Art Basel in Basel: As The Universe, So The Soul: Rithika Merchant
TARQ is proud to present new works by Rithika Merchant for its debut at Art Basel in Basel in the Statements Sector (Booth M15). The project delves into her preoccupations with worldbuilding and careful creation of a speculative cosmological universe. Merchant's watercolour works become portals into a parallel reality where the viewer encounters not just visual spectacle but a world that engages our understanding of community, spirituality, and human potential.
The roots of this presentation stem from Merchant’s 2020 series Birth Of A New World, when, in the midst of a global pandemic, she began to fabulate a fresh start for her characters that leave Earth in search for a new home among the stars. In each subsequent series, the latest of which is Pillars of Fruit and Bone, 2025, these beings, neither human nor animal, male nor female, build and populate a new universe, where they ultimately tap into a collective consciousness, developing systems of faith and belief, sharing knowledge and experiences.
Central to this presentation is a transcendental installation titled As the Universe, so the Soul, featuring a seven-frame screen with an intentionally hidden inner sanctum. In it, is encapsulated the Hermetic principle "as within, so without." This philosophy proposes the idea that who we are on the inside will be echoed in the world around us. Shown alongside three watercolour and gouache paintings, this central work speaks particularly to the intellectual and emotional rigour that Merchant exercises in her narratives. Enhanced by the immersive quality already integral to her practice, it allows viewers into a world that thrives on hope.
“Mythic constants and historical variables come together in Merchant’s fluid temporality; her phantasmagorical frames attest to an interplay between vigilance and trance. This art is not steeped in idyllic nostalgia. Rather, it gestures allegorically towards redemptive pathways into the future. Rithika Merchant’s key themes of cyclic renewal and planetary regeneration offer us the necessary antidote of hope at a particularly bleak moment in our collective experience.”, writes Ranjit Hoskote.
This, along with Merchant’s research lends itself to the finely developed characters and narratives, resembling human nature and sensibility. The nostalgic quality that weaves through Merchant's universe reflects not sentimentality for the past, but rather a deep understanding that future evolution must be grounded in wisdom, traditions and collective consciousness, presenting the importance of peaceful coexistence in today’s time.
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About the Artist
Rithika Merchant is a visual artist from Bombay (Mumbai), India. Her work explores both comparative mythology as well as science and speculative fiction, featuring creatures and symbolism that are part of her personal visual vocabulary. She creates bodies of work that visually link to our collective past as well as imagine possible new worlds which we may come to inhabit.
Nature plays a pivotal role in her work and is emphasised by the use of organic shapes and non-saturated colours. Her paintings and collages are made using a combination of watercolour and cut paper elements, drawing on 17th century botanical prints and folk art.
Merchant received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, New York. Her solo shows include Pillars of Fruit and Bone at TARQ, Mumbai (2025); Terraformation at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2023); Festival of the Phoenix Sun at Galerie LJ, Paris (2022); Birth of a New World at TARQ, Mumbai (2021); Mirror of the Mind at Galerie LJ, Paris (2019); Where the Water Takes us at TARQ, Mumbai (2017); Ancestral Home at Galeria Bien Cuadrado, Barcelona (2017); Intersections at Galeria Combustion Espontanea, Madrid (2016); and Luna Tabulatorum at Stephen Romano Gallery, New York (2015).
Most recently, she presented Empirical Study (2026) at Artspace Sydney as part of the Banner Series, curated by Katie Dyer. She also presented the monumental installation The Flowers We Grew (2025) at the Musée Rodin in Paris. Composed of nine paintings—transformed into large-scale textile panels by The Chanakya School of Craft—, the installation was commissioned by Maria Grazia Chiuri as part of the scenography for the Dior haute couture SS25 show.
Her works were also shown at The 11th Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art (2024) at The Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, Australia, where she also presented an interactive project If the Seeds Chose Where to Grow as part of Asia Pacific Triennale Kids at QAGOMA’s Children’s Art Center.
Her group exhibitions include Bounty, curated by Sadaf Padder, Sargent’s Daughters, New York (2026); Bvlgari Serpenti Infinito Exhibition, curated by Nature Morte, Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (2025); The Artist As, curated by Vaidehi Gohil and Sonakshi Bhandari, TARQ, Mumbai (2025); Overlaps, TARQ, Mumbai (2024); Ecospheres, Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation, Johannesburg (2024); Phantasm, Srishti Art Gallery, Hyderabad (2024); The Bunker Artspace 23/24 Season, The Bunker Artspace, West palm Beach (2023); Bonna curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt at The Dhaka Art Summit (2023), Mentors curated by Sandra Weil at CFHILL, Stockholm (2021), In Orbit at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin,(2021), Osmosis at TARQ, Mumbai (2019), Spring! A Group Show of Contemporary Drawing at Galerie LJ, Paris (2019); Homo Faber at The Michaelangelo Foundation, Venice ( 2018) ; Portal at October Gallery, London (2018); Sensorium / The End Is Only The Beginning at Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts, Goa (2018); This Burning Land Belongs To You at the Swiss Cottage Gallery, London (presented by TARQ for Camden Kala, UK/ India Year of Culture 2017); Language of the Birds: Occult and Art at 80WSE Gallery, New York (2016); and Reliquaries: The Remembered Self at TARQ, Mumbai (2015). Her work has also been included in group shows at The New Gallery, Calgary (2017); Summerhall, Edinburgh (2015); and The Morbid Anatomy Museum, New York (2015).
Merchant collaborated with Chloé, a French fashion house on multiple collections for which she was awarded the Vogue India Young Achiever of the Year Award at its Women of the Year Awards 2018, as well as named one of Vogue Magazine’s VogueWorld 100 Creative Voices. She is also the winner of Harper's Bazaar Women of the Year Award: Artist, 2025; the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2021 - Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize for her painting “Saudade”; and Le Prix DDessin Paris '21.
Her work has been written about in Art Asia Pacific, Art India, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Verve Magazine, The Hindu, The Indian Express, Hyperallergic, Architectural Digest, and others. Merchants work is held in public and private collections including theArt Reliance Foundation; Chloe Archive; Christian Dior Archive; Collection de Bueil & Ract-Madoux; Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody; Firestorm Foundation; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art; Samdani Arts Foundation; The Sarmaya Arts Foundation; The Bunker Artspace; and Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern.
