Hyderabad Hosts India’s First Pop Art Gallery
The Maharashtra-based artist, known for working in papier-mâché for over two decades, turned to clay this year at Design Democracy 2025 in Hyderabad
Hyderabad:Standing beside her ceramic forms — circles stretching into ovals, suggestive of female anatomy — Bharati Pitre of Olee Maatee laughed, “Somebody told me these sculptures looked provocative. I said, why not?” She added, “I’m celebrating womanhood. I don’t want to be shy about it. Our goddesses too were once worshipped for their yonis.”
The Maharashtra-based artist, known for working in papier-mâché for over two decades, turned to clay this year at Design Democracy 2025 in Hyderabad. Together with her son Varun, she created totem poles and fertility-inspired works titled Abundance and Growth, drawing connections between seeds, life cycles, and the idea of shelter.
Across the pavilions at Hitex, ‘Design Democracy’ thrived on such juxtapositions. Some 120 brands and studios presented everything from furniture and lighting to surface design and art.
Alongside Olee Maatee’s sacred motifs, Ahmedabad’s Ek Kalakaar Designs transformed discarded PVC pipes and corrugated sheets into cabinets, lamps, and sculptures. Founder Anurag Bhandari pointed to one piece, Greedy Me, where a pointing finger accused the viewer while a gold bar symbolised excess. “You are the creator of this chaos,” he said. “The more money you have, the more waste you generate. I want people to feel a little guilt.”
Elsewhere, a pop-art gallery played like a postmodern parody, turning everyday objects into commentary on capitalism and spectacle, in the spirit of philosopher Guy Debord. Van Gogh’s face shimmered into Salvador Dalí in a lenticular work, while a gleaming chimpanzee lounged with Coke in hand, absorbed in Netflix.
“This is India’s first pop art gallery,” said Dhanushree, curator of The Designera, which showcased Andy Warhol alongside Indian artists such as Sanush Birla and Megha Saxena.
Birla’s works reimagined ‘The Last Supper’ with Marvel characters and showed Popeye clutching champagne bottles. “His motive is to bring back the nostalgia of childhood and still make people laugh,” Dhanushree explained. “It’s also about deflating the sacred or the over-produced image, reflecting on both religion and consumer culture.”
In another corner, the Museum of Telangana presented ‘Stone and Shade’, curated by Supraja Rao, grounding the fair in local soil. Visitors were invited to write on gold discs, echoing the tradition of tying threads to temple trees. Rao also swapped the customary wine and champagne for Telangana snacks such as sakinalu and pappu chekkalu. “It’s we who give champagne its extra value,” she remarked. “If we put our filter coffee on that pedestal, it will be celebrated worldwide.”
Founded by Shailaja and Palka Arjun Rathi, Design Democracy has grown into one of India’s most talked-about design exhibitions. And between its bright surfaces and posh crowd, the fair carved a space for both commerce and contemplation — like any art should.