14/10/2026
We are pleased to announce the representation of Mahesh Baliga.
Born in 1982 in Karnataka, India, Mahesh Baliga received a BFA from Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts (CAVA), Mysore University (2005), and a postgraduate diploma in painting from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (2007) in Vadodara, where he currently lives and works. Baligaโs first solo exhibition with Stevenson, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ, was held in Cape Town in March 2026. His second solo show with the gallery will take place in Amsterdam in early 2027.
Baliga is featured in 11 ๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ด, our third volume of artist interviews, to be launched in November. In her introduction to their conversation, Mosa Molapo writes that Baligaโs practice conflates memory and dreams into quotidian moments. Although his work is situated in relation to the โBaroda Schoolโ, which synthesised Western modernist frameworks with traditional Indian representational styles, Baliga expresses the feeling of not belonging to one school, stating:
โBaroda gave me something else โ space. Not just to learn, but to breathe through all the different schools, all the different ways of making. Bhupen Khakhar was a huge inspiration for me back then, as a student. His presence, his intensity โ it stayed. And later, Nilima Sheikh. But Iโve taken from so many, and they donโt always fit together. Different thoughts, different languages, all rubbing against each other inside me ... Maybe I belong to the in-between.โ
At Frieze London this week (14-18 October, booth D16), the gallery will present Baligaโs ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต (2003-26). Having returned to this scene in different iterations over two decades, this self-portrait of a moment spent in private celebration reflects both a characteristic undertone of melancholy and how his works emphasise โthe small actions and rituals so normal they are overlookedโ.
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Mahesh Baliga
Tiarra Hembrough