New gallery Rajiv Menon Contemporary brings contemporary South Asian and diasporic art to Los Angeles, wallpaper, March 3 2025
Chitra Ganesh, World Building Event, 2025. Mixed media on paper, 18 × 12 inches.
'Exhibitionism', the inaugural showcase at Rajiv Menon Contemporary gallery in Hollywood, examines the boundaries of intimacy
BY AASTHA D
Exhibitionism, the inaugural showcase at Rajiv Menon Contemporary' s new flagship gallery in Hollywood, delves into the intricate terrain of privacy, visibility, and the fluid boundaries of intimacy. Through works that navigate the erotic, the domestic, the personal, and the fantastical, the featured artists reflect on the duality of being seen-examining both the allure and the discomfort of attention. The South Asian artists grapple with the delicate line between public exposure and private desire, exploring a complex relationship with visibility in the age of attention.
'For the inaugural exhibition, I wanted to take on something that is deeply universal while centring South Asian diasporic perspectives. Exhibitionism raises larger questions about what gets to be exhibited, by whom, how, and where,' says gallery founder Rajiv Menon. The show opens with a striking, to-scale painting of Tipu's Tiger-a sixfoot- long musical automaton depicting a tiger mauling an English soldier, now housed in the V &A Museum-by Bhasha Chakrabarti. Known for reclaiming objects taken from India that now reside in British institutions, Chakrabarti' s work is a direct confrontation with colonial power dynamics. Elsewhere, her self-portrait mid-orgasm Strange Ecstasy, visible from the street, unsettles the fragile boundary between public and private. Here, intimacy is both confrontation and spectacle, asking: When does vulnerability become excess? Who dictates its terms? And what happens when desire-so often commodified-refuses to soften under the consumer's gaze, instead demanding to be reckoned with?
The 19 featured artists range from emerging voices to established figures, including Chitra Ganesh, Sunil Gupta, and Jagannath Panda-artists collected by MoMA, SFMOMA, the Whitney, Tate Britain, and more. Tarini Sethi arrives fresh off her Vortic Prize win at Untitled Miami, while Mustafa Mohsin, Faiza Butt, and Joya Mukerjee Logue make their West Coast debut, and Raghav Babbar presents his first commercial gallery exhibition in the United States.