Upon entering the Art and Charlie gallery, the visitor leaves behind the by-lanes of Bandra West, finding themselves enveloped in an artist’s vision of rural Maharashtra. Lush sugarcane fields,  banana trees and the lean limbs of farmers define Kumar Misal’s style in paintings and sculptures that keep the agrarian tradition of his community in Kumbhoj, Kolhapur district alive.

In her curatorial note to the solo show titled Rawanth, Archana Hande calls Misal a “sutradhar” of the farmers, because of both his choice of material and the stories he tells. The COVID-19 pandemic years were, to him, a reminder of how farmers and their essential labour are perceived by society. “A certain limiting image comes to mind when we think of farmers. We also think of them only in certain contexts, otherwise they are absent from the public imagination,” he rues.