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Paintings of Raja Ravi Varma comes alive on Khadi saris

A collaboration between lithographic print and khadi textile aims to record Indian history of press and autonomy of the textile industry

Khadi, a Canvas brings together two transformative figures in Indian cultural history, Raja Ravi Varma and Mahatma Gandhi in the form of printed khadi saris in the intricate Jamdani hand-weave technique. 

Displayed alongside chromolithograph prints, original lithographic stones, and khadi production tools, this exhibition at TRI Art & Culture foregrounds materiality and process, drawing attention to the labour, skill, and knowledge systems underlying both printmaking and textile weaving. The exhibition traces parallel narratives of democratisation: Raja Ravi Varma’s lithographic press made art accessible to the masses in the late 19th century, while Mahatma Gandhi’s khadi movement promoted self-reliance and indigenous craft revival as acts of cultural and political autonomy.

Emerging within decades of one another, both reshaped modes of expression, circulation, and self-determination. While Varma’s press expanded access to visual culture through mechanical reproduction, Gandhi’s campaign toward self-sufficiency through khadi positioned hand spun cloth as both economic resistance and cultural assertion, profoundly influencing modern India’s relationship to art, craft, and autonomy.

Curated by Lavina Baldota and presented by TRI Art & Culture in association with the Abheraj Baldota Foundation and textile artist Gaurang Shah, the exhibition features 19 handwoven khadi saris created by tribal women from Srikakulam.

Date: On till 26 April 2026

Venue: TRI Art & Culture, 53/2/2 Hazra Road

Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 11am to 7pm

--My Kolkata Web Desk