MANIFESTO

#65

MUSE TWENTY FANZINE

Remembering

2025.03.20

Text by Felicity Carter

The breadth of Arpita Singh’s artistic practice celebrates her relentless experimentation, figuratively exploring emotional responses to social upheaval and international humanitarian crises.

Arpita Singh: Remembering

Serpentine Galleries, London

From March 20th until July 27th, 2025

 

 

Remembering is the debut solo exhibition of New Delhi artist Arpita Singh, displaying significant artworks selected from her prolific career that spans over 60 years. Her first exhibition outside of her home country, she draws inspiration from Bengali folk art and Indian stories, along with experiences of social upheaval and global conflict; and in a way, she is painting her emotional and psychological state.

 

The exhibition at Serpentine North traces Singh’s works from the 1960s to recent years, from her large-scale oil paintings to her more intimate watercolours and ink drawings, exploring themes of Surrealism, figuration, abstraction, and her inspiration from Indian miniature paintings. 

Arpita Singh, Devi Pistol Wali, 1990. Courtesy of Museum of Art & Photography, Bengaluru, India.
opening image: Arpita Singh, My Lollipop City: Gemini Rising, 2005. Vadehra Art Gallery.
Arpita Singh, A Feminine Tale, 1995.
Courtesy of Taimur Hassan Collection, Photo: Justin Piperger.
Arpita Singh, Buy Two, Get Two Free, 2007.
Private Collection.
Arpita Singh, The Tamarind Tree, 2022.
Courtesy of Vadehra Family Collection.

In later years, we bear witness to her themes evolving into motherhood, the aging female form, feminine sensuality, vulnerability, and violence, demonstrating the impact of relationships and external events on the emotional and psychological landscape of the artist. On the exhibition and the artist, Bettina Korek, CEO, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, says, “Through a practice that blends Bengali folk art with modernist explorations of identity, Singh vividly portrays scenes of life and imagination, stories, and symbols, uniting the personal and the universal. This landmark exhibition builds on Serpentine’s legacy of spotlighting trailblazing artists yet to receive global recognition for their work, like Luchita Hurtado, Faith Ringgold, Hervé Télémaque, James Barnor, Kamala Ibrahim Ishag, and Barbara Chase-Riboud.” 

 

Arpita’s work invites the viewer into her intimate portrayals of domestic and inner life, as well as into the navigations of women, tensions and to a backdrop of unsettling historical events and everyday life.

 

 

For further information serpentinegalleries.org.

Arpita Singh, Lesser Myth, 2006. Courtesy of Vadehra Family Collection.

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