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Kolkata’s Experimenter Gallery is alive with Mashrabiya, Praneet Soi’s third solo show, a heartfelt collection of paintings, sculptures, and hand-painted papier-mâché and porcelain tiles. It’s his first Indian exhibition in four years, and you can feel the love he’s poured into it.
Born in Kolkata in 1971, Soi’s life has wandered through Vadodara, San Diego, and Amsterdam, each city weaving its colors into his art. This show, open until September 26, 2025, at Hindustan Road, is like a warm conversation between places, people, and stories.
The name Mashrabiya comes from those gorgeous latticed windows in Islamic architecture, filtering light and glimpses of the world outside. For Soi, they are a way to see life, each artwork a window framing history, culture, and personal moments. “A landscape carries its history,” he says, his voice soft but sure, seeing every place as a pile-up of stories told through craft and care. His pieces mix media clippings, historical bits, and architectural details, inviting you to peek through his lens.
Soi’s love affair with Srinagar’s 2,000-year-old crafts sparked this journey. In the valley, he fell for its intricate patterns and ancient architecture, like the blue-glazed tiles of a 600-year-old tomb that swirl together Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic vibes. His piece Overlapping Landscapes or Bone is a quiet stunner: a silverpoint drawing of an oak tree from Amsterdam’s Bergen Forest sits beside a relief inspired by a Kashmiri tile, maybe a lotus flower. It’s like he’s holding two homes in his hands, letting their stories overlap.
From Guangzhou’s porcelain artisans to his cozy Amsterdam studio, Soi doesn’t just work, he connects. He builds friendships, swaps knowledge, and lets those bonds shape his art. His life, from a Punjabi family uprooted from Lahore in 1947 to watching 9/11’s aftermath unfold in San Diego, fuels his curiosity about borders and belonging. That’s why his work often plays with human forms and portraits, breaking them apart and piecing them back together in ways that feel raw and real.
Through collages, fragments, and textures, Soi’s art feels like it’s breathing. His papier-mâché and porcelain tiles celebrate the hands that made them, honoring artisans while challenging the idea that art should be polished or perfect. Mashrabiya invites you to linger, to see landscapes not as backdrops but as living stories woven from culture and connection. It’s a show that feels like a warm hug, reminding you that art can hold the world’s beauty, one handcrafted moment at a time.
