GOVINDA SAH 'AZAD': Journey to the Heart of Light
4 December, 2025 – 24 January, 2026
Tropical hardwood and tempera, Acrylic on canvas, 180 x 140 cm.
Tropical hardwood and tempera, Acrylic on canvas, 180 x 160 cm.
Fascinated by the changing qualities of light playing through various layers of cloud, Sah represents his shifting experiences of the outer environment to explore more subtle emotional changes occurring within his ‘inner landscape.’ Sah’s works are composed of densely interwoven layers of mark-making that build layer upon layer of oil and acrylic paints upon the canvas. For Sah, as the painted surface becomes saturated with detailed layers, the reiterative act of painting resolves into a meditation on the complex enigmas of life itself. Describing how this operates, Sah states, ‘Painting becomes this continual process of losing myself...During these dialogues (with the painting), ideas arise within me, surfacing through the mysterious process of painting. Knowledge exists outside all of us and, for me, painting is the activity by which I reach out to discover it.’
Sah has never been afraid of addressing grand themes unfolding on cosmic scales. While earlier series portrayed visionary glimpses of intergalactic spaces full of nebulic clusters illuminated by light travelling from distant stars, these new works strike out in novel directions. Here, the canvases focus in on what appear to be coastal tide-pools, half-hidden underwater coves and intricate rock formations upon pebble-strewn beaches. What is particular about this artist is his ability to move from macro to microcosm with astonishing ease, shifting imperceptibly between different phases, as rocks disappear into aqueous depths and matter seems to arise, spontaneously, from out of the void. Discussing his enigmatically alluring paintings, the philosopher Anthony Blake has written, ‘(Sah’s) very tangible, textured, exquisite and astonishing canvases are windows into primordial worlds and the mystery of how nothing becomes something.’
Govinda Sah’s latest canvases define a new waypoint on his adventurous career to date, providing a privileged peek into the artist’s ever-unfolding journey to the inner Heart of Light!
