New Delhi, Dec. 5 -- The India International Centre (IIC) presents a new exhibition titled 'Heads & Tails' by Golak Khandual. The exhibition brings together intimate portraits of real and imagined people - friends, family, workers and characters shaped by the artist's encounters. Drawing from life and memory, the works explore shifting identities and the masks we wear, revealing how reality and imagination continually blur.
Golak Khandual is an architect and artist whose three-decade practice blends drawing, ecology and community-focused architecture. His work includes landmark projects like Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park and Kishanbagh Sand Dunes, alongside numerous solo exhibitions across India.
"In this show, I present a collection of portraits of people drawn from life, in more than one sense. There are early studies of friends and family; authors that I adore and workers I bond with at my building sites. I am engulfed in a wonderful sense of bliss as I draw these portraits, irrespective of the fact whether they are directly drawn from life or they are inspired by other visual and literary sources," said Golak Khandual.
He added, "In addition to all these portraits of people I know, I have also drawn imaginary people who have been inspired by the real world. Now and then, in the sea of heads and bodies in the metropolis I frequent, on billboards, on television screens and in the streets, I wander and bump into characters who resemble my own invented entities. Sometimes it feels as if they have walked out of my own drawings to ambush me. I find this deja vu aspect an overwhelming experience. This strong desire to reinvent characters possibly has something to do with my having worked as a makeup artist. Drawing imaginary portraits, often executed in the dark, also slows me down and opens up alternate doors of perception for me."
"Makeup taught me how little it takes to transform someone into somebody else, to convert a young lad into an old man and sometimes a man into a woman," he shared.
Venue: Art Gallery, Kamaladevi Complex, IIC
Date: Till December 14, 2025
The exhibition will be on view from 11 am to 5 pm
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.