Urban landscapes under the lens: Sudhir Patwardhan’s solo exhibition opens in Kolkata

A new solo exhibition by renowned artist Sudhir Patwardhan opened on Wednesday, April 17, at TRI Art & Culture in Ballygunge. Titled Cities: Built, Broken, the show runs until June 15 and features 40 new works by the artist, along with select prints of earlier paintings dating back to 1977. Organised in collaboration with Vadehra Art Gallery, the exhibition explores the dynamics of urban construction and destruction in the context of global modernisation.

Known for his decades-long engagement with Mumbai’s evolving cityscape, Patwardhan uses oil and acrylic to reflect on the visible and invisible forces shaping contemporary urban life. His artworks delve into themes such as displacement, infrastructural violence, and everyday resilience.
Among the featured works are Yellow Sky (2023), Lynching 1 (2023), and Aspire (2024), depicting fractured skylines, crowded neighbourhoods, and moments of unrest. The exhibition invites viewers to reflect on a central question: “What is truly being built, and what is irrevocably being broken?”

Spread across the ground and first-floor galleries of TRI—a nonprofit cultural space housed in a restored triangular heritage building—the exhibition includes a walkthrough with the artist on April 17 and a public conversation between Patwardhan and art critic Gayatri Sinha on April 19.
Patwardhan, who began his career as a radiologist, has exhibited widely in India and abroad. His recent works continue to explore the city not merely as a physical space but as a lived experience shaped by its inhabitants. The exhibition is open to the public from Tuesday to Sunday, 11 AM to 7 PM.