Graffiti News

A first solo exhibition spans Mumbai and Kochi

GuessWho’s first solo exhibition brings recreations of street works to Muziris Contemporary’s two galleries in Mumbai and Kochi, India. According to The New Indian Express on 19 September 2026, the presentation comprises 25 works, including 12 at the gallery in Mattancherry, Kochi. The anonymous artist’s images, associated with the city’s public walls, are being encountered in an indoor exhibition setting.

The distinction between a recreation and an original street location matters here. The newspaper describes selected works being recreated for the gallery; it does not report that sections of painted walls have been removed. For someone who remembers an image from a walk through Kochi, the exhibition offers another encounter with that composition. For someone unfamiliar with the street works, it supplies a first point of access.

Familiar figures acquire unexpected local roles

GuessWho combines references from Kerala’s popular culture with internationally recognisable figures. The newspaper traces attention to the anonymous artist’s work on Kochi’s public walls to 2012. Its account describes often monochrome images using humour to confront social hypocrisy, with familiar faces placed in roles that interrupt an easy reading.

Among the examples are the Mona Lisa wearing gold jewellery associated with an Indian bride, and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels appearing as ascetics. Che Guevara becomes a worker carrying a load on his head. Vikraman and Muthu, characters from the comic Mayavi, appear as an armed pair recalling Vincent and Jules from the film Pulp Fiction. Actor Prem Nazir is reimagined through a suit, a pistol and references to 007.

These combinations offer a practical way to look at the work: identify the figure, then consider what the altered clothing, occupation or setting changes. Recognition is the beginning of the encounter. The newspaper’s examples explain the artist’s visual approach, but they should not be read as a confirmed checklist of the 12 works in Mattancherry.

The artist treats the gallery as a continuation

GuessWho presents the exhibition as a further life for images first encountered on the street. Speaking anonymously to The New Indian Express, the artist described making work for people who did not visit galleries, while finding that gallery audiences had previously given street art little serious attention. The artist now sees possibilities for those audiences to overlap.

That position gives the move indoors a specific purpose. In the artist’s account, reclaiming public space does not require every work to remain on the street indefinitely. A gallery presentation can extend the practice and the memories attached to the images. GuessWho also expressed hope that the exhibition would encourage people to enter institutions they might otherwise find unfamiliar or distant.

For followers of public art, this makes the viewing conditions part of the story. On a street, an image can interrupt an ordinary journey. In a gallery, visitors arrive intending to look at art. Comparing those encounters can bring attention both to the composition and to the role its surroundings played. The exhibition offers room for that comparison without establishing that the gallery experience replaces the street encounter.

Mattancherry is the reported Kochi viewing point

Muziris Contemporary’s Mattancherry gallery is the Kochi venue identified in the report. The newspaper also names Mumbai as the other exhibition city, but does not provide a street address, opening hours, admission information or exhibition opening and closing dates. Visitors should confirm the exhibition period and access arrangements directly with the gallery before making a journey.

GuessWho said the street remained the preferred place to work and expressed an intention to paint there again. The artist also said there were no plans for further exhibitions in the near future. Those statements describe intentions at the time of the report; they do not announce a new mural location or a dated programme of future work. The artist’s hometown, background and personal identity remain undisclosed.

A visit can therefore centre on the works and the changes in how they are encountered. Anyone also looking for outdoor art should treat the gallery presentation and surviving street locations as separate things to verify. A recreated image indoors is not evidence that its earlier version remains visible on a public wall. Explore public art nearby with the Wallscape map.

Source: The New Indian Express