Art is greater than time.
Time erodes everything. It challenges the endurance of memories, emotions and journeys. But these memories fade, emotions flutter, and journeys change course, what remains are the traces of “how it made us feel”.
An artist immortalises these experiences through their art, which preserves the fragility of these moments and doesn’t let them disappear. At the same time it is an unending journey in itself. Art doesn’t perish, but evolves with time. It has its own language that adapts and resonates with the viewers.
Art is an exploration of the self. It lets the artist dive into their deepest emotions, thoughts and imaginations, and encourages them to create something that is the true reflection of themselves.
Spanning over decades, artist Santosh Jain’s artistic journey is marked by an unwavering commitment to this exploration. Her art is a mirror to society, a reflection of how life quietly takes shape in wilderness.
The Unending Quest by Terrain Curated is a celebration of Santosh Jain’s legacy. Her art is a proof of how art transcends time and space, and constantly evolves through profound engagement with people and their stories. The exhibition explores the endurance of art against time, and how it opens spaces for contemplation, dialogue and discovery, thus becoming an Unending Quest…
“Sometimes it is difficult for me to explain something so deeply through words. But through art, I find that when I start saying things, people seem to understand them better.”
Santosh Jain
Art always remained at the centre of Santosh’s life. As a child, she often retreated into a world of her own with one intention, to create and paint. Over the years, her understanding of composition, form, layers and how different elements interact with one another became more sophisticated. This deeper understanding of the craft helped her translate her ideas more clearly and confidently.
Santosh Jain discovered her love for etching, lithography, linocut and woodcut while studying Fine Arts at College of Art, Delhi. Her prints earned her awards and honours worldwide. The exposure to the international experience gave her the opportunity to see more advanced techniques, tools, and ways of working. Her engagements at Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, Paris and New York exposed her to the advanced printmaking techniques and equipment. But deep in her mind, the basics of art and art making remained quite the same. Upon her return to India, she was inspired by many of these new techniques and tried to incorporate some of them into her own practice, but soon realised that the solutions already existed here as well. It encouraged her to explore the same techniques in different ways and opened up new possibilities in her work. These experiences helped her grow, both as an artist and as a person.
With time and age Santosh met more people, and listened to their stories and realised there is much deeper meaning to life. The stories stayed with her. Over time she became bolder and started saying things that she had been keeping within herself, on her canvas.
Photography came into her life at a much later stage. A precious gift from her daughter was all it took to rekindle her life long love for photography. She began photographing people, characters, and moments that interested her. She began combining photography with digital media, it opened up even more possibilities in texture, form, and layering.
“I think all artists have art as their second language. Everybody expresses their thoughts
and feelings through art in different ways. I see myself as a storyteller, and I find that very interesting”
Santosh Jain
Memories are the foundation of Santosh’s works. Bridging different moments in time matters to her. The people may change, the circumstances may change, but many emotions and experiences remain the same, and this truth often finds its way into her works.
Her art starts with an idea or sometimes with a story. With time, she builds the characters within it and the story thus keeps evolving. With textures, colours, forms, and different kinds of line works, the art keeps changing, and through intuition and intense process the truth reveals itself in the final work.
“Very often, I don’t title my works because I feel that a title can guide the viewers to think in a certain way. I enjoy hearing what people perceive in my art and how they experience it, because I feel that they are adding to my stories”
Santosh Jain
Dollhouse, 2022
Digital Landscape (Photography & Mixed Media) on Archival paper61 x 40.6 cm | 24 x 16 in
The Unending Quest is a conversation between Santosh Jain’s past, present and future selves. It explores all her thoughts, ideas and conversations that she accumulated within herself for years. It is not only a reflection on her individual artistic career, it's a celebration of her art itself. Through her works, we encounter an artist who has embraced her journey wholeheartedly, whose craft is inseparable from her identity.