“UTKARSA” Celebrating JMS Mani’s Mastery (1948-2021) I Retrospective Exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery
From: 11th to 17th November 2025
“UTKARSA”
Celebrating JMS Mani’s Mastery (1948-2021)
VENUE:
Jehangir Art Gallery
Kala Ghoda, Mumbai 400001
Timing: 11am to 7pm
Contact: +91 9886598387, +91 9538449359
This show was inaugurated on 11th November 2025 by Honourable Guests Mr. Anant Nikam(Veteran print maker, artist and former HOD all department of Sir J.J. School of Arts), Mr. Gourmoni Das(Director & Founder of Nine Fish Gallery and Dot Line Space Foundation), Ms. Ranjitha S – Director & Founder of JMS Mani studio daughter of JMS Mani, Mr. Darshan Kumar YU – Curator(muesmuseologist), artist & Thinker, Sushma Sabnis – Art writer & curator among others.
UTKARSA marks a sincere tribute to the life and creative legacy of J. M. S. Mani (1948–2021), one of Karnataka’s most revered modern artists and a transformative educator. Curated by Darshan Kumar YU, Curator(Muesmuseologist), artist & Thinker, Omit Curator NGMA, Bengaluru, and presented by JMS Mani’s family, this posthumous exhibition draws together key works spanning his iconic Badami series, expressive landscapes, and sensitive charcoal and mixed-media drawings and sketches, offering Mumbai audiences an intimate encounter with an artist who shaped both canvas and community.
His first solo show happened in Jehangir Art Gallery in 70’s.
Rooted in a rigorous academic foundation, Mani’s early practice honed traditional disciplines of light, form and perspective, later blossoming into an intuitive painterly vocabulary that balanced realism, symbolism and emotional intensity. His celebrated Badami series remains central to Indian art discourse, elongated rural figures, dusky-skinned, rendered with sincerity and grace, their gestures carrying the poetry of daily labour and social memory. These works reaffirm Mani’s lifelong conviction that dignity lives in the ordinary and beauty in lived experience. Equally powerful are Mani’s landscape studies, from the atmospheric ruins of Hampi to abstracted chromatic vistas, where nature becomes metaphor for time, memory and the human spirit. His drawings, often executed in charcoal, reveal a master draftsman able to distill emotion through line alone, capturing movement, fragility and stillness in equal measure. Throughout his evolving practice, Mani cultivated his studio as a sanctuary of creativity and learning, a space meticulously organised yet spirited, where students, artists and grandchildren entered freely. As a devoted teacher and principal at Ken School of Art, he encouraged experimentation, peer support and the courage to think beyond conventions. His belief in nurturing the next generation remains one of his greatest contributions to Indian art.
UTKARṢA honours not only a master painter but a mentor whose life’s work embodies artistic excellence, humility, and the deep conviction that art must stay rooted in humanity. This exhibition invites Mumbai art lovers to celebrate a legacy that continues to inspire—quietly, fiercely, and with unwavering devotion to the creative flame.
———–Sushma Sabnis – Mumbai.
“UTKARSA” Celebrating JMS Mani’s Mastery (1948-2021) I Retrospective Exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery