“Artists create art. A rare few redefine what art can do.
Manav Gupta’s back-to-back public art projects didn’t just shift the internal architecture and interface of Indian Contemporary Art — they redrew its geo-cultural map entirely.
Driven by undaunted courage, deep commitment, and a vision miles ahead of its time, his work opened doors that didn’t exist before — for artists, audiences, and the culture at large.”
Manav Gupta and the Architecture of Environmental Awakening
A critical essay on a sustained movement · 1996–present
There is a particular kind of stubbornness that distinguishes the visionary from the merely talented — a refusal to let the gallery wall be the final frontier of an idea. In the voluminous, philosophically charged oeuvre of Manav Gupta, born in Kolkata in 1967 and nurtured on the sylvan campus of the National Library, this stubbornness has taken the form of three unbroken decades of art-making inseparable from ecological urgency. Since his debut solo exhibition in the spring of 1996, Gupta has been elaborating a singular thesis: that the humble materials of Indian rural life — the fired earthen diya, the conical clay kullad, the modest chillum — carry within them the full weight of civilisational wisdom about sustainability, and that this wisdom can be decoded, amplified, and transmitted to the broadest possible public through the medium of contemporary installation art.
“I am simply walking the path of infinity with a life dedicated to art. If my humble drop in the ocean can help bring about the change in thinking that is so needed in today’s crass, commercialized, mechanized existence, it makes my artistic process that much more fulfilling.”
— Manav Gupta, Sculpture Magazine
This is, at first glance, a romantic proposition. But Gupta is not a romantic in the escapist sense. He is, if anything, a pragmatist of the spirit — someone who has consistently refused the luxuries of aesthetic self-enclosure.
The critical establishment has been generous, if sometimes bewildered, in its reception. “Maverick genius.” “One of India’s most erudite and versatile contemporary artists.” “Visionary.” These epithets are not entirely adequate to the task of describing what Gupta is doing. For his project is not primarily aesthetic — or rather, it is aesthetic in the deepest sense: perception, sensation, the act of fully feeling what is in front of you.
Consider the intellectual archaeology behind his masterwork series Excavations in Hymns of Clay. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s principle of object-as-idea, Gupta inverts the earthen diya — that most ubiquitous of India’s ritual objects — to transform it into a water droplet. The earthen lamp becomes the shrinking river. His tagline for the installation at the National Museum in Pretoria: “If you consider me sacred, I am the Ganga. Else I am merely water that flows.”
“I see art as a great leveller. The exchange of thoughts with thinkers, evolved humanitarians, students, and the masses has enriched my art and embellished it.”
— Manav Gupta, The Patriot
| 1996 |
The First Solo & The Artist’s Statement Gupta’s debut exhibition marks the founding gesture of the arth movement. He writes his artist’s statement rooted in rainforests, light, and ecological conscience — revisiting it annually for three decades. |
| 1997 |
arth – Art for Earth Movement Launched Gupta formally coins and launches arth — art for earth — predating the global boom in eco-art by nearly a decade. |
| 2003 |
Plant a Sapling on My Canvas The Ministry of Environment & Forests commissions Gupta to create one-minute environment films for national broadcast. He initiates ‘Plant a Sapling on My Canvas’ at his exhibitions. |
| 2009 |
Copenhagen Wall of Hope CNN commissions Gupta for the Copenhagen Climate Summit. His Wall of Hope reaches a global audience. |
| 2010 |
Tree of Life Mural — Airtel Campus, Gurgaon A five-storey-high indoor staircase mural involving thousands of non-artists. A landmark in participatory public art. |
| 2011 |
Bhutan–India Friendship Mural Commissioned by the Ministry of External Affairs. Now in the permanent collection of the BIFA Museum, Pheuntsholing. |
| 2013 |
Unsung Hymns of Clay — Pretoria, South Africa The Ditsong Museum of Natural History hosts Gupta’s Shrinking River installation. The Travelling Museum concept is born. |
| 2015 |
The Ganga Waterfront — India Habitat Centre, New Delhi 100,000 footfalls. A river conjured inside a city. Dialogues at the Waterfront launches as a structured interdisciplinary engagement series. |
| 2015–16 |
Ganga to Mississippi — United States Tour Gupta delivers the President’s Lecture at MCAD, Minneapolis, building bridges between two great river civilisations through art. |
| 2018 |
arth — IGNCA, Ministry of Culture, New Delhi 45×60×45 ft site-specific river installation punctuating 23 acres of heritage ground at 11 Mansingh Road. Arth Literary Festival launched. |
| 2019 |
Water — The New Gold, Bhubaneswar India’s first public art museum on water and sustainable development. Times of India notes ‘six most iconic and revolutionary art projects in India this decade.’ |
| 2020 |
A River Connects Us All — Cyber Hub, Gurugram Flash installation during the pandemic era — art as resilience, ecological consciousness as solidarity. |
| 2025 |
Sculpture Conference, International Sculpture Center — New York Gupta speaks at the International Sculpture Center’s conference, advancing global dialogue on environmental public art. |
Thousands of earthen diyas, kullads, and chillums massed into immersive landscapes of ecological metaphor. Each object is simultaneously a Vedic symbol and a contemporary argument about resource depletion and sustainable living.
A river conjured inside a city. 100,000 footfalls. The founding installation of the Dialogues at the Waterfront series — perhaps the most consequential work of environmental public art in contemporary India.
Travelling · 2014
Clay cups as the metaphor of Time’s limitedness — evoking philosophical contemplation about how civilisations use and exhaust the resources entrusted to them.
Travelling
The earthen lamp and pottery mutka arranged as the fragile shadow and penumbra of One Earth suspended in the universe — a meditation on planetary vulnerability.
Worldwide
An environmental statement about biodiversity and its crucial linkages to sustainable development, using the beehive as the master-symbol of ecological interdependence.
Ministry of Culture, 11 Mansingh Road, New Delhi · 2018
Site-specific installation punctuating 23 acres of heritage ground. Living trees incorporated into architecture. An ode to Mahatma Gandhi. Host site for the Arth Literary Festival.
Dialogues at the Waterfront — a 25-year-old process of engaging all stakeholders of society in meaningful conversations about climate change, environment consciousness and sustainable development, with Gupta’s public art as the bedrock
Industry experts, scientists, policy makers, economists, and artists in structured dialogue — transforming art spaces into civic forums.
“Art touches hearts. My work is my way of engaging people to reflect, act, and reimagine their relationship with nature.”
— Manav Gupta · World Environment Day, The Patriot, 2025
From schoolchildren in Delhi to graduate seminars at American art colleges, Manav Gupta’s outreach programmes take the arth movement beyond the gallery and into the living spaces of learning — on-site at installations and off-site at institutions across the globe.
Age-calibrated workshops for primary and secondary students — drawing, clay modelling, poetry, and environmental dialogue woven together. ‘Plant a Sapling on My Canvas’ programmes transform participation into living environmental art.
Cross-generational learning involving the rural potters who produce the clay objects at the heart of Gupta’s practice. Students encounter craft heritage, artisanal dignity, and living knowledge systems.
On-Site at Installations
I Artist-Led Walk & Talk
Gupta personally guides groups through the installation, decoding visual and material choices.
II Immersive Study Day
Full-day programme combining installation visit, artist dialogue, clay workshop, and poetry session.
III Dialogues at the Waterfront Event
Full interdisciplinary public programme — panel discussions, performances, literary recitations, meditation — with the installation as living stage and provocation.
Off-Site at Institutions
IV Keynote Lecture
A 60-minute illustrated lecture on the arth movement — its origins, philosophy, key works, and global resonance. Suitable for university convocations, environmental conferences, and cultural institutions.
V Masterclass & Studio Seminar
A 3-hour intensive for art, design, and architecture students — working through the conceptual processes behind major installations, with hands-on material exercises and critical discussion.
VI Arth Travelling Museum
A fully constituted exhibition brought to campus — mini-installations, prints, video works, and a catalogue — accompanied by a lecture series and student outreach programme over 2–3 weeks.
“Assembling everyday objects made by potters from across India to create huge installations that convey hope, passion, and the journey and transience of life.”
Sculpture Magazine
“India’s Soft Power.”
Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India
“One of India’s most erudite and versatile contemporary artists.”
International Institutions & Press
“To his credit, Manav has six most iconic and revolutionary art projects in India this decade.”
Times of India
“Pipped to be the next big thing in international art.”
Institutions & Press
“Gupta has emerged as a pioneer of environmental public art in India — admired for the quality, scale, depth, and philosophical evolution of his practice.”
The Patriot, World Environment Day, 2025
A record spanning three decades — from schoolrooms in Delhi to lecture halls in Minneapolis, from Cape Town museums to Nehru Centre London.
| Year | Engagement | Venue & Location | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2026 | Sustainability and Transformation | Worldmark, T3 Airport Area, Aerocity, New Delhi, India | India |
| Dec 2025 | Guest of Honour, Global Leadership Awards | New Delhi, India | India |
| 2024 | Jury Member, Annual All India Competition — Talk & Interaction with Students on Sustainable Development | JD Institute, India | India |
| Oct 2023 | Annual Gathering, International Sculpture Centre | New Jersey, USA | USA |
| Apr 2022 | Vernissage | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Dubai |
| Jul 2021 | HORASIS India Meeting — Promoting India’s Artistic Inspiration beyond COVID | India (Online) | Global |
| Nov 2020 | Online Lecture | Apeejay School (Online), India | India |
| May 2020 | Interview: Artist Manav Gupta Reflects on Covid-19 through His Art | India Ahead, India | India |
| Sep 2019 | Interview: Guftagoo | Doordarshan, India | India |
| Nov 2018 | Annual Guest Lecture | LPU University, Punjab, India | India |
| Nov 2018 | TEDx Talk | The Shriram Millennium School, Noida, UP, India | TEDx & Public |
| Oct 2018 | Interview: World’s First Ever Travelling Museum for Contemporary Public Art | Punjab Kesari, India | India |
| Sep 2018 | Interview: Arth – Art for Earth by Manav Gupta | Times of India | India |
| Jul 2018 | Lecture, IGNCA | Ministry of Culture, Govt of India, New Delhi | India |
| Apr 2018 | Artist Lecture | Gyanshree School, India | India |
| Mar 2018 | Talk | Brahma Kumari Centre, New Delhi, India | India |
| Mar 2018 | Interview: An Interview with an Eminent Artist and Thinker | Doordarshan, India | India |
| 2017 | Lecture, IGNCA | Ministry of Culture, Govt of India, New Delhi | India |
| Sep 2017 | Talk, WEF | New Delhi, India | India |
| Jun 2016 | Talk | Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Prince of Wales Museum), Mumbai, India | India |
| Nov 2015 | The President’s Lecture | Minneapolis College of Art & Design (MCAD), Minnesota, USA | USA |
| Nov 2015 | Forecast Public Lecture | Minnesota, USA | USA |
| Jun 2013 | Lecture | Lovell Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa | South Africa |
| Mar 2013 | Lecture | University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa | South Africa |
| Feb 2013 | Lecture | Ditsong Museum of Natural History, Pretoria, South Africa | South Africa |
| Mar 2013 | Lecture | UNISA (University of South Africa), Pretoria, South Africa | South Africa |
| Oct 2011 | TEDx Talk | Lingaya University, New Delhi, India | TEDx & Public |
| Oct 2010 | Lecture, Institute for Cultural Diplomacy | Berlin, Germany | Berlin |
| Sep 2010 | Lecture, Nehru Centre | London, United Kingdom | London |
| Sep 2010 | Workshop on Public Engagement: Green Entrepreneurship | San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA | USA |
| 2010 | Talk | Bank of India, New York, USA | USA |
| Aug 2007 | Talk | Bank Muscat, Muscat, Oman | Oman |
| 2005 | Exhibition at Rashtrapati Bhavan — Artist-led Curatorial Walks with Schools & Children | Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, India | India |
| 2004 | ‘Mass Teacher’ — School Students Invited, Workshop | India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India | India |
| 2004 | Talk & Workshop | Maruti Udyog, India | India |
| 2003 | ‘Plant a Sapling on My Canvas’ Outreach Programme | Park Hotel, New Delhi, India | India |
| 2002 | ‘Plant a Sapling on My Canvas’ Outreach Programme | Leela Palace, Bangalore, India | India |
| 2000 | Talk | Office of the Joint Secretary, HRD Ministry, Govt of India | India |
| 1999 | ‘India Awaiting – Timeless Metaphors of Dreams’ — Artist-led Curatorial Walk | Taj Palace, New Delhi, India | India |
| 1997 | ‘Freedom to be Different’ — Artist-led Curatorial Walk | Taj Bengal, Kolkata, India | India |
| 1996 | Artist-led Curatorial Walk | Birla Academy of Arts and Culture, Kolkata, India | India |
3 Decades 40+ Engagements 7+ Countries 2 TEDx Talks
Schools, colleges and universities. Teachers, Administrators, and Principals personally written to and invited, by Manav, for a curated walkthrough of his movement on sustainable development, environment consciousness and climate change. At each project. An education outreach programme. Consisting of live lectures, talks, workshops. Hundreds of thousands of students. Since 1996.
The artist’s public art thought experiments with his art’s engagement with Nature and Architecture, were executed by letting thousands of school children experience immersive and inclusive engagements with rain, river, trees, and the five elements.
College-student Interns from different disciplines were trained, briefed and divided into teams to share the learnings from the art as the artist took schools after schools for curated walks
Artist led walkthroughs as call to action with school students, educational institutions, colleges and universities to understand the depths of climate change and how art plays a role in education outreach and mass awareness.
“He’s been called the “maverick genius” by his critics. According to insiders, Manav Gupta is piped to be the next big thing in international art.
One of India’s most erudite and versatile contemporary artists, Manav Gupta has reinvented the language of clay by infusing true originality of thought and treatment in the humble produce of the potters wheel. With works sold by Christie’s, Bonham’s, Philip de Pury and in several private, corporate, and public collections, he is widely exhibited around the globe.
Recently Manav executed perhaps the two biggest solo commissioned artworks originating from India in the past few years: a world-record, five-floor, ten-thousand-square-foot mega mural at the corporate giant Airtel’s headquarters during which he invited thousands of employees to come and experience painting with him; and an Indo-Bhutan friendship mural of twenty-foot-high canvases in Bhutan.
His passion for public art is long standing—a striving of the thought and belief that embraces and explores the juxtaposition and dichotomy of the universality with the exclusively isolated, the iconic and iconoclastic.”
Apeejay School Panchsheel Park organised an event- ‘Resplendence The Virtual Art Exhibition-Journey Through Canvas’. Mrs. Ritu Mehta, Principal Apeejay School Panchsheel Park said, “Apeejay Panchsheel Park has taken a step forward in the virtual platform by organizing an art exhibition.”
The event started with a classical dance performed by the students of Apeejay Panchsheel Park. Mr. Manav Gupta, was the chief guest of the event. He is a renowned Artist, Founder & Creative Director of Earth Foundation. He is one of the top ten contemporary artists of India. “Art augments creativity, imagination and provides opportunities to children to think and express themselves independently while developing social awareness therefore resplendence exhibits the creative work of our students using the limited resources in this unconventional time of pandemic,” the principal said.
Quoting famous Spanish painter Pablo Picasso on the artist within every child, she said, “At this difficult time, art has come as a rescue for children. They can express their emotions in the form of colors and creativity. This event is an initiative for young buds to express themselves through colours on canvas and make them bloom in an aesthetic and joyful manner.” While unveiling a painting at the event, Manav Gupta proudly said that he is a part of Apeejay family. “Picasso said about the child in an artist and an artist in a child. When we grow up, we have to retain a child in us.”
Sharing his learnings from his journey of life, he said, “From challenges and sufferings, beauty and joy, innovation evolves. When you are not comfortable and you are hungry, you then seek your own path.”
“When I was a child and used to live in Kolkata, we used to study under the street lights due to load shedding. All these struggles have given me a great insight. It is a blessing in a way. When such challenges and tough times come, consider yourself as God’s child and a chosen one.”
“I believe that I was nurtured by nature. There is a lot to learn from nature. I always see nature as a laboratory of art,” he said. Giving suggestions to the blooming students to go outside and see trees. Have a chat with them and then sketch the trees, he said. It is such poetry and a wonderful sculpture. “My rainforest series is all about light and colour. Light is hope for me. The forests have a lot to teach us. There is a lot of darkness in the forest but there is always a light. So find it,” he said.
He asked the students to never see the obstacles, rather see what is beyond those obstacles. “Nothing can stop you if you are passionate, whatever be your challenge, face it and conquer it. Never give up.” he concluded. Further in the event, a tour of the 3D virtual exhibition was shown. The different art forms made by the students were shared before announcing the results.
You must be logged in to post a comment.