SHAPE OF ATTENTION | Maihili Chaturvedi, Abhimanue Govindan, Chaturika Jayani, Shivangi Kalra, Ashna Malik, Harsh Nambiar, Gayan Prageeth, Aditya Puthur, Arinjoy Sen, Smitha Shajith

We are always already looking. Not just at images, but through them—past them, around them, into the next thing. Vision slips easily into habit. Attention, less so. It strains, flickers, lingers, fragments. It is not a given; it is a negotiation. Shape of Attention begins from this instability. Attention is not neutral—it is trained, extracted, rewarded, withheld. It circulates as currency, is measured as value, and increasingly, is engineered. To attend is to participate in an economy that both exceeds and inhabits us. The works gathered here do not settle into a single rhythm of viewing. In the practices of Maithli Chaturvedi, Abhimanue Govindan, Chaturika Jayani, Shivangi Kalra, Ashna Malik, Harsh Nambiar, Gayan Prageeth, Aditya Puthur, Arinjoy Sen and Smitha Shajith, attention becomes both method and subject. Chaturvedi, Kalra, and Shajith each engage the theatrical from distinct socio-cultural vantage points. Chaturvedi draws directly from cinema, exploring a reversal of the gendered gaze through her treatment of female subjects. Kalra, by contrast, turns inward, constructing surreal, intimate domestic scenes that evoke psychological landscapes through swift, almost operatic gestures. Meanwhile, Smitha Shajith, both painter and performance artist, stages communal scenes in which figures appear to move in self-contained rhythms. Her delicate watercolors, with their varied forms and meandering borders, embody movement and theatricality in themselves. Together, their practices command and use attention in different ways: at times through seduction and curiosity, at others through an evocation of collectivity. Govindan and Jayani explore the architectural realm: one through abstraction and another through figuration, both through structure and sensibility, each probing how space is constructed, inhabited, and perceived. Govindan’s works often suggest built environments in flux—fragmented, layered, and shifting—where architectural forms become unstable frameworks for viewing. Jayani, in contrast, engages the conditions of architecture - industrial and personal and how they affect one another. Ashna Malik and Harsh Nambiar engage attention through formally distinct approaches, each foregrounding the act of looking as both intimate and constructed. Malik’s practice lingers on surface and detail, where textures, repetitions, and subtle shifts in form reward a close and instinctual gaze, one driven by feeling beyond just knowledge. Nambiar, by contrast, builds dense visual fields where figuration and abstraction collide—his compositions often feel compressed, charged with competing gestures and references that demand to be navigated rather than passively received. Together, their works articulate attention as something both absorbed and contested: at once drawn inward through quiet accumulation and dispersed across restless, image-saturated planes. Aditya Puthur and Gayan Prageeth both work within a mode of dreamlike figuration, yet diverge in how that sensibility is spatialized. Puthur’s compositions often shock and alert the viewer: his figures are jarringly present yet not fully there, creating a haunting. The psychological charge is immediate and longstanding. Prageeth on the other hand invites a meditative gaze, one that loses itself in the natural beauty of his landscape-oriented environments. They articulate two registers of the dreamlike: one dispersed across space, the other anchored in the body. Arinjoy Sen’s Tale of Manasa extends beyond myth into a meditation on migration and displacement, where the narrative of the serpent goddess becomes entangled with contemporary experiences of movement across geographies. He digitally draws the stories which are then printed on silk and kantha embroidered by SHE Kantha, a women’s led NGO focused towards the revival of kantha. Figures, motifs, and gestures appear to emerge and recede, resisting linear narration and instead inviting a cyclical, attentive mode of viewing. In this work, attention moves between detail and totality, mirroring the way oral and visual traditions carry and transform stories over time. Within the show, perception extends across different temporalities: a slow accrual, a sudden insistence, a quiet persistence that resists immediate capture. Some works invite a durational gaze, others interrupt it. Some ask to be held; others refuse to be fully grasped. Together, they outline attention not as a fixed capacity, but as something elastic—pressured, redirected, and unevenly distributed. It appears as labour, as care, as distraction, as excess. It accumulates in detail, disperses in gesture, and sometimes withdraws altogether. The viewer is not positioned outside this field, but implicated within it—pulled into circuits of noticing, skimming, returning. What, then, does it mean to look closely now? What forms of attention are cultivated, and which are eroded? What remains unseen, not because it is hidden, but because it is unprofitable to notice? Rather than offering resolution, the exhibition holds open these tensions. It asks not only how we look, but how we are made to look—and what it might take to reconfigure that act. Manya Kochhar Maithili Chaturvedi (b. 2003, Mumbai, India) Chaturvedi works primarily through portraiture, she explores and constructs female subjectivity drawn from the iconography of Hindi cinema. Rendered on velvet, her paintings linger between the cinematic and the intimate, and treat Bollywood’s popular power as serious subject matter. In this exhibition, her works move fluidly across mediums as cinematic stills are translated into painting, reconfiguring experiences of time, material, and motion. By isolating and suspending these moments, she disrupts the continuity of film, inviting a different mode of looking—one in which attention is held in place, stretched, and made newly perceptible. Chaturvedi received her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2025 and was the recipient of the Florence Leif Award. She will receive her MFA in Visual Arts with a concentration in Painting from Columbia University (2028) and will be exhibiting her debut solo presentation in June of 2026 in Mumbai. Her recent exhibitions include Welcome To My Den at Unveil Gallery, Orange County, CA (2025); As She Should at Selva, New York City, NY (2025); Still Wet at SVA Flatiron Gallery, New York City, NY (2025); LOOK at Rajiv Menon Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA (2025); No, Painting Baby at Woods Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI (2025); The Big Fat South Asian Show, which she also curated, at the RISD Museum (2025) amongst others. Her work has been featured in Impulse Magazine, Dominasian Magazine, The Indy, Scale Journal, and CanvasRebel Magazine, where she reflects on the intersections of film and femininity. Chaturvedi has been selected for residencies at the School of Visual Arts and Uncool Artists in New York City (2025), and Vermont Studio Center (2026). Chaturvedi is based in Mumbai and New York. Abhimanue Govindan (b. 1956, Thrissur, Kerala, India) Govindan's practice explores space as a living field of encounter, shaped and redefined through line, form, and color. Architecture and design inform his visual language, where forms act as structures held in relation — reflecting the built environments we inhabit. Color functions not only as aesthetic choice but as metaphor for the boundaries, divisions, and differences that define both human and geographic worlds. Govindan positions the artwork as aesthetic object rather than narrative illustration, resisting storytelling in favor of the abstract, and inviting the viewer to move beyond inherited knowledge toward the immediacy of the present. Govindan views art as an aesthetic object rather than a narrative illustration. He often resists storytelling in turn asking the viewer to make sense of the abstract and in the process, move beyond inherited knowledge, searching for truth in the immediacy of the present moment. Govindan was part of and extensively featured at the Kochi Muziris Biennale (2025-26.) He will make his USA debut with Shape of Attention at Aicon Contemporary. He completed his BA and MA in Painting at M.S. University of Baroda and received the Kanoria Centre for Arts Fellowship in Ahmedabad, where he also served as visiting faculty at CEPT's School of Architecture. His solo exhibitions include presentations at Gallery Espace, New Delhi; Queens Hall Arts, UK; and Gallery OED, Kochi. He has participated in landmark group exhibitions including Lokame Tharavadu (2021) and others. Govindan is based in India. Chathurika Jayani (b. 1984, Colombo, Sri Lanka) Jayani's multidisciplinary practice examines the complexities of urban life, identity, and the evolving role of women within rapidly transforming societies. Working in mixed media, she employs bold color, texture, and unconventional materials — ranging from corrugated board to hand-worked threads shaped with needle and flame — to capture the psychological and emotional tensions of contemporary living through an increasingly resilient female gaze. Her large-scale installations and Dream Paradise series reflect on the intersection of heritage and development, juxtaposing Sri Lanka's cultural and natural landscapes with industrial imagery to question the costs of progress — environmental, social, and emotional. Jayani holds a degree from the University of Visual and Performing Arts, Colombo, and is the recipient of multiple awards at the State Art and Sculpture Festival, including First Place (2011–12, 2024) and Second Place (2020). Her work has been exhibited at Saskia Fernando Gallery, Paradise Road Galleries, and across South Asian platforms including the Asian Art Biennale, with exhibitions curated in association with the George Keyt Foundation. Jayani is based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Shivangi Kalra (b. 1998, Delhi, India) Kalra is the winner of the Dutch Royal Painting Prize (2024), making her American debut in Shape of Attention. Her practice grapples with the impact of Delhi's rapidly changing domestic architecture on memory, social behavior, and emotional life. Working in oil, she reconstructs the interiors of a bygone Delhi — grand homes and lavish gatherings that masked the silent struggles of those within — unraveling nostalgia while questioning the hierarchies and unspoken dynamics of domestic space. Her large, richly colored canvases have been described by the jury of the Dutch Royal Award for Modern Painting as evoking an atmosphere of alienation: works that conjure a new reality from recognizable spaces, objects, and figures. Kalra holds a BFA from the College of Art, Delhi University, and an MFA (cum laude) from the Frank Mohr Institute, Groningen, supported by the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and the Holland Scholarship. After being awarded the Dutch Royal Painting Prize, she exhibited at the Royal Palace Amsterdam, and subsequently presented a solo exhibition at Galleria Doris Ghetta, Italy. Her work has been shown internationally at the Supermarket Art Fair, Sweden, the Groningen Museum, and Method, Mumbai. Kalra is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Ashna Malik (b. 1998, New Delhi, India) Malik's multidisciplinary practice spans traditional and digital media to explore themes of perception, distortion, immersion, and experience. Through painting and interactive projection, she creates visually dynamic works that invite viewers to question their understanding of reality — employing optical play, fluid line, and vibrant color to generate movement and distortion on the picture surface. Malik received her BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design (2020). She will make her New York debut at Aicon Contemporary, following a residency in the south of France, where she has been developing new directions within her practice. She has exhibited at India Art Fair, Atlanta Art Fair, and Art Mumbai, and presented two solo exhibitions — Lines of Inquiry and Tangled — at Method, Mumbai. Her work is held in private collections across the United States, France, Dubai, and India. She has collaborated with brands and institutions such as Johnnie Walker at Lollapalooza, Royal Enfield, La Marzocco, Budweiser, SCAD, and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and recently, her work was featured on sweeping 100-foot canvases enveloping the facades of India Design Fair. Malik is based in New Delhi, India. Harsh Nambiar (b. 1989, India) Working primarily in oil, Nambiar draws inspiration from altarpieces and the traditions of Romanesque and Gothic painting. He is interested in the relationship between enchantment and the uncanny, or rather the relationship between the mystical and a reality that appears unreal. Nambiar’s work resists immediate meaning, and instead embraces that which will always be partially unknowable. Instead of telling allegories or tales, he explores shape and form that celebrate devotion and act as visitations that leave behind wondrous and indelible traces on the soul of the viewer. Nambiar received his BA in Art History from Columbia University (2012). He has presented solo exhibitions at Anant Art Gallery (2023) and Almost Gods (2026), and has participated in group shows and fairs including India Art Fair and Art Mumbai. Nambiar is based in New Delhi, India. Aditya Puthur (b. 1991, Ambernath, India) Puthur was most recently part of the 6th edition of the prestigious Kochi Muziris Biennale (2025–26). He will make his debut in the United States with Shape of Attention. Aditya Puthur’s paintings occupy a charged space between beauty and unease, where haunting, almost spectral imagery emerges through layers of richly worked paint. His compositions often suggest distorted figures, shadowy presences, or ambiguous forms that feel on the verge of recognition, creating a quiet but persistent tension. Executed with a virtuoso command of the medium, his surfaces shift between precise control and expressive freedom, revealing a deep sensitivity to texture, light, and atmosphere. The result is work that is both technically masterful and psychologically resonant, drawing viewers into scenes that feel at once unsettling and strangely compelling. He completed his Government Diploma in Art from the L.S. Raheja School of Art, Mumbai (2014), and his Post Diploma in Painting from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (2016). His practice has been recognized with numerous grants and awards, including the Art Incept Grant (2024), the Experimenter Generator Grant (2021), the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (2017), the Young Artist Scholarship from the Ministry of Culture (2017), and the Nasreen Mohamedi Award (2016). His solo exhibitions include The Place Called Body at Anant Art Gallery, Noida (2023), and Unweaving the Rainbow at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara (2020). Puthur is based in Baroda, India Gayan Prageeth (b. 1980, Horana, Sri Lanka) Prageeth's practice engages with socio-political history, environmental concerns, and conflict through a visual language informed by Sri Lankan iconography. Working across painting, drawing, and installation, he integrates acrylic painting with intricate ink drawings on rice paper mounted onto canvas to construct layered, textured surfaces. In his installations, found and ready-made materials serve as deliberate commentaries on social fragmentation and displacement. His work is rooted in the ongoing complexities of Sri Lanka's post-conflict reality — examining how violence, nationalism, and governance remain embedded within everyday life — while resonating with broader global conditions of instability and rupture. Prageeth received his BFA in Painting from the University of the Visual and Performing Arts, Colombo (2009). He has exhibited internationally at India Art Fair (2024), Art Dubai (2018), the Colombo Art Biennale (2016), Baik Art Gallery, Los Angeles, and the 13th Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh. His works are held in private collections across Asia and Europe. Prageeth is based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Arinjoy Sen (b.1996, Kolkata, India) Arinjoy Sen, whose celebrated work,”Bengali Song” has been shown across international institutions and further collected will make his USA debut in Shape of Attention at Aicon Contemporary. Sen's practice of image-making weaves manual and digital processes with deep cultural research, forming a spatial-visual praxis rooted in critical historical and cultural study. Drawing plays a central role in his work — functioning not only as a tool for narrative and spatial exploration, but as a means of addressing critical histories and resisting the erasure of underrepresented stories. His concerns span the politics and aesthetics of architecture, contested landscapes, citizenship, migration, and spatial justice. Time in his work is conceived as non-linear, with the two-dimensional picture plane treated as an ideological surface onto which past and present are simultaneously projected. The exhibition features a breadth of painting, while Sen’s work is embroidered textile it acts as painting. His digitally driven drawings that take inspiration from Bengali scroll paintings, act as interventions to the genre of painting and push the boundaries of what it can comprise of. Sen's work has been exhibited internationally at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where it was acquired for the permanent collection (2024–25); the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2025); La Biennale di Venezia (2023); the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (2023); the Royal Institute of British Architects, London (2024); and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2023), among others. His work has been covered by the Guardian, the Observer, Dezeen, e-flux, and Wallpaper*, and his writing has appeared in the Architectural Review, the Funambulist, and the RIBA Journal. Sen is based in London, United Kingdom. Smitha Shajith (b.1981, Kerala, India) Smitha Shajith’s presentation at Aspinwall, the central venue of the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2025-26 was a stand out one. The strong reception to her works was followed by a solo show at Vadehra Art Gallery. Shape of Attention at Aicon Contemporary, marks Shajith’s first ever exhibition in the United States. Shajith's paintings treat space not as backdrop but as a breathing, sentient presence — a stage on which memory and lived experience take up residence. Returning repeatedly to the terrains of her past, her canvases become vessels for reviving early memories and quietly reassembling the fragments of a life. Within these landscapes, objects and figures emerge as performers: moving across the surface in response to one another through rhythm, gesture, and poise, bound by an enduring sense of rural kinship and communal joy. Nature no longer remains a backdrop but is an actor and fluid performer in Shajith’s dance of life. Her compositions unfold across overlapping strata of time — ancient history, childhood nostalgia, the weight of labor, and the textures of the present moment coexisting on a single plane. The geography of her homeland — its lush greenery, Communist traditions, and the labor of coir workers — appears simultaneously as layers of consciousness, where past, present, and future are intricately entwined. She studied painting at the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Her work has been presented in a range of exhibitions and contexts, including her solo project Pakkalam at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery in Kochi, which combined painting and performance, as well as presentations at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2026).