A haveli can be a continuum of heritage, a receptacle of experiences, memories and stories passed down generations. In Indian-American artist Joya Mukerjee Logue’s 30 oil and watercolour paintings — a part of ‘those who walk before me’, her first solo exhibition in India, on view at Vadehra Art Gallery in New Delhi till September 17 — there’s a sense of entering a time capsule. But this is not the nostalgic artefact one might expect. Instead, it’s a vibrant living space, where history is interlaced with identity and memory.
The paintings have a common muse: Rajo Villa, her paternal ancestral home in Ambala, Haryana, where she spent most of her time as a child during her visits to India. Her ancestors migrated from Behala, now a suburb of Kolkata, to Ambala in 1845 to help build a cantonment for the colonial rulers.
