SG Vasudev
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
At Forum Art Gallery, a deliberate proposition unfolds: 1 × 1 of a Kind – Edition II brings together 23 artists from the Progressive Painters Association (PPA) in a small-format exhibition that resists spectacle in favour of intent.
Rooted in the legacy of the Madras Art Movement and the Cholamandal Artists’ Village, the show revisits an idea first championed in the 1970s: that art, when scaled down, can travel further into homes, hands, and everyday lives. Paintings, sculptures, metal reliefs and drawings appear here at an intimate size, without diluting the seriousness of the practice behind them. The first edition of 1 × 1 of a Kind was held in 2018.
Dedicated to the memory of late artist M Senathipathi, founder member of Cholamandal and a long-serving pillar of the PPA, this edition of the exhibition is a memorial in art. It reflects a collective belief that art should remain accessible, sustained by community, and shaped by shared responsibility rather than market excess. “My father always believed that art should meet people where they are,” says Saravanan Senathipathi, the current president of PPA. “Dedicating this exhibition to him felt natural, because the idea behind it comes from the same belief,” he says.
M Senathipathi
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
“Working in a small format changes the way you encounter the work,” says Shalini Biswajit, founder of Forum Art Gallery and curator of the exhibition. “It becomes more intimate. You spend more time with it, instead of being overwhelmed by scale.” That shift, she notes, also opens up the possibility of collecting, particularly for those encountering senior artists whose larger works often remain out of reach. By bringing together established figures and younger practitioners within the same dimensions, the exhibition levels the field, allowing practice and intent to take precedence over size.
Established artists such as Akkitham Narayanan, C Douglas, P Gopinath, SG Vasudev, V Viswanadhan, Anila Jacob, and Maria Antony Raj adapt long-established visual languages to a reduced scale, working across painting, sculpture, metal relief and mixed media. Alongside them are artists from later generations, including Hemalatha Senathipathi, Saravanan Senathipathi, Brindha S, Priya Gopal, Jacob Jebaraj, and Suchithra Gopinath, whose works reflect personal, material and conceptual explorations shaped by the same collective environment. Seen together, the exhibition offers a compact but layered view of practices linked by shared histories, yet marked by distinct artistic trajectories.
Saravanan Senathipathi
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Works by M Senathipathi anchor the exhibition’s emotional centre, where mythological figures appear not as distant deities but as human presences. “Even when he worked with gods, he never treated them as gods. He always saw the human element first,” says Shalini. That sensibility carries into the works of his daughters, especially Hemalatha Senathipathi, whose small copper and brass sculptures echo her father’s early practice while clearly standing apart from it. Elsewhere, Akkitham Narayanan pares his meditative geometry down to its essentials to create works that reward stillness. In contrast, C. Douglas’s works gain a sense of closeness at this scale, asking the viewer to slow down and stay with them.
Taken together, 1 × 1 of a Kind – Edition II resists the urge to perform. Instead, it asks for attention that is measured, patient, and personal. At Forum Art Gallery, the exhibition affirms a position long held by the Progressive Painters Association: that scale need not dictate seriousness, and that art’s value is not defined by spectacle or scarcity.
1 × 1 of a Kind – Edition II is on display at the Forum Art Gallery until January 22.
Published – January 02, 2026 03:22 pm IST
