This Artist in Me workshop invites participants to explore the human figure through fragmentation, gesture, and emotional expression. Drawing from the practice of Tyeb Mehta, where the body is often reduced to charged, incomplete forms, the session rethinks figuration beyond realism, focusing instead on presence, tension, and psychological depth.

Led by sculptor Stuti Jain, whose sculptural practice builds the body through parts rather than as a whole, the workshop begins with quick observational sketches that encourage participants to see the figure as shapes, forms, and colour relationships rather than detailed anatomy.

Participants will then move into a hands-on sculpting process, creating a small portrait bust using clay. Through guided exploration, they will examine how minimal forms, distortions, and interventions can communicate emotion and individuality. In the final stage, participants will alter and disrupt their sculptures through marks, cuts, or additions, reflecting on how transformation can become a form of expression.

The workshop highlights how the figure can be constructed, deconstructed, and reimagined, offering insight into both Mehta’s approach to figuration and contemporary sculptural practices. Designed for young adults and adults, the session encourages experimentation, observation, and self-reflection through material and form.

Artist Bio

Stuti Jain is a Delhi NCR–based artist working across sculpture and installation. She holds an MFA and BFA in Sculpture from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, graduating as top ranker and receiving the Art Excellence Award, and was a merit fellow at Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain.

Her practice explores the human figure through fragmentation, materiality, and emotional expression, engaging themes of identity, transformation, and the tension between permanence and impermanence. Working with ceramic, brass, and installation, her forms often emerge in parts, using distortion and reconstruction to convey psychological depth.

She has received the Prafulla Dahanukar National Merit Gold Grant and the Mrinalini Mukherjee Artist Grant, and has exhibited widely across India, including the Kochi-Muziris Student Biennale, Jehangir Art Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, and Dhoomimal Art Gallery. Her work was also featured in The Elephant in the Room: Infrastructures of Signaling in the Arts, a collaboration between Stroom Den Haag and Conflictorium Museum, supported by the Prince Claus Fund.

While you’re here, explore KNMA’s ongoing exhibition

TYEB MEHTA Bearing Weight (with the lightness of being).