Ojas Art presents Bloom at Dusk, an exhibition celebrating the artistic flowering of Jodhaiya Bai Baiga (1937–2024), one of India’s most remarkable contemporary indigenous artists. Beginning her artistic journey later in life, Jodhaiya Bai transformed hardship, cultural memory and ecological wisdom into a powerful and luminous body of work. Featuring more than 50 paintings, the exhibition honours her visionary legacy and expansive creative imagination.
In the quiet forests of Umaria in Madhya Pradesh, Jodhaiya Bai rose like a bright flame, turning a lifetime of struggle into a radiant artistic vision. After years spent gathering firewood, collecting forest produce and working as a labourer to support her family, she stepped into a new life as an artist in her late sixties. With gentle guidance from artist Ashish Swami (1962–2021), who established an arts centre near her home, she discovered her creative voice, first shaping clay and painting on gourds and papier mâché plaques and eventually blossoming into a painter known for her luminous acrylic works on paper and canvas.
Bloom at Dusk invites viewers into the radiant world she conjured, a world shaped by sacred imagery, Baiga cosmology and the forests of her childhood. Her works pulse with divine beings, ancestral spirits, human figures, ritual dancers and forest creatures, all woven into a living, mythic tapestry. The sacred mahua tree, Lord Bholenath and Baghesur, the tiger god, appear as recurring motifs that reflect her deep connection to the land and its spiritual ecology.
Her vision was not only celebratory but also keenly observant. In works such as The Burning of Bandhavgarh, she responded to rising forest fires and environmental loss, giving form to ecological concerns with clarity and emotional resonance. Bold and dynamic, her compositions move beyond the decorative and emerge as contemporary reflections rooted in ancestral knowledge.
Honoured with the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2022 and the Padma Shri in 2023, Jodhaiya Bai Baiga stands as a testament to creativity awakening at any age. Her art has travelled internationally, including exhibitions in Milan, Paris and New Delhi, offering global audiences a profound encounter with Baiga cultural imagination. Her paintings endure as songs of resilience — vibrant, intuitive and inseparable from the sacred world that shaped her.
“Jodhaiya Bai Baiga transforms memory into living color, painting the ancient pulse of the Baiga people into every stroke. Her work stands as a triumphant testament to resilience, ancestral wisdom, and the limitless power of self-taught imagination.” said Minhazz Majumdar, curator of the exhibition.
“We are very excited to present Jodhaiya Bai Baiga’s first major solo retrospective show. I wish it had happened in her lifetime, but better late than never.” said Anubhav Nath, director of Ojas Art.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication.
This exhibition is presented in association with Ashish Swami Centre for Arts and Ramchander Nath Foundation.
- Opening: January 23, 2026 |Ojas Art, New Delhi
- Exhibition continues till March 11, 2026
- Closed on Mondays
- Curated by Minhazz Majumdar
