Sujata Bajaj returns to Delhi with ‘SPACESCAPES’, her first abstract solo in the city in over 16 years. Opening with a preview on January 29 at Alliance Française Gallery, New Delhi, the exhibition presents the artist’s most expansive and ambitious body of work to date — an immersion into the visual and emotional vastness of the cosmos. Tuba Ali has curated the exhibition.
The exhibition marks the culmination of more than five years of exploration into images captured by the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. Translating the enormity of the universe into abstraction, Bajaj creates works that vibrate with elemental energy — radiant bursts of light, drifting nebulae, and cosmic matter in states of formation and dissolution.
“In 2019 I happened to come across a NASA image taken from the Hubble telescope showing the Andromeda galaxy. I connected with the photograph without knowing what it actually was, but the seed of 'SPACESCAPES' was planted,” says Bajaj. “I understood that this journey would require the use of new techniques as well as experimentation. Thereafter, I explored other images taken from the James Webb telescope. The next five years were a period of great involvement in this fresh creation. These paintings are my discoveries during this time period.”
Conceptualised and created by the artist herself, 'SPACESCAPES' deepens her lifelong dialogue between materiality, intuition, and universal rhythm. These works unfold as dramatic, uninhibited orchestrations of pigment, expansive compositions that open up new emotional and spatial possibilities.
Rather than depicting the cosmos literally, Bajaj evokes its resonance: its turbulence, stillness, and infinite potential. Her canvases reward viewers who linger, revealing shifting depths, bursts of energy, and a sense of vastness that mirrors the cosmic subject at their core.
Writer and critic Girish Shahane says her canvases “reward exploration from a series of vantages… They take on the most immense subject of them all, the cosmos itself.”
A book will also be published on the subject. Published by Gallery Art & Soul (Mumbai), Namtech Fine Art (New Delhi), and Galerie Patrice Trigano (Paris), the 'SPACESCAPES' monograph features over 100 full-colour plates and essays that expand the intellectual and cultural lens of the exhibition.
The publication includes contributions by eminent writers and contributors like David Elbaz, renowned French astrophysicist and research director at the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA); Manuel Rabaté, director of the Louvre Abu Dhabi; Girish Shahane, art critic and curator; and Helena Bajaj Larsen, textile designer and writer; and Francesco Buranelli, president, Permanent Commission for Monuments and Artists of the Holy See, Rome, reflecting on her passion, commitment, and evolution.
The book also features historical reflections and rare personal impressions from significant artistic voices, including a tribute by M.F. Husain who had remarked that “according to me, Bajaj is the best colourist that India has”.
Together, these writings situate Bajaj’s practice at a unique intersection of art, science, mythology, and contemporary abstraction.