Harpreet Narula has no formal training in fashion or art. Yet, over the last twenty-five years, he has helped build Rimple & Harpreet into one of India's most recognised couture labels, all while nurturing a painting practice of his own. Now, with Inward—his first solo exhibition at Art Explore, New Delhi, on view from 3 to 21 August, that practice steps into public view. Bringing together works from the Rhythms of Life and Polarities of Rhythm series, the exhibition presents years of instinctive work shaped by memory, repetition and material.
"Fashion Is How People Live. Art Is How People Think."
His new body of work takes shape through dots, lines and repeated square forms, an instinct he traces back to years spent working with textiles, where motifs repeated across fabric create a rhythm of their own. Asked what painting allows him to express that fashion never could, Narula draws a clear distinction between the two.
"I've been a couturier for almost twenty-five years, and when I look back at clothing—whether my own work or garments from different regions, I feel fashion is a diary of how people live. When I look at art from different places, I feel art is a diary of how people think."
The two practices draw from the same well of references: cinema, textiles, the people he's met and the visual culture of Punjab in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. His work is nostalgically inspired by the fresco traditions of Rajasthan, from the havelis of Shekhawati and the painted kothis of Punjab. He uses fragments of these lived memories.
"Painting became a way to express myself, to find happiness and peace of mind with every mark I made." Painting also feels deeply interactive to him. "You're constantly having a conversation with your work. You feel more in control of what you want to express, and that is deeply fulfilling." Returning to the studio every day, he says, has become an essential part of his life.
For Narula, repetition is less a technique, and more a state he enters. He finds it deeply meditative, something he's observed across artistic practices in South Asia and the Far East. "You can keep repeating the same dots over and over until you enter a kind of trance. The act itself becomes the expression."
The process doesn't involve a predetermined plan. His paintings are built layer by layer using stone granules, sand, paint and, at times, tar or materials sourced as readily from hardware shops as art supply stores. Mixed media, he says, has opened up possibilities that fashion perhaps couldn't. "There were always things I'd wanted to experiment with, and painting has given me that freedom." If a material helps express an emotion, it earns its place on the canvas.
The exhibition unfolds through two interconnected bodies of work—Rhythms of Life and Polarities of Rhythm. Narula offers only a loose framework for the titles, preferring viewers to arrive at their own interpretations. He speaks instead of the rhythms already built into life: breath, heartbeat, recurring thoughts and habits.
Despite building careers in both fashion and painting without formal training, Narula is candid about what formal education can and cannot offer. Schools, he says, build technical skill, but they can also steer students towards the same influences. He worries that many young designers spend too much time looking at social media and not enough time looking inward.
I feel that whatever I want to create comes from within.
That doesn't mean rejecting influence altogether. Narula readily admits to drawing inspiration from artists before him, but distinguishes inspiration from imitation. Conversations and mentorship are invaluable, he says, but finding one's own voice is ultimately a personal pursuit.
Narula selected Art Explore after considering several spaces, drawn to its younger identity and the contemporary artists it represents, including Abhijeet Pathak, Vipul and Roopkeerath, whose works he has long admired and collected. With Vikram Singh curating the exhibition, the gallery felt like a natural home for his debut. Asked what he hopes audiences take away from Inward, Narula resists offering a definitive reading of the exhibition. "I would want people to come with an open mind," he says. "Whatever they take away from the work is entirely up to them. Everything I've made has come from an honest place."
As for what's next, there isn't a roadmap. Narula wants to continue experimenting with materials and letting the work evolve naturally. "There's never a plan," he says. "The process is always spontaneous and intuitive."