Mrinalini Mukherjee's First US Retrospective at The Met Breuer

The Met Breuer in New York presents 'Phenomenal Nature,' the first American retrospective of Indian artist Mrinalini Mukherjee (1949–2015). The exhibition features 57 works spanning fiber, ceramic, and bronze, tracing her evolution from biomorphic fiber sculptures to ceramic forms and later bronze reliefs. Mukherjee, part of a 1970s generation breaking from Indian figurative painting, employed indigenous craft techniques while engaging with modernism. Her fiber works, often titled in Sanskrit, personify deities, nymphs, and forest spirits, evoking the destructive deity Rudra. By the late 1990s, physical demands and material restrictions led her to ceramics, using unstable chrome oxide glazes for threatening, sensual surfaces. In the early 2000s, she turned to bronze, creating low-relief sculptures that appear to decompose and sprout simultaneously. The exhibition runs through September 29 at The Met Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue.