KYNKYNY, a leading Bengaluru contemporary art gallery, debuts in Mumbai at Horniman Circle with “The Urban Biome,” curated by co-founder Vivek Radhakrishnan. Featuring artists like Krisha Bhuva, Hemanth Kumar Mavuri and others, the show examines how human habits, objects and living beings co-create complex urban ecologies in contemporary India’s domestic and public spaces.
KYNKYNY, one of Bengaluru's leading contemporary art galleries, opened its first gallery in Mumbai at Horniman Circle, marking a significant milestone in its journey of championing contemporary Indian art. Founded in 2004 by Namu Kini and Vivek Radhakrishnan, the gallery expands to the city with its inaugural exhibition, 'The Urban Biome,' bringing together a dynamic roster of contemporary artists, including Krisha Bhuva, Hemanth Kumar Mavuri, Sunil K, N.Divya, Simran Yagyik and Nivedita Shinde curated by Vivek Radhakrishnan.
This exhibition explores the relationships between humans and the environments they inhabit, both indoors and out. The spaces we occupy are not merely arrangements of walls, volumes and surfaces, but living constellations shaped by objects, structures, habits and the many forms of life that coexist within them.
Things rarely exist in isolation. Objects gather around other objects, spaces acquire particular rhythms, and patterns emerge through acts of intention, neglect, efficiency, convenience or chance. A carefully arranged cupboard and the organic growth of a neighbourhood are not entirely different phenomena; both reveal the ways in which human behaviour leaves traces and gives form to the world around us. In turn, these environments begin to shape us. The order or disorder of a desk, a room, a street or a city influences how we think, move and relate to one another, even as these spaces are themselves products of our desires, anxieties and routines.
Seen in this way, the inanimate takes on the qualities of a character. Objects, structures and landscapes enter into relationships with one another, generating narratives that unfold quietly through proximity, accumulation and use. Humans are only one set of actors within this larger cast, continuously influencing and being influenced by the worlds they create.
Yet these environments are never exclusively human. They are shared with plants, animals and countless other living beings that respond to the conditions around them and, in turn, alter them. Together, these interdependent relationships form a kind of urban biome—an intricate ecology shaped by cultural, social and economic forces, and one that is particularly complex within the context of contemporary India.
Through these works, the exhibition invites us to observe the subtle exchanges between the sentient and the inanimate, between individuals and systems, and between the spaces we construct and those that ultimately construct us.
N.Divya
A graduate from MS University Vadodara and a member of The Collective Studio Baroda, Divya N is an artist who believes that her own life history has been kept alive through personal articles handed down from loved ones. This includes garments, beloved objects from a home, furniture that has been refurbished and re-housed, utensils, bric-a-brac, mementos, and others. Divya finds solace in viewing them as an archive, a museum of memory, matrilineal and feminist family data, and second skins in which she can find protection.
Hemanth Kumar
Hemanth Kumar is a printmaking artist from Baroda, India. Having received his MFA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University Baroda, Kumar’s work grows out of personal experiences, memories, and the constant changes that shape one's identity over time. Through printmaking, he explores the relationship between his past and present self, often introspecting on transformation, inner conflict, and the emotions that accompany personal growth.
Krisha Bhuva
An MS University Vadodara graduate currently based in Gujarat, Krisha Bhuva is a visual artist whose visual narratives challenge societal norms around the female body. Her practice is rooted in the graceful movements of birds, the softness of organic textures, and the timeless beauty of the feminine form. Bhuva’s recent work explores the interplay between fabric and skin, seeing nude self-portraits as a vehicle for self-expression. Her artwork celebrates vulnerability and autonomy, establishing her as a steadfast voice in the landscape of contemporary Indian art.
Nivedita Shinde
A trained architect and artist, Shinde’s work expands her empathy across divisions of race, gender, class, caste, nationality and species. Her art studio and practice comes from the material and spatial knowledge she gained on the field as an architect, resulting in shifting, experimental works. Nivedita moves between realistic painting, loose drawing, stitching, printing, writing, using ink, graphite, oil paint, found and organic materials, fabric, metal and wood, as and when needed. Her works urges the viewer to celebrate the present, in the fleeting ‘now.’
Simran Yagnik
Simran Yagyik is an artist from Punjab whose artworks and paintings explore the unnoticed flow of daily life, where familiar patterns loop and linger. It observes the push and pull between ease and restlessness. Through gestures, objects, and overlooked corners of the home, she explores the emotional weight of the ordinary- where beauty, discomfort, and reflection quietly coexist. Simran holds an M.V.A. in Printmaking from MS University of Baroda, Vadodara, where she earned the prestigious Prof. V.S. Patel Gold Medal in Printmaking.
Sunik K
Having graduated from the College of Fine Arts, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath with a BVA in Painting, Sunil K is an artist who works across painting, printmaking, and photography. Using gouache as his primary medium, Sunil’s art comes from a deep place of isolation and domesticity. He uses interiors to explore the lives of insects and creatures who share them with us, studying the subtle tensions of this diverse coexistence. His work studies how we navigate emotional spaces and create meaning within the environments we inhabit.
KYNKYNY is a contemporary Indian art gallery committed to advancing significant artistic practices and shaping meaningful conversations around art. Over the past two decades, the gallery has built a programme that balances emerging voices with established artists, guided by the belief that enduring careers are created through thoughtful representation, curatorial rigour, and sustained engagement. Every exhibition is conceived as part of a larger dialogue, one that situates artists within the evolving landscape of contemporary Indian art while connecting their work to wider cultural and global contexts.
Questions of ecology and landscape, identity, memory and cultural inheritance, the urban condition, politics, and abstraction recur throughout the programme, not as fixed themes but as evolving conversations led by artists themselves.
Alongside its exhibition programme, KYNKYNY works closely with private collectors, architects, designers, corporations, and institutions to build collections with depth, relevance, and longevity.
Rooted in India and engaged with an Indian and international audience, KYNKYNY continues to champion artists whose work expands how we see, question, and understand the world around us.