Fundamentally, a project-induced work of art by Ashish Kumar Maurya, Trees Don’t Eat Their Fruits, was inaugurated on December 23, 2024, by well-known artists Prithvi Soni, Kamal Jain, Anil Naik, Prof. Vishwanath Sable and Prakash Bal Joshi along with art collector Nitin Jadia at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai. This solo exhibition speaks for resilience, community, and the ever-changing landscape of contemporary Indian art.
The show, which Iftikar Ahmed curated, presents an expansive body of work, which includes mixed media, photography, etchings and paintings. Reflecting on his experiences of growing up in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, Maurya’s pieces are a response to the intimate and interdependent relationship between labour, nature, and survival. The tree’s motifs of silence, strength, and selflessness are consistent throughout the exhibition narrative, with an exploration of identity and environmental interdependence that invokes contemplation.
Maurya’s mixed-media work on rice paper, Roots of Resilience, is more in the vein of the artist’s signature style. Its surface texture and earthy colour palette invite a dialogue with the surrounding landscape as the presence of life begets the next, and the next. By doing so, A Labor of Love resonates with broader themes of labour rights and ecological justice, poignantly depicting the sacrifices of rural communities. The meticulous craftsmanship of works like The Rural Wanderers and Nature’s Footprints: A Living Memory shows Maurya’s ability to meld traditional techniques with a contemporary narrative. His use of rice paper and tea-stained textures gives the artworks an ambient sense of time and nostalgia, and the juxtaposition of rural and urban imagery reflects the friction of modernisation.
THE RURAL WANDERERS | Watercolor on tea-stained paper | Triptych, 11” x 15” Each | 2022| Courtesy: Ashish Maurya
Maurya’s work goes beyond the aesthetic, it strives to delve into the socio-political dynamics of rural India. Their pursuits of agrarian struggles, ecological degradation and labour exploitation encourage viewers to re-envision progress and sustainability. This is especially evident in When You Turn Away, I’m Still Here, where a shattered pot is a metaphor for resilience in the face of systemic neglect.
WHEN YOU TURN AWAY, I’M STILL HERE | Mixed-media on rice paper mounted on canvas | 36” x 48” | 2024| Courtesy: Ashish Maurya
The show also reiterates Maurya’s scholarly rigour, borne out of his ongoing doctoral thesis titled New Perceptions of Reality in Contemporary Indian Art (1990–2020). Through the intertwining of personal memory with wider socio-political narratives, his practice manages to remain relevant within contemporary art discourse.
ROOTS OF RESILIENCE | Mixed-media on rice paper mounted on canvas | 36” x 48” | 2024| Courtesy: Ashish Maurya
The exhibition is the product of collaboration. Maurya’s acknowledgement of those who have guided him and those who have guided him mirrored the themes of selflessness and resilience in his works. There were dignitaries and seasoned artists; such attendees validated the importance and significance of this exhibition.
Left: SHELTER BEYOND SEASONS | Mixed-media on rice paper mounted on canvas | 18” x 20” | 2024; Right:
NATURE’S FOOTPRINTS: A LIVING MEMORY | Mixed-media on tissue paper mounted on canvas | 16” x 18” | 2022| Courtesy: | Courtesy: Ashish Maurya
To call Trees Don’t Eat Their Own Fruits an exhibition is to misperceive what exhibition is: an exhibition is a philosophical process of art. Maurya’s talent for bringing together rural tradition and urban critique makes for a shuddering contemplation of life as we live it today. A call to arms, this presenting exhibition offers viewers a way to think about labour, environmental justice, and cultural identity and honours everyone who gives so freely, without expectation.
Ashish Kumar Maurya’s work is a masterclass in narrative depth and artistic integrity and it makes Trees Don’t Eat Their Own Fruits a highlight of the Indian art calendar.
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