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A vivid painting in hot pinks and greens: neon horses rear beside a row of naked figures, while a giant halved pomegranate is carried on a beam by small blue people.This photograph on its own page

Seeking Intimacy

Vivid palette, surreal dreamscapes, queer lovers in everyday moments—Shakibul Islam etches the portrait of the queer family into contemporary Indian life’s visual language.

Published 31 December 2025

This has finished

On view
12 December 2025 – 31 March 2026
Times
10AM to 6PM (Mon to Sunday) Till March 31st, 2026
Part of
Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025–26

Where

BMS Warehouse

Event venue · Bazaar Road, Mattancherry

You’ve just missed it — take it home anyway

The 2025–26 Biennale ended on 31 March 2026. The next is expected around December 2027. We made a book of all 72 exhibits, venue by venue, with the photographs — 76 pages, 9 MB.

We email you the book. Nothing else.

For Shakibul, remembering queer history is a vibrant celebration—of life, resilience, expression, and pride. An ode to pioneers, and futures where queer love moves freely.

Artist

Shakibul Islam (MFA - Sir J.J. School of Art, Architecture and Design, Mumbai; BFA - Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata)

Medium

Painting

A colorful painting depicts a surreal scene with several figures and fantastical elements. In the foreground, a person in a pink garment with a crown sits beside two brightly colored horses, one green and yellow and the other pink and purple. Behind them, three shirtless men stand close together. To the right, a large halved citrus fruit rests on a surface, with a vine and a red fruit hanging above it. A long line of identical blue figures stands on a track that curves around the fruit. In the background, a green landscape stretches under a purple sky, and on the far left, a group of figures in yellow stands near a dark structure with a yellow sign containing symbols. Various flowers and plants are scattered across the lower portion of the scene.

About

Seeking Intimacy challenges normative boundaries from the outset. Shakibul Islam’s arresting, vivid palette exists not merely for beauty or shock—its deliberate intensity invites pause, anchoring viewers in active encounter.

Oscillating between surreal dreamscapes and serene intimacies, his works probe the subconscious’s deepest desires. Fantastical forms and shifting terrains blur boundaries of sensuality and longing.

But Shakibul also grounds his vision in the everyday, placing queer lovers in leisurely interludes and mundane routines. He asserts their presence as ordinary, inseparable parts of contemporary Indian life—etching the portrait of the queer family into the nation’s visual language.