Dhara Mehrotra | Skies Beneath The Feet - - Exhibitions

Dhara Mehrotra

Laminae II, 2026

31 Ø

Acrylic and ink on canvas

Aicon Contemporary is pleased to present Skies Beneath the Feet, Dhara Mehrotra’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.

What lies beneath our feet is often imagined as silent, inert ground—a stable foundation upon which life unfolds. Yet beneath every step exists an intricate world of exchange: a living architecture of roots, fungal networks, minerals, microbes, moisture, and memory. Skies Beneath the Feet turns our attention toward this hidden cosmos, proposing that the earth below us possesses the same immeasurable depth, complexity, and mystery that we instinctively associate with the sky above.

Across a new body of paintings and works on paper, Dhara Mehrotra continues her exploration of ecological intelligence, inviting us to consider landscapes not as fixed terrains but as dynamic fields of relation. Her practice draws from the invisible systems that sustain life—those delicate networks through which matter, energy, and information circulate across organisms and environments. Rather than depicting these systems literally, the works evoke them through abstraction, where gesture, material, and layered surfaces become metaphors for unseen processes of becoming.

Dhara Mehrotra

Laminae V, 2026

36 Ø

Acrylic and ink on cavnas

At the heart of the exhibition is Laminae, a series of large circular canvases whose forms suggest both geological cross-sections and celestial bodies. The title refers to the thin layers that compose living and mineral structures—fragile membranes through which nutrients, signals, and histories pass. Built through translucent accumulations of acrylic and ink, these paintings emerge slowly, allowing one layer to settle into another until depth is generated not through illusion but through sedimentation. They become visual meditations on the quiet intelligence embedded within soil: a place where roots sense, fungi communicate, bacteria negotiate, and countless forms of life participate in an ongoing choreography of exchange.

The circular format further unsettles distinctions between the terrestrial and the cosmic. What appears as an aerial view of the earth may also resemble an astronomical body, collapsing scales of perception and suggesting that the microscopic and the planetary are governed by similar principles of rhythm, pattern, and interdependence. The paintings ask us to linger, to read surfaces attentively, and to recognize that every visible landscape is held together by innumerable invisible strata.

Dhara Mehrotra

Resonance II, 2026

11h x 15w in.

Jute fiber, gold and ink on archival paper

Complementing the canvases is Resonance, a series of works on archival paper constructed from jute fibre, ink, and gold leaf. Here, fibre becomes both material and metaphor, tracing delicate networks that evoke pathways of transmission, regeneration, and connection. Gold is employed not as ornament but as a subtle register of encounter—a luminous residue marking moments where invisible exchanges briefly become perceptible. These works exist in a state of quiet emergence, balancing fragility with endurance, openness with cohesion. They suggest that continuity is never static, but continually woven through acts of contact and transformation.

Throughout Skies Beneath the Feet, Mehrotra offers an expanded understanding of landscape—one that extends beyond the visible surface to encompass the hidden infrastructures that sustain ecological life. Her works resist spectacle in favour of sustained attention, inviting viewers into a slower mode of looking where abstraction becomes a means of sensing relationships that evade direct observation.

The exhibition ultimately proposes a shift in perspective: that wonder need not be sought only in distant horizons or celestial expanses, but may also be found beneath us, within the layered worlds that quietly uphold existence. The ground itself becomes a cosmos—one composed of innumerable acts of exchange, memory, and resilience. In recognising these hidden terrains, Skies Beneath the Feet asks us to reconsider our place within an ecology where every surface conceals another sky.