VARANASI: Eight-artist exhibition City Lines continues at Ishii Gallery, Ram Chhatpar Shilp Nyas, until November 2. Ether Project confirmed it remained on view on October 23, following its October 16 opening.
The exhibition listing brings together Anikesh Verma, Anshu Singh, David Malaker, Dumiduni Illangasinghe, Gyanwant Yadav, Mohita Suri, Sumit Srivastava and Upendra Ram.
Varanasi in paintings and embroidery
Anikesh Verma draws directly on his experience of living in Varanasi. The organiser identifies Fragments Of A City, a 2026 oil painting on canvas measuring 12 by 12 inches, among his works. Its October 7 artwork note describes layered paintings attentive to everyday life and to different realities existing within the same city.
Verma was born in Varanasi in 2001 and is now based between the city and Hyderabad, according to the accompanying artist profile. He completed a BFA at Delhi’s College of Art in 2022 and an MVA at Hyderabad’s S.N. School of Art and Communication in 2024. His solo exhibition Farm_404 was held at Varanasi’s Dera Art Community in 2025.
Anshu Singh’s Life Of Thread I, dated 2021, uses beaded embroidery on paper. In its October 15 explanation of the work, Ether Project connects its irregular lines with the lives of daily-wage workers in Varanasi’s textile industry. The account links those lines to difficult working conditions and seasonal changes in handloom work. This is the organiser’s interpretation of the artwork, rather than a new survey of the industry.
Singh’s October 21 profile places that work within a practice examining assumptions about craft, labour and community through textiles. Born in Varanasi in 1989, she lives and works between Varanasi and Delhi. She studied weaving and textile design at Banaras Hindu University, completing her bachelor’s degree in 2013 and master’s degree in 2015. The embroidered work measures 44.5 by 30.5 inches.
Ceramic stories and connections to land
Upendra Ram’s Roop Katha comprises stoneware ceramic sculptures dated 2026. The organiser’s October 12 artwork account describes elongated forms based on chai cups, carrying stories drawn from the artist’s life, mythology and oral histories through an anti-caste perspective. One work returns to his childhood helping his father in the fields. Birds, cattle and the landscape are described as images through which he considers freedom and struggle.
Ram, born in Siwan, Bihar, in 1987, also trained in Varanasi. Ether Project’s separate profile records his BFA from BHU in 2011 and an MFA in pottery and ceramics in 2013, when he earned a gold medal. It identifies him as the resident ceramicist at Studio Pottery in Nagpur.
Dumiduni Illangasinghe completed an MFA in painting at BHU in 2026 after a 2023 BFA at Colombo’s University of Visual and Performing Arts.
The October 23 update identifies her Vasundhara, a 2026 acrylic painting on canvas measuring 72 by 84 inches, among the works currently on view.
In a separate interview published by India Art Fair on December 24, 2025, Illangasinghe described Varanasi as influencing her understanding of fragility, erosion and renewal. That account placed her between a BHU studio and improvised setups in her dorm room. Her preparations included observational walks, writing, collecting objects and arranging them before starting studio work.
The interview linked her interest in fungal growth and mycelial networks to cycles of repair. She also described how Varanasi’s rituals and textures had broadened her interest in red bangles and the cultural memories held by materials. She was developing Soft Armours, a 35-panel mural combining mushrooms and broken glass bangles. She described reusing broken objects as a way to recover beauty and agency from materials associated with loss. That was a separate project discussed in the 2025 interview; the current City Lines update identifies Vasundhara.
In excerpts of the exhibition essay, Satyam Yadav frames the shared connection to Varanasi without treating the artists as a single stylistic group. He considers how relationships with a place can produce different approaches to making art, including breaks and exclusions as well as continuities.
The notices do not specify regular visiting hours or an admission fee.
For separate cultural coverage, read Dalimss News on Margo Rejmer and the Long Night of Literatures and the earlier Kashi Biennale proposal.
