The Buffalo AKG and University at Buffalo Art Galleries announced Natvar Bhavsar: Free Yourself, a new exhibition that will open in the AKG’s M&T Bank Gallery on Friday, August 21 and at UB Anderson Gallery on Friday, September 18. Across both locations, the exhibition surveys fifty years of the artist’s expressive abstractions, inviting viewers to meditate on the power of pure color. It will remain on view through Sunday, April 4, 2027, at the Buffalo AKG and Saturday, April 3, 2027, at UB Anderson Gallery. 

To celebrate the opening of the project, a weekend of events will kick-off with a public reception at UB Anderson Gallery on Friday, September 18, 2026, from 5 to 8 pm. On Saturday, September 19, the AKG will host a reception and public talk with the artist.  

“Natvar Bhavsar's work feels profoundly at home within the AKG's celebrated collection of postwar American art,” said Buffalo AKG Art Museum Assistant Curator Katie O'Hara. “Alongside the exhibitions of his work in our M&T Bank Gallery and at UB Anderson Gallery, we plan to install a painting by Bhavsar in the collection galleries of our Robert and Elisabeth Wilmers Building. The context of Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting will broaden our presentation and place Bhavsar's unique contribution to the painting revolution in the 1960s in direct conversation with his Color Field peers.” 

“Natvar Bhavsar’s extraordinary artistic journey and innovative approach to painting have had a lasting impact on contemporary art,” said UB Art Galleries Director Robert Scalise. “We are proud to bring his story and work to Buffalo, creating opportunities for our students, the University at Buffalo community, and audiences across Western New York to engage with his remarkable career. It is especially meaningful to partner with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum on this two-part exhibition, which offers visitors a unique opportunity to experience the full breadth of Bhavsar’s artistic achievements.”

Ashish Anand, CEO & MD of DAG said, "As the trusted steward of Natvar Bhavsar's legacy, DAG is excited to be the presenting sponsor for his exhibition Natvar Bhavsar: Free Yourself at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. This exhibition is a testament to the rigor and enduring impact of the single most important living artist in color field painting, and I am thrilled to both support and witness his work being deservedly recognized within discerning institutions"

Simultaneously presented at the AKG and the University at Buffalo Art Galleries, the exhibition features works on paper and monumental paintings spanning each decade of the artist’s career. This exhibition also marks the debut of the Buffalo AKG’s two acquisitions by the artist, RITI-YAA (1969) and KE-RAA (1971).

Bhavsar’s unique physical process centers on tiny particles of pure, dry pigment. He begins by soaking the entire canvas in a clear acrylic binder, then sifts or brushes pigment through handmade tools and fine mesh screens, building up to eighty sealed layers. Air currents, breath, and the rhythm of his body as he maneuvers around the surface help shape the final image—a carefully controlled dance that produces textured, smoky surfaces with subtle shifts in color and tone. As Bhavsar describes:

"When I enter my studio, everything disappears,” said Bhavsar. “It's like I've entered another world. I experience Nirvana. It's an incredible gift in which I disappear, the studio itself disappears, New York disappears."

Examined up close, his dappled surfaces are palpable; from a distance, the color fields float and become atmospheric. Some paintings burst with energy, while others suggest a boundless continuum of color. Unlike other Abstract Expressionists, who approached the sublime through solemnity, Bhavsar’s path is ecstatic and celebratory and rooted in his Indian heritage. His work invokes Holi, the Hindu Spring festival in which revelers douse one another in powdered colors to celebrate the divine love of Radha and Krishna. Later works introducing curlicues draw on rangoli—decorative floor patterns of colored powder made during Diwali, the festival of light. 

Bhavsar's meditative practice results in an intensely personal experience that invites endless free association—whether you find yourself peering through a microscope, wandering a Holi celebration, or gazing from the Hubble telescope is left entirely to you.

Natvar Bhavsar: Free Yourself is organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and the University at Buffalo Art Galleries. It is curated by Katie O’Hara, Assistant Curator, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and UB Art Galleries Director Robert Scalise. 
 

About the Artist

Natvar Bhavsar was born and educated in Gujarat, India, where color was ubiquitous. As a child, his palms and soles were painted with Kumkum, a vermillion powder used to ward off evil.  As Bhavsar explains, “art requires a sense of color. Just like music is about sound – its presence or absence – so art is about color. I wanted to show the world the color of the red bindi, the particular vermillion, that color, and how to paint it on canvas, how to look at it and understand it.”

Born into a family of textile printers, he grew up surrounded by vats of vivid pigment and colorful fabrics laid to dry across several acres. A childhood memory of dust dancing in shafts of sunlight became a touchstone of his career. The titles of his works often stem from Sanskrit words for natural phenomena or Hindu cosmology, underscoring the sacred and cosmological dimensions at play.  

Bhavsar relocated to the United States in June 1962, receiving his schooling in Philadelphia. One of his teachers, Piero Dorazio, introduced him to the leading figures at the height of Abstract Expressionism. These artists encouraged the young artist to explore radical possibilities within abstraction. Bhavsar settled in SoHo, New York, where he still resides today.  

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DAG is the presenting sponsor of Natvar Bhavsar: Free Yourself. Additional support is provided by Ashok G. Kaveeshwar PhD, and Hariastuti Kaveeshwar. Special thanks to UB President Satish K. Tripathi supporting this exhibition through the President’s Fund for Excellence. 

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About DAG

Established in 1993 as an art gallery, DAG has grown exponentially to become India’s leading art company with a comprehensive collection starting from the eighteenth century onwards. From acknowledging recognized masters to restoring the legacies of generations of artists marginalized over time, from acquiring the custodianship of artists’ studios and estates to bringing back to India works associated with Indian art and heritage from overseas, DAG has revisited the history of three centuries of Indian art practice with a repository of artists that, taken together, tell the story of Indian art.  

In the over three decades since DAG’s foundation, the Indian art world has seen far-reaching changes in which the company has played a stellar role. Its iconic exhibitions that are curated to provide historical overviews have brought to the fore important artists neglected through the passage of time while also documenting critical art movements and collectives. New generations of art lovers have been able to reclaim the inheritance of forgotten masters through DAG’s pathbreaking curations at its galleries as well as participation in international art fairs, and collaborations with museums and cultural institutions in India and abroad.  

At the heart of the company’s programming is ongoing curatorial enquiry and exploration for its exhibitions; a rigorous publishing calendar with an impressive library of books to document Indian art history; a museums program focused at engaging the public to increasingly democratize its outreach; commissioning of videos and films in relation to artists and their work; and engagements with artists, critics and the art community at large. Through these initiatives, DAG remains steadfast in its commitment to foster an appreciation for, and the dissemination and promotion of Indian art.  

An important aspect of the company’s collaborative efforts has been to work with institutions and museums, whether for hosting DAG-organized exhibitions or for establishing immersive public-private museum exhibitions such as those undertaken at Delhi’s Red Fort (Drishyakala) and Kolkata’s Old Currency Building (Ghare Baire) with the Archaeological Survey of India. Set up as museums, these exhibitions ran for periods of three years and two years, respectively, garnering an amazing response from large numbers of viewers.  

DAG recently acquired Jamini Roy’s studio-cum-house in Kolkata and is in the process of setting up its first single-artist museum dedicated to the National Treasure artist. It has galleries in Mumbai, New Delhi and New York. 

www.dagworld.com 

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About University at Buffalo Art Galleries 

The University at Buffalo Art Galleries’ mission is to support art and ideas that are urgent and relevant to our time and place. A unique art museum with locations in the Center for the Arts and UB Anderson Gallery, UB Art Galleries presents year-round exhibitions, providing students and the broader community access to thought-provoking art, visiting artists, and stimulating educational programs. With a growing collection and archives, UB Art Galleries provides experiential learning opportunities for students, faculty, and researchers. Learn more at ubartgalleries.buffalo.edu. 

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About the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Founded in 1862, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum is the sixth-oldest public art institution in the United States. For more than 160 years, the Buffalo AKG has collected, conserved, and exhibited the art of its time, often working directly with living artists. This tradition has given rise to one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of modern and contemporary art.

In June 2023, following the completion of the most significant campus development and expansion project in its history, the Buffalo AKG opened anew to the public. The project was funded by a $230 million capital campaign, the largest such campaign for a cultural institution in the history of Western New York, including $195 million raised for construction and $35 million in additional operating endowment funds. 

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