds a strong resonance in Irum Rahat’s exploration of interior worlds and the instability of recollection.'
Yeh Kab Ki Baat Hai will be on view at Pristine Contemporary from 23rd April to 12th May, 2026.
Words Platform Desk
Date 20.4.2026