This exhibition brings together new works by Icelandic artists who recently stayed at the Kriti Residency in Varanasi, India. Artist residencies are retreats for research and creativity, but they are also centers for the exchange of ideas and experiences in response to a new environment. Founded in 2007 by Navneet Raman and Petra Manefeld, Kriti offers artists time and space for contemplation and work in one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in human history. Kriti serves as a kind of base camp for immersion into the many realms of Varanasi, a spiritual city known as the “abode of the gods” in the Hindu faith, with its many temples, shrines, and statues devoted to fervent worship, and a city of mortals, vibrant with life in the streets and mourning the dead at the cremation pyres along the River Ganga.

The exhibition will mark the culmination of the Icelanders journey to this singular place, their minds open to how an experience of the ancient holy city, steeped in history, with its particular light, intense color, and sensorial atmosphere might work its way into their artistic practices.