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Strangers in a Strange Land brings together works by Anjana Mehra and Vinod Ray Patel, from the 1970s and 1980s – two artists who used drawing to imagine worlds that feel at once intimate and unfamiliar.
VR Patel’s drawings unfold through intricate lines and tonal hatching that give rise to hybrid creatures, floating figures and curious environments. Patel’s images move between the sensual, the whimsical and the satirical. As K. G. Subramanyan wrote of his work, Patel possessed “a many-sided graphic ability that can give form to various shades of experience, ranging from the full-bloodedly sensual to the witty and the sarcastic.”
Anjana Mehra’s drawings emerge from a very different process. Working primarily in graphite, she builds dense fields of pigment before slowly erasing into them, allowing fragile forms to surface from darkness. In her work, fragments of driftwood, coral, bone-like structures and distant horizons, appear suspended in vast, atmospheric spaces. Critics writing about her work in the 1980s noted the remarkable subtlety of her tonal range and the almost meditative quality of her imagery. These drawings feel less like landscapes and more like echoes of forgotten and incompletely remembered dreams and nightmares.
Despite their contrasting sensibilities, both treated drawing as a space of discovery. Mehra’s fantastical terrains and Patel’s alien worlds each step beyond the immediate and the literal. Together, their works invite viewers into landscapes of thought and invention, where we find ourselves strangers in a strange land.
Terra obscura, shredded by Anjana finds subtlety. This is an untitled, graphite on paper
Terra obscura, shredded by Anjana finds subtlety. This is an untitled, graphite on paper
Vinod makes figures in a sheer disambiguation render a larger than real life effect of charismatic creation.
Vinod makes figures in a sheer disambiguation render a larger than real life effect of charismatic creation.
Surreal existence on this terra incognita gives a whoop of joy to Anjana to reify this reality.
Surreal existence on this terra incognita gives a whoop of joy to Anjana to reify this reality.
Life is a whirligig of natural effulgence betwixt misappropriation. Vinod lays the curate's egg here.
Life is a whirligig of natural effulgence betwixt misappropriation. Vinod lays the curate's egg here.
Life pops out of profundity of creation while Anjana fathoms out the abyss.
Life pops out of profundity of creation while Anjana fathoms out the abyss.
The masterstroke of human machination impels Vinod to make this ink and color on paper.
The masterstroke of human machination impels Vinod to make this ink and color on paper.
Is the human existence trumped up or stumped into oblivion? Anjana keeps you bemused and amused.
Is the human existence trumped up or stumped into oblivion? Anjana keeps you bemused and amused.
The march of mechanisation on the face of naive appurtenances makes a jangling effect upon Vinod.
The march of mechanisation on the face of naive appurtenances makes a jangling effect upon Vinod.
Anjana Mehra
Anjana Mehra (b.1949) studied painting at the Sir JJ School of Art (1965) in Mumbai before pursuing her masters in printmaking at M.S.U. in Baroda (1972). Her drawings from the 1970s and 1980s demonstrate a practice defined by patience, introspection and remarkable technical control..
Working primarily in graphite, Mehra developed a distinctive subtractive method: she first built dense grounds of powdered graphite and pigment and then gradually erased into them, allowing images to emerge from darkness.
Writing in Bombay magazine in 1982, Nikki Ty-Tomkins described this process as “an extraordinary one…a collation of etching techniques miraculously transformed into pencil,” noting the artist’s ability to produce “infinite gradations out of the darkest velvet black.” The delicate erasures and tonal transitions give her drawings an atmospheric depth that belies their often modest scale.
Mehra’s imagery frequently draws on fragments of the natural world - driftwood, coral, shells and creatures washed up along the shoreline. As Kamala Kapoor observed in a 1982 catalogue essay, these elements take on the character of “iconic images drawn from oceanic depths,” emerging from the paper through layers of graphite and erasure.
Serene and meditative in appearance, these works often carry deeper emotional undertones..Reviewing her exhibition in The Indian Post in 1988, Roshan Shahani wrote that Mehra’s drawings represented “extraordinary developments in form, tonality and subject matter,” where minute attention to detail evokes the organic energies of nature—rocks, fossils, shells and drifting forms.
Together these works reveal an artist using drawing as a means of reflection. Through subtle tonal shifts and carefully constructed surfaces, Mehra transforms fragments of landscape into contemplative spaces where, observation, memory and fantasy converge.
Image Courtesy: Jyoti Bhatt
Vinod Ray Patel
Vinod Ray Patel (1933–2007) was part of the first generation of artists who trained at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda and almost immediately took up the mantel of teaching there – this included Gulammohammed Sheikh, Jyoti Bhatt and Jeram Patel among others. Trained at the Faculty under N. S. Bendre, K. G. Subramanyan and Sankho Chaudhuri, he developed a distinctive visual language shaped by experimentation, technical skill and a deep enjoyment of the act of making.
Patel’s drawings reveal an artist with a wide imaginative range. Some works move towards abstraction,
suggesting sensual encounters or atmospheric spaces, while others depict floating figures, or satirical scenes drawn from contemporary life. Built through fine linear detail and tonal hatching, his images often balance delicacy with a quiet sense of drama.
Reflecting on Patel’s practice, K. G. Subramanyan wrote that the artist possessed “a delightful sense of design” and “a sumptuous appetite for colour,” alongside “a many-sided graphic ability that can give form to various shades of experience, ranging from the full bloodedly sensual to the witty and the sarcastic.” This range allowed Patel to move effortlessly across mediums and visual idioms.
At the heart of Patel’s practice was an openness to experiment. He worked with an extraordinary variety of materials, from printmaking to drawing to digital media. He approached each with the same spirit of curiosity. The drawings presented here capture that sense of invention, revealing an artist for whom drawing was both a tool of exploration and a space for imaginative play.
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