Ceramic expert Vimu Sanghvi was a potter and a pioneer. One of India’s leading studio pottery artists, she often said that pottery “keeps her alive”. But the reverse was equally true: a female artist who attempted to keep art relevant at a time when the medium was not as popular.
Trained in England and based in Bombay, where he performed extensively, his repertoire is little known. But a retrospective approach is now helping to bridge that gap. Whispering Clay: Celebrating Life in CeramicsHis showcase, which opened in Mumbai earlier this year, is headed to Kochi for the sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The show is a fluid exhibition of a master artist who worked with equal proficiency in wheel throwing, slip casting, carving and incising and sculptural forms.
Vimu Sanghvi is driving
Vimu Sanghvi with one of his creations
As her son, journalist and author Vir Sanghvi recalls, her ‘brilliant passion’ was the story of a woman who transcended the limits of her time and technical perfection. Vimu experimented with scale, moved away from the pastels of Western pottery to create indigenous clay glazes, extended his British pedagogy towards Indian silhouettes and figures, and established his unique repertoire at a time when the Progressive Art Movement was spreading throughout Bombay.
An exhibition of ceramics of Vimu Sanghvi
learning from the modernists
The idea of ​​making pottery first attracted Vimu as a young mother living in South Bombay. The daughter of a wealthy Gujarati industrialist (born in 1920), she chose formal training at the Willesden Art School in England in the 50s.
In the early 60s, with an imported wheel and kiln from which she set up a studio in Churchgate, Vimu became involved in the modern art movement of the time – seeing the first outlines of modernist painting being defined in India and trying to do the same in her own work. As her hands mastered clay, she moved toward abstract expressionism, the Cubist style she observed among the progressive people of Bombay, and toward forms that were not always utilitarian, influenced by her extensive travels in America and Europe. Christine Michael, Curator whispering soilsays that “he had a direct influence on the development of early studio pottery and ceramic art in Mumbai – be it alongside his contemporaries like Primula Pandit, as well as artisans like BR Pandit and Ismail Kumbhar”.
In this bright terracotta piece, Vimu shows her mastery at molding clay into a form that feels familiar and yet unusual. She is also known for mastering multicolored glazes – an alchemy where various oxides react in the kiln to produce colors on the surface.
His travels influenced his works. Inspired by Inca pottery, which combined sculptural forms with utilitarian spouts, Wimu created playful, colorful vessels.
Vimu demonstrates her skill in wheel running by creating shapes that slightly break the perfect profile we have come to expect in pottery shapes. Therefore, every angle had a different shape.
A distinctive Indian aesthetic
Her work with traditional potters in Dharavi, who prepared the clay and created bisque pieces, and teaching work at the JJ School of Art also influenced her decision to turn to India for inspiration. From his choice of colors to his motifs – sometimes taken from religious or indigenous communities and the local landscape, such as Rangoli Design and Ajanta-style swans – he created a path that was entirely his own.
Her final burst of creativity came from the Arabian Sea, which she saw daily, incorporating coral elements and sea-based textures. In 1983, when he exhibited his work at the Jahangir Art Gallery (incidentally, where he had held his first exhibition in 1962), some of the pieces were completely different from his earlier work; Almost sculptural, he combined manufactured clay and wheel work.
Coiling is a technique in which clay is formed into long rope-like shapes and then stacked in layers, allowing the potter to create sculptural forms.
from his last series by the seaThe work is both intricate and textured, inspired by her love of the ocean.
Detail of glazed stoneware from the Figurative period of Vimu – the first studio potter in India with advanced skills to make these ceramics.
Stoneware that demonstrates his mastery of form, glaze and technique.
whispering soil All this is in focus: his idea of ​​everyday beauty, the influence of artists such as the Japanese master potter Soetsu Yanagi, his ability to bridge East and West. It is a lesson in experimentation and exploration for studio potters today.
Whispering Clay: Celebrating a Life in Ceramics – curated by Christine Michael and moderated by Ranveer Shah, Prakriti Foundation, and Raj and Mallika Sanghvi – can be seen at OED Gallery, Mattancherry.
The author is Founder-Director of Eka Archiving Services.
While in KMB
The sixth edition will showcase the works of 66 artists and groups from 25 countries across 22 venues. Here are six that the KMB team is excited about:
‘Of Worlds Within Worlds’ by Ghulam Mohammed Shaikh
Curated by Rubina Karode, the retrospective traces the painter’s artistic evolution, from early expressions of personal memory to monumental works that celebrate humanity and critically examine global and contemporary politics. The showcase will feature over a hundred selected works from the museum’s collection and on loans from other institutions and private collections.
Presented by Kiran Nadar Art Museum at Durbar Hall
Ibrahim Mahama’s ‘Parliament of Ghosts’
The large-scale installation explores Ghana’s colonial past, post-independence conflict and collective memory, using a macabre assemblage of discarded objects such as jute sacks (a material once used to transport cocoa beans and charcoal, a material deeply linked to the country’s history of labor and commodity dependency), scrapped school furniture and faded railway sleepers. Also incorporating painting, sculpture, photography and film, it highlights the history and memories of Ghana and its people.
Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama Photo Credit: Getty Images
at Anand Warehouse
Marina Abramovic’s demonstration lecture
The US-based conceptual artist is all set to deliver a performance lecture that traces his artistic journey. But until his arrival in February, his presence at KMB will be marked by his immersive projection waterfall and a presentation of the Marina Abramovic Institute (MAI) Archive – which will highlight a collection of long-term works and their associated documents. Waterfall is a video installation depicting 108 Tibetan monks and nuns chanting the Heart Sutra, one of the most profound scriptures of Buddhism.
Marina Abramovic | Photo Credit: Getty Images
First week of February, at Island Warehouse
Vivaan Sundaram’s ‘Six Stages of Life’
The installation debuted at the Sharjah Biennale in 2023, shortly after the artist’s death. It includes a sequence of photography-based works created in collaboration with artists such as Hilal Ahmed Khan, Anita Khemka, Imran Kokilu and Harish Khanna – focusing on the body, whether in isolation or in relation to an environment with specific political resonance.
Vivaan Sundaram
at Cube Arts Space
Garden of Otobong Nkanga
The Belgium-based visual artist and tapestry maker examines the interconnectedness between humans and the land in the context of resource extraction, colonization and migration. At KMB, she will nurture an outdoor garden that will reflect the region’s biodiversity – native and non-native varieties of fruit and flowering plants – and the deep connection between soil and cultural memory.
Nigerian artist Ottobong Nkanga | Photo Credit: Getty Images
111 Markaz & Cafe in Mattancherry
island reef project
A new initiative of the Kochi Biennale Foundation, this project brings art to public spaces in conversation with communities and regional history. In the first edition, artists and collectives such as Arwani Art Project, Munir Kabani, Osheen Shiva, Pradeep Das and Trespassers will create murals on selected walls, creating space for connection, reflection and shared engagement – ​​inviting everyone to experience the neighborhood in a new light.
Beyond Fort Kochi and Mattancherry