# Your Curated Guide to Kolkata’s Must-See Art Exhibitions This Month Author: Cityscope · Published: 3 Sep · Updated: 3 Sep · 5 min read > Explore Experimenter's three new shows, Emami Art's film fest, Bengali portraiture, and Trace Gallery's launch. Your essential art itinerary for Kolkata this month. **Tags:** Art, Art Experiences, Exhibitions ## **A Perfect Storm of Art in Kolkata** Kolkata’s gallery ecosystem rarely aligns so neatly: Experimenter has activated all three of its spaces with distinct, conceptually rich exhibitions; Emami Art is building towards the fifth edition of its Experimental Film Festival; Art Exposure is mounting a focused show on Bengali portraiture; and Trace Gallery is launching as a brand-new interdisciplinary venue. For art lovers and culture vultures, this convergence creates a rare chance to move through cutting-edge contemporary art, critical moving-image work, historical portraiture, and a fresh space—all in a single month. This guide knits these programmes into a cohesive trail, helping you plan repeat visits rather than rushed drop-ins, and establishing the platform as an informed authority on Kolkata’s visual arts scene. ![Interior view of Experimenter gallery in Kolkata showing multiple exhibitions](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1761984752674-70f1dcb24daa?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w5NzkxMzR8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxLb2xrYXRhJTIwYXJ0JTIwZ2FsbGVyeSUyMGludGVyaW9yfGVufDB8MHx8fDE3ODg0MzgwMTR8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080) Experimenter’s Ballygunge Place space sets the tone for a month of diverse artistic experiences. ([Photo by Abhinav Kumar on Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/collection-of-framed-black-and-white-photographs-on-wall-J%5FblR18-i8M?utm%5Fsource=Cityscope&utm%5Fmedium=referral)) --- ## **Three Ways of Seeing at Experimenter** Experimenter’s programme this month is the conceptual backbone of the guide. Three exhibitions, each demanding focused viewing, offer different ways of thinking about image, memory, and landscape. At Ballygunge Place, Biraaj Dodiya’s 'Grid for a Disappearance' uses steel sculptures, photographs, and oil paintings on linen to stage a meditation on absence and erasure within rigid structures. The grid becomes a device for ordering and losing, a visual metaphor for what falls outside official narratives. In a city grappling with rapid urban change, this show feels especially resonant. --- ## **Disappearance and Material Tension: Biraaj Dodiya** On view until 19 September 2026, Dodiya’s installation brings together industrial steel and the softness of oil on linen, creating a tension between permanence and fragility. The photographs embedded in the works act as traces of something already slipping away. For visitors, it’s an introspective, materially dense starting point that asks: what disappears when systems of order are imposed? The exhibition runs at Experimenter’s Ballygunge Place space, a short walk from the city’s cultural arteries. ![Detail of Biraaj Dodiya's mixed-media work combining steel, photography, and painting](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1545987796-b199d6abb1b4?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w5NzkxMzR8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxncmlkJTIwc2N1bHB0dXJlJTIwYXJ0JTIwaW5zdGFsbGF0aW9ufGVufDB8MHx8fDE3ODg0MzgwMTV8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080) Biraaj Dodiya’s ‘Grid for a Disappearance’ uses industrial and delicate materials to explore absence. ([Photo by Alina Grubnyak on Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/group-of-people-sitting-on-floor-R84Oy89aNKs?utm%5Fsource=Cityscope&utm%5Fmedium=referral)) --- ## **Inner Turmoil at Experimenter Outpost** At the Alipore Museum’s Experimenter Outpost, 'Lone Runner’s Laboratory' runs until 17 October 2026\. This show shifts from structure to breakdown, exploring inner turmoil, emotional collapse, and the erosion of landscape. Staged inside a museum already associated with collective memory, the exhibition turns the gallery into a space of psychological unraveling. Here, the solitary viewer navigates an overwhelming imagescape—a counterpoint to Dodiya’s more ordered grid. It’s the emotional middle movement of Experimenter’s three-part arc. --- ## **Cinema as Archive: Naeem Mohaiemen** At Experimenter’s Hindusthan Road space, Dhaka- and New York-based artist Naeem Mohaiemen presents 'Raihan-Ghatak-Tarkovsky' until 10 October 2026\. The exhibition combines films and paper archives into an expanded editing room, featuring the Kolkata premiere of 'A Missing Can of Film.' The work examines the legacy of Bangladeshi filmmaker Zahir Raihan and the role of cinema during the Liberation War, positioning the moving image as both witness and political actor. By triangulating Raihan, Ritwik Ghatak, and Andrei Tarkovsky, Mohaiemen places Kolkata within a transnational history of poetic, politically charged cinema—an outward-looking end to Experimenter’s arc. --- ## **From Gallery to Screening Room: Emami Art’s Film Festival Build-Up** Emami Art is more than an exhibition space this month; it’s the nerve centre for the Emami Art Experimental Film Festival (EAEFF 26), running 22–27 September 2026 in the ground-floor galleries. The fifth edition of this festival of Indian and international experimental films, video, and artists’ moving images transforms the venue into a screening and discursive hub. Past editions have screened over 50 films from countries including Canada, Myanmar, France, and Brazil, championing slow, unconventional, and formally inventive work rarely seen in commercial Indian theatres. August programming—storytelling evenings and talks on photographic narratives—has already primed audiences. For cinephiles, the festival is the month’s densest concentration of moving-image art, a chance to see work that blurs the lines between cinema and gallery-based video. ![Screening room setup at Emami Art during the Experimental Film Festival](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1517604931442-7e0c8ed2963c?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w5NzkxMzR8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxleHBlcmltZW50YWwlMjBmaWxtJTIwZmVzdGl2YWwlMjBzY3JlZW5pbmd8ZW58MHwwfHx8MTc4ODQzODAxNnww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080) Emami Art’s galleries become immersive screening venues during the film festival. ([Photo by Krists Luhaers on Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/person-watching-movie-AtPWnYNDJnM?utm%5Fsource=Cityscope&utm%5Fmedium=referral)) --- ## **Faces of Bengal at Art Exposure** Art Exposure’s current show on Bengali portraiture offers a vital regional counterpoint. While direct published details are limited, the premise itself is rich: Bengali portraiture stretches from early studio photography and painted portraits that captured emerging middle-class identities, through modernist painters who reworked conventions amid nationalism and urban modernity, to contemporary artists questioning gender, caste, and class. This exhibition likely spans oil, watercolour, drawing, and photography, inviting sustained looking and attention to how faces have been imaged across eras. After high-concept installations and experimental films, this show asks you to recalibrate your eye and reflect on the social histories embedded in every likeness. --- ## **Trace Gallery: A New Space Looks Forward** Trace Gallery’s launch as an art-and-culture space expands Kolkata’s gallery geography. Positioning itself as more than a white cube, it promises interdisciplinary programming—exhibitions alongside performance, design, and community-focused events. For readers, Trace represents a place to discover emerging voices and hybrid formats, a glimpse of where the city’s independent art infrastructure is heading. Even without a fully detailed inaugural show, the excitement lies in its ethos: tracing connections between art forms and decentralising the scene beyond established neighbourhoods. --- ## **Your Month of Art: A Practical Itinerary** To make the most of this alignment, start early September with Experimenter’s Ballygunge Place and Outpost shows, allowing time for Dodiya’s grid and the ‘Lone Runner’s’ unraveling. Mid-month, visit Hindusthan Road for Mohaiemen’s cinematic archive and then head to Art Exposure for the portrait show. From 22 to 27 September, block out days for Emami Art’s film festival—check programme announcements and arrive early for screenings. Slot in Trace Gallery anytime as the exploratory wildcard, perhaps towards the month’s end to feel the city’s cultural future. Kolkata’s evolving identity as an art city rewards those who follow galleries as seriously as cinema or literature. This month, the trail is ready-made. ## **Sources** * [Experimenter Galleries in Kolkata opens three different shows across the city](https://www.indulgexpress.com/culture/art/2026/Aug/14/the-experimenter-art-galleries-have-opened-three-very-different-shows-across-the-city-all-you-need-to-know) * [The Experimenter Art Galleries have opened three very different shows across the city: All you need to know](https://www.indulgexpress.com/amp/story/culture/art/2026/Aug/14/the-experimenter-art-galleries-have-opened-three-very-different-shows-across-the-city-all-you-need-to-know) * [Festival of Indian and International Experimental Films, Video, and Artists' Moving Images (Event overview, Emami Art)](https://www.emamiart.com/events/148/overview/) * [Experimental Film Festival (Emami Art)](https://www.emamiart.com/film-festival/) * [Festival of Indian and International Experimental Films, Video, and Artists' Moving Images (2025)](https://www.emamiart.com/events/56-emami-art-experimental-film-festival-2025-festival-of-indian-and-international-experimental-films-video/overview/) * [Emami Art Experimental Film Festival 2026 (EAEFF 26)](https://www.emamiart.com/events/82-call-for-submissions-emami-art-experimental-film-festival-2026-eaeff-26/overview/) * [Events (Emami Art)](https://www.emamiart.com/events/) * [Open Calls (Emami Art)](https://www.emamiart.com/open-calls/) * [In Kolkata, over 200 framed sepia photographs start a dialogue about the ethnography of an era gone by](https://www.indulgexpress.com/culture/art/2026/Aug/30/in-kolkata-over-200-framed-sepia-photographs-start-a-dialogue-about-the-ethnography-of-an-era-gone-by) * [Richa Agarwal's EAEFF Redefines Experimental Cinema](https://www.robbreportindia.com/home-and-design/art/kolkatas-emami-art-experimental-film-festival-returns-redefining-the-language-of-cinema) * [Report: Emami Art Experimental Film Festival (EAEFF)](https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/report-emami-art-experimental-film-festival-eaeff-101767078258940.html) * [Emami Art Experimental Film Festival | Disruptive cinema - India Today](https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/leisure/story/20250915-emami-art-experimental-film-festival-disruptive-cinema-2782624-2025-09-05) * [PRESS RELEASE (Emami Art)](https://www.emamigroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/17234837/press-release-061124.pdf) * [Canadian experimental films to be in focus at Kolkata-based film festival](https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/canadian-experimental-films-to-be-in-focus-at-kolkata-based-film-festival/article68832657.ece) * [Head straight to KCC for the best of Indian and International experimental cinema](https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/try-this/attend/check-out-the-emami-art-experimental-film-festival-2024-at-kolkata-centre-for-creativity/cid/2061156) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What are the must-see exhibitions at Experimenter this month? Experimenter has three concurrent shows: Biraaj Dodiya’s 'Grid for a Disappearance' at Ballygunge Place (until 19 September), 'Lone Runner’s Laboratory' at the Outpost in Alipore Museum (until 17 October), and Naeem Mohaiemen’s 'Raihan-Ghatak-Tarkovsky' at Hindusthan Road (until 10 October). Each explores different facets of memory, landscape, and cinema. ### When is the Emami Art Experimental Film Festival 2026? The fifth edition of the festival runs from 22 to 27 September 2026 in the ground-floor galleries of Emami Art, Kolkata. It features Indian and international experimental films, video, and artists’ moving images. ### What kind of art does Art Exposure’s Bengali portraiture show include? The exhibition focuses on Bengali portraiture across historical and contemporary periods, likely featuring early studio photography, painted portraits, modernist reinterpretations, and works by present-day artists examining identity and representation. ### Is Trace Gallery a new venue in Kolkata? Yes, Trace Gallery is a newly launched art-and-culture space that aims to host interdisciplinary programming, including visual art, performance, design, and community events. It represents the expanding independent art infrastructure in the city. ### How can I plan a gallery trail covering all these venues in one month? Start with Experimenter’s shows in early September, visit Art Exposure mid-month, dedicate 22–27 September to the Emami Art film festival, and explore Trace Gallery at your convenience. The venues are spread across different neighbourhoods, so plan for a couple of focused afternoons rather than a single day. --- [View on Cityscope](https://www.cityscope.media/article/your-curated-guide-to-kolkatas-must-see-art-exhibitions-this-month) · Source: https://www.cityscope.media/article/your-curated-guide-to-kolkatas-must-see-art-exhibitions-this-month