Sujata Bajaj concluded her exhibition ‘Spacescapes’ in Delhi presenting a cosmos-inspired body of abstract work
Renowned Indian artist Sujata Bajaj, who has long made Paris her home, returned to the capital with Spacescapes her first abstract solo exhibition in New Delhi in over sixteen years. The show also marks the first time she has presented the Spacescapes series anywhere in the world, making its debut in Delhi. Conceived as one of the most expansive and ambitious bodies of work of her career, the exhibition invites viewers into the visual and emotional vastness of the cosmos through monumental, colour-driven abstraction.
Spacescapes opened in New Delhi on January 29 at Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise de Delhi, and concluded after a 17-day run. The exhibition was presented by Alliance Française de Delhi and Institut Francais India under the patronage of the Embassy of France in India, reflecting Sujata’s long-standing cultural dialogue between India and France and her exploration of cosmic inspiration.
Spacescapes began not in a studio, but in the vastness of outer space or more precisely, with the images captured by the world’s most advanced telescopes
During the course of the exhibition, Sujata reflected on what it meant to bring Spacescapes to Delhi after such a long interval. For an artist who has spent decades between Paris and India navigating studios, exhibitions and audiences across countries the return to one of the cities that shaped her formative years carried a deeply personal resonance. Delhi, she acknowledged, was not merely another venue on the calendar; it was where her artistic language first gathered confidence and direction.
“Pune and Mumbai are where my artistic journey truly took shape. I have participated in many art fairs in Delhi, and this is not the first time I am holding a exhibition in the city, I presented my Ganapati exhibition here in 2016. I didn’t know what to expect this time, but the response to Spacescapes has been overwhelming in the most beautiful way. Every day, we received a good number of visitors, including many who returned more than once, as well as people who were simply curious. What touched me most was that they didn’t just walk through; they stayed, they engaged, they asked questions, and they shared their interpretations. That kind of sustained interest tells me that the work has connected. For an artist, that is the most rewarding feeling,” Sujata tells Media India Group, adding that she has been working on the Spacescapes series for the past six years.
For Sujata, the journey to Spacescapes began not in a studio, but in the vastness of outer space or more precisely, with the images captured by the world’s most advanced telescopes.
“In 2019, I happened to come across a NASA image taken from the Hubble telescope showing the Andromeda galaxy. I connected with the photograph without knowing what it actually was. The seed of Spacescapes was planted,” Sujata adds.
Sujata was born and schooled in Jaipur. Drawing and painting were not extracurricular pursuits but an integral part of everyday life. She later moved to Pune for higher education, earning both her BA and MA in Art and Painting from S.N.D.T. College, where she graduated First Class, First. Her academic engagement with art deepened further with a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from S.N.D.T. University, her doctoral research focusing on Indian tribal art. An important international dimension was added to her practice when she received the 1988–89 French Government Scholarship, which took her to Paris. There she studied at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts and worked at the studio of Claude Viseux, experiences that significantly broadened her artistic vocabulary and exposure to global modernism. Even during her formative years, her work showed a clear inclination toward abstraction rather than figurative realism, a direction that would continue to define her mature practice.
For viewers at Spacescapes in New Delhi, the effect was immersive and immediate
Her work has always bridged continents emotionally anchored in Indian sensibilities, technically informed by a European modernist language. But with Spacescapes, she embarked on a deeper reckoning with scale, asking: How can paint convey the immensity of space? How can brush and pigment capture wonder?
Over more than five years, Sujata allowed the cosmos to become her collaborator. Her canvases, developed between Paris, Dubai, and India other parts of the world, do not directly depict galaxies or nebulae. Instead, they interpret these references through layered colour fields, unstructured compositions and tonal transitions that create depth and a measured sense of spatial expanse.
For viewers at Spacescapes in New Delhi, the effect was immersive and immediate. Stepping into the gallery, one passed from the familiar threshold of everyday life into a visual field that suggested something larger, more elemental. Canvases dominated by limitless strokes of incandescent red, electric blue, molten gold and inky black seemed to pulse with the rhythms of distant cosmic phenomena stellar winds, expanding nebulae and luminous matter in motion.
Throughout the run of the exhibition, Sujata spoke of Spacescapes as a continuation rather than a culmination an ongoing dialogue between materiality, intuition, and the universal rhythm of things.Over the decades, Sujata has exhibited all over the world.
The exhibition reinforced her ongoing engagement, while drawing consistent visitor interest throughout its run. As it concluded the show reaffirmed her position within contemporary art and her continued artistic dialogue between India and France.
Alongside the exhibition, Sujata also unveiled a comprehensive monograph titled Spacescapes, published by Gallery Art & Soul, Namtech Fine Art and Galerie Patrice Trigano. The volume features over 100 full-colour plates along with essays by prominent figures including astrophysicist David Elbaz and art critic Girish Shahane, situating the series at the intersection of art, science and philosophy. It also carries rare reflections from leading artistic voices, including a tribute by M. F. Husain, who described Sujata as “the best colourist that India has.”