Dia Mehhta Bhupal creates expansive, meticulously crafted environments that reframe the familiar. Constructing life-size sets of transitional public spaces — cinemas, waiting rooms, supermarkets, bathrooms — she uses hand-rolled magazine paper to build each setting, often taking months to complete a single work. She is interested in presenting to us what we already know to be real, albeit with a particular tension: spaces that we know to be brimming with bodies, here, are left entirely empty.

What does it mean, thus, to be presented with a topography of absence? Mehhta Bhupal extends the narrative further with the delivery of hyper-real images as large, and almost iridescent, diasec prints. It is a layering up of personal experiences into a single frame, she says, but it also the layering up of several different creative mechanisms that dialogue and converse throughout the stages of the practice. These are images of a deliberate and careful construction, sharply infused with a sense of criticality, and narrative potential.

Mehhta’s recent solo exhibitions include SHELF LIFE, GALLERYSKE, New Delhi (2023); In the spaces of hope light grows, Art Intouch, online exhibition (2020); Watch This Space, Pundoles, Mumbai (2019); and MIND THE GAP, GALLERYSKE, New Delhi (2016).

Her recent group exhibitions include Fragments of the Future, curated by Shalini Passi, Ajio Luxe Wkend (2025); The Inaugural Show, Gallery DTALE ARCHIST, Bangalore (2024); Imagined Documents, curated by Ravi Agarwal, Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa (2019); Reclaiming the House, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore (2019); The World is One Family, Enami Art Collection, Vasudhavia Kutumbakam, Kolkata (2019); Visions from India, Pizzuti Collection, Columbus (2017); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, curated by Sudarshan Shetty, Fort Kochi (2016); These are a few of my favourite works, PHOTOINK and GALLERYSKE, New Delhi (2016); For an Image Faster than Light, Yinchuan Biennale, curated by Bose Krishnamachari, Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan (2016); Her Work is Never Done, Gallery BMB, Mumbai (2010); SPANDAN 4, Articulate Art Gallery, Mumbai (2009); The Miniature Format Show, Sans Tache Art Gallery, Mumbai (2008); and Spy, The Museum Gallery, Mumbai (2007).

Dia Mehhta Bhupal completed her foundation studies at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, and earned her BFA in Photography from The Parsons School of Design, New York, in 2006.

The artist lives and works between Hyderabad and Mumbai.