Ramesh Darji: Inside his Indian Period
An immersive multimedia exhibition revealing the paintings, sketches, tools, travel imagery and stories behind one of India's most evocative artists of the 20th Century.
The Darji Expression Gallery is preparing to open a new exhibition at Riverside Mill, Congleton, exploring one of the most distinctive and formative chapters in the career of artist Ramesh Darji: his Indian Period.
More than a traditional gallery display, Ramesh Darji: Inside his Indian Period will bring together original paintings, working sketches, personal tools, travel imagery and short documentary-style films to reveal the journey behind the work. Visitors will be able to experience a selection of Darji’s Indian Period paintings alongside the materials, memories and visual references that shaped them — from his original sketches to photographs and drawings inspired by his travels through Rajasthan.
Travelling through Rajasthan for the world-renowned Taj Magazine, Darji became captivated by the life around him: dancers, musicians, craftspeople, desert communities, flowing fabrics, turbans, jewellery, birds, palaces and forts. But rather than follow the established artistic routes of the time, he made a striking choice. While many artists were working in bold colour or mythological and religious imagery, Darji turned instead to black Indian ink on white paper, using texture, line and movement to capture real people and real life.
His Indian Period works became known for their intricate black-and-white figurative narratives: large, expressive compositions filled with rhythm, atmosphere and human presence. The Rajasthani people were not treated as decorative subjects, but as living figures full of dignity, motion and emotion. Darji’s rejection of colour was not a limitation, but a statement. He believed black and white could better honour the “rough and tough life” of Rajasthan, allowing the texture, heat, hardship and beauty of the landscape and its people to come through with greater force.
With his breakout exhibition in 1984, he became one of India’s most celebrated artists of the time period. “There is a narrative quality about Darji's work. Each picture touches and sparks off a story, finally, blazes a trail through one's layers of awareness, drawing out a pleasing traveller's tale in fabled Rajasthan.”- Lakshmi Lai
The exhibition will also explore the visual motifs that recur throughout Darji’s work, including horses, dancers, musicians, doves and pigeons. For Darji, birds created movement, sound, rhythm and space within a painting, while horses represented elegance, strength, anatomy and speed. These themes began in India and continued to evolve across his later Dutch, English and Fusion works.
The Fusion element of the exhibition will show how Darji later returned to his roots after moving to England, where contact with Asian communities helped revive the black-and-white language of his Indian Period. In these later works, Eastern and Western influences began to merge: Indian figures, Western settings, mixed-media textures, real fabrics, jewellery, colour accents and abstract backgrounds all came together in a new visual language.
A key feature of the exhibition will be its multimedia format. Alongside the physical works, visitors will access to short films that explore Darji’s history, his journey as an artist, and the techniques behind his Indian Period style.
The gallery will also recreate part of the artist’s working world, with a display featuring original sketches, and a display of his work in situ. A screen installation will show photographs and sketches connected to Darji’s travels through Rajasthan, allowing visitors to see the places, people and visual impressions that fed into the paintings.
Ramesh Darji: Inside his Indian Period invites visitors to step beyond the finished frame and discover the story behind the line — the journeys, decisions, memories and materials that shaped one of the most powerful periods of Darji’s artistic life.
Gallery curator Mike Fryatt said: “The Darji Expression Gallery has been working hard to archive Ramesh Darji’s incredible story and works of art. We’re excited to bring a new type of exhibition to Congleton that really dives into the beginning of that story and show it in a way that’s not been done before.”
Discover the beauty of Darji’s work at Riverside Mill, Congleton on Saturday 27th June 2026, open 10am-6pm. There will also be an opening night on Friday 26th June 2026, 6:30pm-9:30pm. All are welcome. Entry is free and free parking is available.
Further details can be found on the Facebook event page here: https://fb.me/e/jWX7WXw1S
