At the Shore

In 'At the Shore', Chetan Kurekar brings together sculpture, oil painting, charcoal drawing and single-channel video to document the slow destruction of his home village by the coal mining industry. Drawing on his own childhood — the son of a machine operator and union leader — Kurekar maps the anxiety, grief and stubborn resilience of a community alienated from its land. In 'Fragments of Belonging', three sculptures render crumbling homes with tender attention to detail, preserving the everyday lives imprinted on decaying objects. In 'Gaze of Dissent', the artist sits on open land allowing coal dust to settle on his face until his eyes water, the resulting video a quiet act of protest and endurance. Throughout the exhibition, beauty and calamity coexist — blackened water, windblown trees, a man watering a bare trunk — as Kurekar extracts memories from childhood before they are washed away entirely, leaving the viewer to sit with the fraught and unresolved relationship between people, land and industry.



Chetan Kurekar (b. 1996) is an artist currently based in Baroda, he holds a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts (Sculpture) from Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya, Khairagarh, Chhattisgarh (2019), and a Master's degree in Fine Arts (Sculpture) from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat (2024). The artist works with various mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, site-specific installations, and kinetic sculpture. His practice explores the connections between childhood memories and the socio-political dynamics of contemporary society. Kurekar has participated in various exhibitions, including Pushpmala Anant Art Gallery (Noida), Yaadon ka Sailaab (Flood of Memories), Gallery Splash (Gurugram), Abhivyakti City Project (Ahmedabad) and the Tapi Festival (Surat). He has been Awarded the Chinmoy Pramanik Award from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.