New Delhi
Murari Jha
The Future of Nostalgia Murari Jha
Nature Morte is pleased to present The Future of Nostalgia, a solo exhibition of new work by Murari Jha. Marking the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, the show brings together a body of work that reflects his ongoing engagement with memory, the body, and the idea of objects.
At the centre of the exhibition is a simple but resonant question: what does it mean to remember the future? With the title of the show, inspired by Svetlana Boym’s book of the same name, Jha approaches nostalgia not as a return to the past, but as a way of shaping what lies ahead, a longing not only for what has been, but for a different pace and rhythm of life. In his work, memory becomes active, something that continues to shift and inform how we imagine ourselves and the world around us.
The exhibition presents a series of forms that feel at once familiar and unsettled. The memories we select in the present reshape how we imagine the future and the values we carry forward. These are not fixed images, but traces: of touch, movement, and time. Built through slow, repetitive gestures, the works carry a sense of care and accumulation, where materials become forms which hold the imprints of experiences both lived and virtual. These sculptures move between association and abstraction, suggesting landscapes that are both personal and collective.
Made in a variety of materials (stone, bronze, wood, brass, synthetic putty, and aluminum) the works reference animals, tools, architectural details, insects, toys, and vegetables and erase distinctions between these categorizations. Brought together into a non-linear arrangement through which the viewer moves in any possible direction, Jha’s sculptures are actors in a theatrical tableau where the visual representation of things are disconnected from any preconceived meanings.
About the Artist
Murari Jha (born 1988, Bihar) is a contemporary Indian artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, installation, and durational performance. Jha completed his BFA in Painting from Patna University in 2010 and his MFA in Painting in 2012 from Dr B.R. Ambedkar University, Agra, graduating as a Gold Medallist in both. In 2023, Nature Morte presented his solo exhibition Baggage from the Longest March at its Visant Vihar, New Delhi gallery. His works have been included in group exhibitions at the Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace, Jaipur (2024), the Mumbai Art Room (2018), the Italian Cultural Centre in New Delhi and the Clark House Initiative in Mumbai (both 2016), among other venues.
Durational performance remains central to Jha’s practice, with key presentations including A Magician from “The Longest March” (KNMA, 2023), Samay Pahaad Ho Gaya Hai (Kochi, 2022), Far from My Home: Machaan (Goethe-Institut, 2020), Good Sleep (Unidee/Inlaks, Italy, 2017), and Dhaan (Theertha International Artist Collective, Sri Lanka, 2017). In 2023, he was co-commissioned to present works with Samdani Art Foundation (Bangladesh), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (New Delhi) in the collaborative exhibition Very Small Feelings. He has participated in residencies with HH Art Spaces (Goa), Unidee/Inlaks (Italy), Theertha International Artist Collective (Sri Lanka), and 1Shanthiroad (Bangalore), among others.
Jha lives and works in Noida, a suburb of New Delhi.
Artworks
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