“Philosophical, spiritual, and religious ideas connect with me deeply. When I started reading scriptures and poetry, I found their ideas and messages very inspiring,” says artist K. M. Khushboo, whose art practice draws from spiritual ideas in texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the writings of poets such as Kabir Das.
Her works, now exhibited at her solo art show ‘Everything I Waited to Forget’ at Gurugram’s Art Incept, reflect her inner world and her meditations on life, death, and transformation. The title of the show—coined by the artist herself—is deeply personal. “After seeing and experiencing so many things, they keep collecting on their own, and the weight of it comes to mind. The work you are doing now—you either relieve yourself through it or fill yourself with it. For me, it is a relief. It’s everything that I was waiting to forget,” notes Khushboo. “It’s not about forgetting or erasing, but about changing the weight—about giving shape to something invisible,” says Khushboo.
For the Gorakhpur-born artist, painting has been more than a hobby since the sixth grade, when summer vacations meant painting classes and art camps. She later pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Banaras Hindu University, followed by a Master’s degree in Printmaking from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.
The show highlights her printmaking—including etching, drypoint, and woodcut—through which she continues to look inward. When she began her art studies at BHU, she worked with figurative forms, focusing on portraits and still life, but during her time in Baroda, she found herself increasingly drawn to using her own image as a point of reference. “When I went to Baroda, everything shifted. There, the focus was on concepts—what your work means, what message you want to convey. I found myself stuck, wondering what to do next. At one point, I even thought, ‘If my work is about myself, why would anyone want to see me?’” she says. “I felt that I didn’t have anything else for reference, so I started making myself the focus of my art. Gradually, I began translating those ideas into my mediums—and everything started taking shape from there.”
For Khushboo, printmaking is deeply meditative because of its lengthy, process-driven nature—from preparing the plates to pulling the final print. “The printmaking process is actually quite time-consuming, but it teaches you the weight of things. It teaches you curiosity along with patience. It’s a balance between control and surprise. Sometimes, the print reveals what you didn’t even know,” she says.
‘Everything I Waited to Forget’ is on view at Art Incept, South Point Mall, Sector 53, Gurugram, till November 24