Brooklyn-based artists Xinran Guan and Sophy Chang stage Gallery 456 as a site of encounter and reflection. In Between Worlds: The Intangible Thread, the two-person show features oil paintings with dynamic brushstrokes and vibrant sculptural figures made from various materials. The artworks by the two artists seem to possess different visual logics and narratives, but these differences provide a clue as to how to embrace them within a visual dialogue, blurring the boundaries of individuals, worlds, and art itself.

A prominent Indian modern and contemporary artist, Maqbool Fida Husain (1915-2011), suffered unwilling exile after depicting Untitled (Bharat Mata) in 2006 (figure 1). Husain’s painting Untitled (Bharat Mata) depicts the Indian subcontinent as a woman folding her body in nudity, and consequently, the Hindu nationalists charged him for violating the sacred image of the goddess (Ramaswami, 2011, 2-4). The painter made the painting as a geo-body illustration, as clear by writing names of the city, such as from north of Srinagar in Kashmir, passing through Gujarat where the massacre happened in 2002, and Bhopal where the worst chemical disaster happened, and south to Cochin and Chennai (Ramaswami, 2011, 86). The wheel used in the national flag is located in the right center, indicating India herself.