With  Studio Practice, we enter the archives in search of the studio of Mrinalini Mukherjee. This exhibition, the first of many that explore the collections in the Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation Archive, becomes a way of moving with the artist through the places she worked, the artists she encountered, the residencies and institutions she engaged with, and the works that emerged in between. In doing so, we begin to see the archive not only as a site of retrospection but as a space of return where process, memory, and material remain active and where Mukherjee’s legacy continues to unfold, shaped as much by her world as by those who now encounter it anew.  

An artist's practice is often inseparable from the sphere it emerges from—the world of materials, processes, influences, and relationships centered in and around a studio. For Mrinalini Mukherjee, the studio appears, through the traces in her archive, not simply as a space of art making, but as a realm she continually pushed and stretched to meet the shifting demands of her expansive practice. It held not only the scale and complexity of her sculptures, but also the eclectic materials, foraged objects, and references she gathered around her; whether tools, textures, or fragments that fed into her evolving forms. In these images and records, we glimpse a space that was continuously adapted, improvised, and reimagined. Perhaps the studio lives on not only in what it held, but in how it enabled her to work, think, and experiment, offering the possibility to read it anew with each encounter. Through the archives, its resonance extends far beyond its once physical walls, inviting fresh interpretations of the spaces she moulded, and of Mrinalini Mukherjee herself, as an artist, collaborator, and individual deeply rooted in the practice she fervently pursued.

The Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation’s Archive houses a remarkable collection of over 2,380 records, documenting Mrinalini’s pioneering career as one of India’s most significant sculptors. The physical archive offers a closer glimpse into her life and practice, encompassing photo documentation of her monumental fiber, ceramic, and bronze sculptures, detailed installation instructions, and other works that illuminate her creative process. The archive also opens windows into her personal and professional realms—letters exchanged with peers like Bhupen Khakhar and Nilima Sheikh, travel photographs with her architect husband Ranjit Singh, and a treasure trove of documents related to her parents, legendary artists Benode Behari Mukherjee and Leela Mukherjee.

The digital archive offers a way to experience Mukherjee’s practice as a multifaceted journey, shifting between materials and methods: from rope to bronze, botanical forms to architectural scale, folk to contemporary vocabularies, resisting any singular interpretation. It is from this oeuvre, a vast array of objects has surfaced —be it the letters, postcards, travel artifacts, photographs, negatives, contact sheets, books, and other material objects, each carrying its own context and narrative. Over the past few years, these fragments have been carefully cataloged and digitized, gaining new layers of meaning and purpose within the ever-expanding realm of ideas and interpretations in the art world.

Thus, the notion of the studio persists as a space that continually shifts, expands, and redefines itself. Through Studio Practice, we invite you to examine what a studio looks like when pieced together through images and documents. The stories that emerge when materials, tools, and traces of process are reassembled and drawn back to life. Discover from over 240 personal records, 350 correspondences, a vibrant collection of postcards, and hundreds of various ephemeras and publications in our repository— how personal and public histories intersect when the boundaries of the studio dissolve, as memories and materials blend with the traces of life and thought and Mukherjee's enduring legacy continues to evolve.

Welcome to the archives of Mrinalini Mukherjee.

Photographs from Mukherjee’s early studios, particularly the Barsati and later Khirki, capture her not only in the process of art-making but in moments of post-production, as she consciously experimented with how her sculptures might be seen, encountered, and experienced.She installed and suspended her works, playing with their spatial presence within the constrained studios. There is a sense of deliberate staging in these images: the floors are swept, the spaces cleared, the sculptures composed with care for the camera. These studios became immersive environments- precursors to the gallery- wherein Mukherjee intuitively choreographed how her work would be perceived. Through her own lens, and that of her husband Ranjit Singh, Mrinalini staged and documented  the acts of tying knots, adjusting light, and framing—each an experiment in viewership, an exercise in evoking awe through arrangement and atmosphere. Hundreds of contact sheets and negatives reveal how she turned to photography to simulate the viewer’s gaze and study her forms from multiple angles.  In these images, one sees a deep awareness not only of material, but of its eventual reception with each installation experimnt an intimate rehearsal in exhibition-making.

In the coming days, Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation will continue to revisit and expand upon these threads through public programs, conversations, and workshops. Stay tuned for updates.