In his 14 solo since 2005, and his third at Mumbai's Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Manish Nai continues his long-standing engagement with abstraction via a process of de-familiarization - transforming recycled material into sculptural works of varying scales, textures and surfaces. Nai's minimalist vision unifies industrial detritus and everyday objects, lending them a compelling formal austerity that is further amplified by their strategic placement within the gallery.
Throughout his practice, Nai has assiduously reified the materiality of discarded objects that are the by-products of a hyper-consumerist society. A compulsive collector, he sources his raw material from informal recycling units that operate as a thriving fringe economy across Mumbai and its distant suburbs. By experimenting with a range of artisanal and industrial techniques, he deftly melds process and material to expand the aesthetic possibilities of commonplace materials and objects. Unfettered by overt socio-political underpinnings, the works, often left untitled, open themselves up to multiple interpretations and re-contextualizations across diverse spatial configurations.