Image: Reena Saini Kallat, Leaking Lines (Rhine River), 2019–2020, gouache, charcoal, electric wires, steel nails, embossed and laser-cut Arches paper, 66 x 89 cm
Richard Saltoun Gallery in London is staging ‘Elsewhere is Already Here’, Reena Saini Kallat’s first solo exhibition in the city, from 13 October to 19 December 2026. The artist, born in Delhi in 1973 and based in Mumbai, uses drawing, photography, sculpture and video to examine political and social borders and the way they partition territory, communities and natural resources.
The exhibition takes water as its central theme, treating it as a boundary that can both divide and join. Through this lens, according to the gallery, the show considers how borders shape migration, movement and a sense of belonging. Kallat’s long-standing interest in displacement and disputed territory is informed in part by the lasting effects of the Partition of India, which her father’s side of the family lived through.
Three large-scale works anchor the presentation: ‘Woven Chronicle (Water Stress)’ (2026), ‘River Boundaries Break the Sound of Silence Between Them’ (2022) and ‘Earth Families’ (2026). They are shown with a selection of pieces from other strands of her practice, among them ‘Siamese Trees (Pine-iscus)’ (2018–2019), ‘Leaking Lines (Rhine River)’ (2019–2020) and ‘River Morphologies (Solimões River, Brazil)’ (2025).
Kallat will discuss the exhibition with Emily Butler at an in-conversation event at the gallery on the opening day, ahead of the evening reception.
‘Woven Chronicle’ is a series of wall drawings Kallat has developed since 2011, in which electrical cables woven into mesh and barbed-wire forms trace routes of migration and the ecological footprint of nation states. Earlier versions have been shown at MoMA in New York (2016/17), the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney (2018/19) and the ICA Boston (2019), and this year at the Venice Biennale in a collateral event presented by the Saudi Ministry of Culture.
The river works grow out of her enquiry into the control of shared waters, treating rivers as both common lifelines and sites of geopolitical tension. ‘Leaking Lines (Rhine River)’, made with gouache, charcoal, electric wires and steel nails on embossed, laser-cut paper, belongs to this group. In ‘Siamese Trees’, the national trees of countries in conflict fuse into the shape of a pair of lungs.
Recent solo exhibitions of Kallat’s work include shows at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai (2025), Kunstmuseum Thun in Switzerland (2023) and the National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet in Paris (2020), and her work is held in collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi.
