Chetan Bhakuni uses Painting as a tool for Conversation
- Artlune
- Sep 14
- 3 min read
For artist Chetan Bhakuni, painting is a tool to keep conversations alive with a person who is no longer there. Every brushstroke, every texture feels like a dialogue with memory, love, and loss.
At the center of his practice is his relationship with his mother. Through autobiographical narration, Chetan explores identity, reflecting on love, pain, and the complex experiences that shaped him.
His paintings often touch on themes we rarely speak of openly: societal suppression, feudal mentality, and domestic violence.
Finding a Language Through Paintings
Chetan’s early years were difficult. Growing up with his father’s alcoholism, he witnessed domestic violence, while his mother struggled with depression. Support for his art was limited, but his mother stood firmly by his side, encouraging him to pursue his calling.
As a child, he dreamed of becoming a cartoonist and illustrator, but when he entered his bachelor's, painting drew him in more deeply. The turning point came during his master’s program, when a mentor pushed him to stop avoiding his emotions and instead channelise them into his work.
His style shifts between soft, flowing strokes and sharp, controlled marks. He prefers using oil paint for its slow drying process, which gives him more time to interact with his paintings. Everyday objects often appear in his paintings, sometimes larger than life or slightly out of place, set against dark backgrounds. These choices create scenes that feel both familiar and unsettling.
Evolving His Practice
Moving to Ireland for his master’s degree was a big turning point for Chetan. Along with learning, he faced tough challenges, homelessness, loans, and the uncertainty of living far from home. He used to speak often to his mother about art. When she passed away, those conversations stopped.
Without a permanent studio today, Chetan adapts by breaking larger works into smaller pieces, painting them separately. He terms it as deconstruction. Oil paint is his favorite medium because it dries slowly, allowing him to spend more time with each work. It gives him time to linger in the act of painting, time to continue the conversation. Recently, he has also begun using plaster of Paris, its rough, violent strokes echoing the four walls of his home, holding the echoes of his mother’s life.
Returning to Painting
In 2022, Chetan completed his animated film Geeta. The process took him a full year and left him emotionally drained. After his mother’s passing, he stepped away from art altogether. And the conversations stopped. Yet in another way, they continued through his paintings.
Art became his way of keeping that dialogue alive, of still talking to her even in her absence. Slowly, he found his way back, painting, reading and creating again.
For Chetan, exhibitions and recognition are not the end goal. What matters most is keeping the memory, story and dialogues alive through paintings. His works invite viewers to step closer, listen, and perhaps find pieces of their own lives reflected back.
His UK debut
In 2025, Chetan made his UK debut with Fragile Strength. Rooted in his own journey of loss and resilience, the project challenges the stigma around male mental health, especially among South Asian, trans, and gay men.
By fostering dialogue and building inclusive spaces, it transforms personal wounds into collective healing, a reminder that even in fragility, there is strength.
Artlune is more than a gallery; it's a movement to showcase the voices of emerging and mid-career artists from South Asia.
For more information, contact us at admin@artlune.com or call +91 9899187125 (India), +44 743 693 3096 (UK)
