ETV Bharat, 2025

'Born in Malaysia, Living In Singapore, Of Indian heritage — I embody cultural fluidity,' Says Artist Kumari Nahappan, Before Her First-Ever Solo Showing In India

Every so often, an artist arrives whose work seems to demand a whole new vocabulary, and in Kumari Nahappan’s case, that vocabulary starts with spices. Not the cardamom pods you find at the bottom of your tea, or the turmeric powder that stains everything in sight but spices as metaphor, as memory, as history. Born in Klang, Malaysia, to Indian grandparents who migrated there in the early 20th century, Nahappan has built a three-decade career transforming the small and the everyday (seeds, shells, spices) into monumental public works that now dot Singapore’s cityscape.

If you’ve ever walked through Changi Airport and been stopped in your tracks by the towering Saga Seed, or craned your neck beneath the 45-metre Pembungaan bronze mural, you’ve probably encountered Kumari’s art without even knowing it. Her practice, which has taken her everywhere from the Venice Biennale’s collateral to museums in Tokyo, Seoul, Basel, and Amsterdam, is instantly recognisable: vibrant, cosmic, and rooted in both cultural memory and the cycles of nature.

Now, for the first time, India gets to see her work up close. Chromatic Currents opening at New Delhi’s Gallery Pristine Contemporary this September, brings Kumari home in a sense; back to the ancestral routes of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, and back to the spice trails that once carried nutmeg, mace, and pepper between South Asia and Southeast Asia. Curated by John Tung, the exhibition is less about nostalgia and more about connection: between geographies, between past and present, between ritual and modernity.