Stirpad : Shilpa Gupta addresses themes of mobility, control and resilience at Galleria Continua

Returning to Continua's San Gimignano location, the Indian artist presents a solo show of compelling works that engage with her interest with lines, politics and liminal thresholds.

Galleria Continua welcomes contemporary Indian artist Shilpa Gupta back to its San Gimignano space with a new solo exhibition. Recognised as one of the leading international voices of her generation, Gupta presents works centred on her continued exploration of 'mobility, control and acts of resilience' at the show running from May 3 – August 31, 2025. It also includes a newly commissioned art installation created specifically for the auditorium of the former cinema-theatre in Italy.

The art exhibition at Galleria Continua opens with a large embroidered work reflecting on the limitations of state-sanctioned borders. Using fine thread and densely layered flag-inspired forms, Gupta reinterprets symbols of national identity, quietly challenging the authority of the state to define identity and order in a world shaped by cultural fluidity and shifting senses of belonging.

This investigation of borders and liminal thresholds continues in Untitled (2020), a piece of contemporary art where a river stone collected from a border region and a lightbulb engage in conversation—one rises as the other falls. As the art gallery explains in the show's press release, "When they meet, the light briefly illuminates the stone's shimmering grey surface. Though they come close, they never quite touch—their exchange remains precarious and fragile, underscored by the ever-present risk of destruction if the stone were to collide with the delicate bulb."

In Untitled (2023), the contemporary artist based in Mumbai, India, revisits her interest with lines, drawn or enforced, literal and metaphorical—examining how authority restricts movement and expression. This kinetic art, part of a series featuring inverted wired microphones, addresses censorship and silenced truths. A solitary voice recites the names of 100 poets from across eras and geographies, each imprisoned for their words. "Poets, like writers and artists, are dreamers who speak of the world's nightmares. This work is about the persistence of beliefs and dreams—the things that make us who we are as individuals," Gupta reflects.

According to Continua, a 'fragmented, poetic stream of evocative phrases in constant motion' is the essence of Sound on My Skin (2010 – 2025), which features a mechanical split-flap display once used for travel announcements in airports and train stations. In the exhibition space, it generates an ever-changing sequence of poetic phrases, continuously evolving and layered with meaning.

"Sometimes by chance, sometimes deliberately, after looking at the same construct from a different perspective, a new narrative emerged," says the artist. "It might be slightly different or even quite contradictory, forcing me to reconsider and rework what I thought I knew and how I knew it. This process can be frustrating, rewarding and sometimes even unsettling. Perhaps that’s why I am drawn to relationships that feel almost distant—where focal points shift, and you move together with the audience, turning and rotating in unison," Gupta continues.

At the heart of the ongoing show is TRUTH (2022 – 2025), a walkable, large-scale installation that transforms the auditorium. It invites viewers to "rethink their perception of space and time, experience shifting viewpoints and reconsider the relationship of power over narratives," the press release states.

By Galleria Continua for https://www.stirpad.com/