Sohrab Hura’s third solo in Kolkata, The Forest at Experimenter – Ballygunge Place, brings together new oil paintings, recent works on paper, and video. Drawn from the series of ongoing oil paintings, the title encompasses within itself the act of waiting, denoting the forest as a place with a multitude of possibilities—it can harbour secrets and provide refuge or even a sense of solace and comfort. Hura’ s exploration in image-making through drawing is underscored by his tendency to reflect upon the social and the political through everyday ordinariness underscored by love, joy, relationships, and the familial.

The exhibition features memories from television-watching, memes from popular culture, social media algorithms, events in political history, intimate moments with loved ones. Breaking through the frenetic numbness of the image-saturated world, where they are often consumed rapidly and without any reflection, Hura’ s quest for slowness, tactility and softness materialises through his pastels, gouaches and oil paintings. On view will also be a new body of work titled Timelines, a collection of acrylic paintings on cardboard boxes, which present overlapping vignettes. Sifting through the entanglements of past events, scenes both real and imagined, pop culture and news references, the work also questions what constitutes majoritarian history. Timelines brings attention to how changing the timelines of stories can alter the stories themselves—much like the boxes that can be folded inside out to form new combinations. Taking a step back from the heaviness of photography, Hura explores the element of meandering which these mediums allow while also offering a reassuring affirmation that he exists in the real space through the physical act of making. Hura’s works resist linear narratives which draw from how he looks at the world—experiences interspersed with humour, grief, satire, violence and melancholy.

Hura’s new film Disappeared will also have its debut in India in the exhibition, where a seemingly distorted single shot of a forest tent is transformed through sound, colour, and texture into a near-narrative mystery that reflects on the malleability of perspective.

Venue
Experimenter – Hindustan Road | 2/1, Hindusthan Road, Kolkata, 700 029

Artist
Sohrab Hura

Exhibition Dates
November 5, 2025 – January 3, 2026

Gallery Hours
Tuesday – Saturday | 10:30 – 18:30

Website
https://experimenter.in/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/experimenterkol/

Contact
admin@experimenter.in

About Artist

Sohrab Hura is a photographer and filmmaker. He lives and works in New Delhi, India.

Select solo and group exhibitions include Sohrab Hura: Mother,MoMA PS1, NewYork, (2024–25); Post Scriptum. A Museum Forgotten By Heart, MACRO, Rome (2024–25), Ghosts In My Sleep,Experimenter – Colaba, Mumbai (2024), Spill, HuisMarseille Museum of Photography, Amsterdam (2021) andThe Levee,CincinnatiArt Museum, Cincinnati (2019), among others. Hura’s work has been widely shown in international film festivals such as UNDERDOX Film Festival; VancouverInternational Film Festival; Image Forum, Tokyo; Arkipel Film Festival, Jakarta;Moscow International Experimental Film Festival; Oberhausen InternationalShort Film Festival; FotoFest International, Houston.

About Gallery

Experimenter was co-founded by Prateek & Priyanka Raja in 2009 in Kolkata, India. With a multidisciplinary approach, the gallery is an incubator for an ambitious and challenging contemporary practice. The program represents some of the most critical contemporary artists worldwide. The program, rooted in dialogue and dissent, is considered to be a ‘pace-setter’ for its region, and extends from exhibition-making to knowledge creation, through regular talks, performances, workshops and through its much acclaimed, annual curatorial intensive – Experimenter Curators’ Hub. A second, more ambitious space was added in 2018, marking a deeper inquisition into the gallery’s realm of interest. Its third space Experimenter Colaba, established in 2022, marks the commitment of its discursive programming to Mumbai, a city that in turn represents the diverse pluralities of the region.

The gallery attempts to expand the scope of contemporary practice beyond the ambit of its expected role. In 2016, its artist-book publishing wing was launched followed by the Experimenter Learning Program in 2018 which enables learning in fields of contemporary and performing arts, curatorship, film, writing, language and social culture. In 2019, Experimenter Outpost, an iterative exhibitions program outside the physical gallery temporarily inhabiting disused, characterful spaces was formed. 2020 marked the beginning of Experimenter Labs, an inclusive, experimental and multi- dimensional online platform in addition to the onsite gallery programming.

(Text and images courtesy of Experimenter)