Architect and artist Mansi Trehan presents Sehrā-e-ret – The Dancing Dunes, a solo exhibition of paintings with a preview on Saturday, January 3rd 2026 from 6pm to 9pm at Kalamkar Gallery, Bikaner House, India Gate, New Delhi. The exhibition will be open to the public from January 4th to January 7th 2026 between 11am and 7pm.
The preview evening will be graced by Chief Guest Prof KT Ravindran, former Dean and Head of Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture and Guest of Honor Padmashri Geeta Chandran, renowned classical dancer. Their presence brings together the disciplines of architecture movement and visual art that lie at the heart of the exhibition.
The exhibition brings together 31 paintings using acrylic medium on wooden boards and canvas. Deeply informed by her architectural practice Mansi uses the ‘patti’ a rectangular metal sheet commonly used in construction to apply wall putty as her primary painting tool. This distinctive process allows her to build layered textures and tactile surfaces making the act of painting inseparable from her background as an architect and lending each work a strong material presence.
Sehrā-e-ret – The Dancing Dunes explores the physical nature of the Indian desert and its entwined relationship with the lives of the people who inhabit it. Inspired by the shifting winds and sands of Jodhpur and Jaisalmer the works reflect a landscape that is constantly moving, changing and responding. The desert is portrayed not as a static geography but as a living force shaped by memory erosion and renewal. For Mansi each canvas becomes a quiet conversational journey expressed with softness and sensitivity.
This body of work emerges from Mansi Trehan’s long engagement with space, rhythm and movement. With over eighteen years of architectural practice, she approaches painting through a process of layering experience, texture and emotion. Her preference for wooden boards including reused bases of architectural models stems from a strong tactile relationship with material and a desire to work on surfaces that already carry history and energy.
Speaking about the exhibition, Mansi Trehan says, “The desert has a quiet power. It is always moving yet deeply still. As we walk through life, we leave traces behind and sometimes the wind preserves them and sometimes it erases them. My paintings reflect that dialogue between memory, time and the inner self.”
The exhibition also reflects the spirit of Rajasthan and its people, particularly the women of the desert. Their strength, beauty and emotional richness find expression in the colours and movement across the canvases. The vibrant hues echo the warmth and abundance women bring to the arid landscape creating life and meaning amidst restraint.
Sehrā-e-ret, The Dancing Dunes invites viewers into a contemplative space where landscape becomes metaphor and texture becomes memory. Through abstraction and material exploration the exhibition encourages stillness, introspection and a deeper connection with the inner emotional world.
