Embarking on a visually compelling journey into landscape, geometric, gestural, and abstract forms, the Saloni Doshi Collection, presented by the Space118 Art Foundation, opens its doors to the public with The Presence of Absence – works from the personal collection of Mumbai-based patron Saloni Doshi. The exhibition, curated by renowned interior architect Kunal Shah, offers an expansive view into a world of form, colour, and riveting narratives that emerge from fragments of familiar yet unrecognised forms. Says Shah, “ ‘Non figurative’ art isn't that which stops before the creation of form, it is art that transcends beyond known structures. It can make us uncomfortable, perplexed enough to ponder on underlying meanings.” Absence is never empty; it becomes a field charged with resonance and possibility. What remains instead is not silence, but presence: the quiet pulse of colour, form, and thought. An invitation to explore the vastness of absence, the exhibition covers a wide range of media and art practices, including Viswanadhan’s bold, red hued work, freeing space from the esoteric notions of geometrical abstraction, M Krishna Reddy’s prints, reflecting his colour viscosity process, producing a range of extraordinary colours in his works, Zarina’s maps of Shahjahanabad (erstwhile Delhi), one of Mehlli Gobhai’s rare works in vivid colour, from the series, Don’t Ask Me About Colour circa 1970’s, Jyothi Basu’s plethora of minute geometric forms, Seher Shah’s etchings; studies of incomplete lines that lie somewhere in between architectural abstraction and music notations, Dashrath Patel’s paper on plywood Collages, the fluid rhythmic structure in Manisha Parekh’s Wings series created through her use of harmonious forms taking on connotations of the human body and more. The collection, which focuses on well-known and emerging names in the Indian contemporary space, speaks of Saloni’s long-term commitment to supporting the arts and introducing new and old names to young and future collectors. Revealing deeper presences and unspoken narratives of memory, emotion, and imagination, The Presence of Absence traces the evolution of over one hundred works spanning paintings, printmaking works, and drawings from South Asia, encouraging discourse on stories of existence, persistence, hope, and the realisation that everything is within us, and we are everything that we seek. “To engage with abstraction is to read between the lines of what is visible and invisible. “The Presence of Absence” is an invitation to dwell in this space, where meaning emerges not from what is shown, but from what is withheld.” - Curator, Kunal Shah