Nakul Sahnan is a self-taught artist based in New Delhi, India. His practice emerges from a deeply personal history, shaping an ongoing inquiry into emotion, memory, and the human condition.

 

Growing up in an environment marked by instability and conflict, he became acutely aware of the emotional undercurrents that exist beneath everyday life. These early experiences continue to inform his work, not as direct narratives, but as impressions that surface through abstraction.

 

Initially trained in law, Sahnan’s shift toward art came during a period of forced stillness in 2020. What began as a return to painting evolved into a recognition of a more instinctive way of thinking and processing the world, one that embraced ambiguity over structure, and feeling over resolution. This direction was further shaped through a period working under Muzaffar Ali, whose multidisciplinary approach expanded his understanding of art as a lived, continuous process.

 

His work explores themes of humanity, happiness, and the pursuit of purpose through layered textures and fluid forms. The landscapes he creates are not physical, but emotionally constructed through memory, perception, and shifting internal states. Moving between chaos and stillness, his practice reflects a search for meaning within lived experience, offering a space for pause, reflection, and a return to more instinctive ways of being.

 

The following works trace an evolving inquiry into emotion, memory, and perception, moving from expressive, externalised states of chaos toward quieter, more introspective explorations of presence within the landscape.