‘Makers and Materials: Goa Past and Present’ which is currently on at Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts, explores Goa’s material and visual heritage, connecting centuries-old craft traditions with the work of contemporary makers in India
Positioned at a historic global crossroads, Goa has long been a site of vibrant exchange, where ideas, skills, and materials travelled across Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. ‘Makers and Materials: Goa Past and Present’ , an exhibition which recently opened at the Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts, highlights this history through objects that reflect layered narratives of craft, cultural encounter, and resistance.
Akshay Mahajan’s ‘Broken Provenance’ for instance, reflects on the dispersal of Goan artefacts, where auction catalogues reduce cultural memory to transactions, while ‘The Memory of Water that a Body Carries’, Diptej Vernekar explores the memory of water through lived experiences of flooding, erosion, and migration. Other works include Pradeep Naik’s ‘Landscape’, which speaks the quiet language of landscapes, emerging from the stillness observed during the pandemic, when once-overlooked spaces revealed their emptiness and depth, and ‘Two-Thirds of Us’ by Wenceslaus Mendes which is a series of eight artists’ books on Goa’s ecology and water
The exhibition features a number of installations as well. These include ‘Kalwath’ by Rajendra A Mardokar which revives the forgotten legacy of Goa’s Kalwatas, temple performers, musicians, and dancers and ‘Fluidity of Tradition’ by Kalidas Mhamal which examines the evolving Chitari art form through the shifting visual language of the Taranga used in temple celebrations.
Shilpa Mayenkar’s ‘Petti’ is an installation inspired by Goa’s crochet tradition, introduced by Portuguese nuns in the 17th century and now integral to wedding trousseaus. Siddhesh Chari’s ‘Sweet Memories Of Goa’ consists of a collection of antique sugar confectionery moulds from Goa, which bear iconographic references to temples, churches, domestic life, and popular motifs that shaped everyday visual culture in Goa.
A multi-media and multi-part installation that is also a part of the show is ‘No Kings (and Chronicles)’ by Nivedita Madigubba and Priyanka D’souza. This work highlights mark-making and erasure, resistance and persistence, particularly in Priyanka and Nivedita’s current political contexts of working between India and the US. The phrase, ‘No Kings’, that has been used to protest authoritarian policies in the US has been considered alongside the chapter on Mughal history titled, ‘Kings and Chronicles,’ dropped from the NCERT 12th std syllabus.
Curated by Leandre D’Souza and Dr. Kelli Wood, the exhibition is presented in partnership with the University of Tennessee, Fulbright India, Italian Art Society and Swiss Arts Council ProHelvetia.
(The exhibition will be on view till February 28, 2026.)
Participating artists
Akshay Mahajan, Bhisaji Gadekar, Diptej Vernekar, Hemali Bhuta, Shreyas Karle, Kalidas Mhamal, Nivedita Madigubba, Priyanka D’Souza, Parag Tandel, Pradeep Naik, Rajendra Mardolkar, Shilpa Mayenkar, Siddhesh Chari, Uriel Orlow, Wenceslaus Mendes
This exhibition honours Goa’s makers as custodians of knowledge and reminds us that materials carry histories of resilience, survival, and imagination. It is also an invitation to re-examine how these practices shape our collective memory, influence contemporary creativity, and inspire new ways of seeing and making.”
-Isheta Salgaocar, patron, Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts
Makers & Materials’ is about listening to what materials have to say. In Goa, where histories of encounter and exchange are so deeply felt, artisanal practices embody ways of knowing and resisting that are often overlooked. Through this exhibition, we honour the makers who keep these practices alive and invite audiences to see them as living histories that continue to shape who we are and how we imagine the future.”
-Leandre D’Souza,
creative director, Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts
Goa’s artistic landscape has been crafted by centuries of makers in tune with the rhythm and ecology of the Konkan coast. In ‘Makers & Materials’ today’s artists and luminaries play with the lasting traces of Goa’s past as they image and imagine the possibilities of Goa’s present and future.”
–Kelli Wood, art historian and exhibition advisor
