Every experience leaves a mark. That idea runs through Threshold of Traces: Stitched with an Amber Thread, a group exhibition by ArtKriti at the Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Four contemporary artists use watercolour, landscape, sculpture, and abstraction to explore how life, nature, and human emotion are connected.The exhibition was inaugurated in the presence of artist Naresh Kapuria, art historian and curator Sunit Tandon, and Senior Advocate Rajiv Dutta.The Meaning Behind the TitleThe title refers to the changes we move through as we pass from one stage of life to another. A trace is a mark or memory that an experience leaves behind. The amber thread stands for healing and continuity. Amber forms around a wound and holds light within it, and the exhibition suggests that even painful experiences can become a source of strength.“Threshold of Traces is a reminder that when we break open, we do not empty out. We bloom,” said Gaurav Chawla, artist and founder of ArtKriti. “Each of these four artists works in a different medium and style, but they explore a shared experience: the point where pain and light come together.”Four Artists, Four PerspectivesSiddharth Jharia’s watercolours in Traces of the Flesh focus on the human body and its emotions. His figures appear delicate and unfinished, capturing moments of vulnerability and change. Watercolour’s transparency lends his work depth and luminosity.Soumick Nag’s The Weathered Terrain turns to landscape. Working mainly in Vandyke brown and black, he paints valleys and uneven ground shaped by natural forces. His canvases hold a tension between control and unpredictability, much like nature itself.Sonia Sareen’s sculptures in The Ruin & The Bloom explore the link between destruction and growth. Her forms drift between the human body and the land, suggesting that something broken can become a place of shelter and renewal.Gaurav Chawla, who also exhibits as an artist, presents abstract paintings in The Volcanic Core. Built through bold strokes and layered paint, the works echo the force of volcanic eruption, where moments of tension give way to release and light emerges from chaos.An Invitation to Look CloserAlthough the artists work in different materials and techniques, they share a common message: uncertainty and change can still lead to renewal. The exhibition invites visitors to look beyond the visible and find the stories, emotions, and possibilities within each work.The opening drew art lovers, including Alka Bhurshdandi and Neerja Peters, along with several other guests.
