Red Rocks, Rivers and Monkeys, curated by Yasufumi Nakamori, opens 5 August 2026 at Hampi Art Labs, marking the first collaboration between the Labs and Singapore’s The Institutum
Hampi Art Labs presents Red Rocks, Rivers and Monkeys, an exhibition of new photography and video by Atul Bhalla (b. 1964, India) and Robert Zhao Renhui (b. 1983, Singapore), curated by Yasufumi Nakamori. Marking its second edition, the exhibition presents an expanded body of work developed by both artists during their residency at Hampi Art Labs. It opens on 5 August 2026 and runs until 4 November 2026.
Internationally recognised for their lens-based practices, Bhalla and Zhao explore the complex relationships between people, nature, and the layered histories that shape our environments. The exhibition is the outcome of a unique residency that brought the two artists together in the same place, at the same time, inviting a shared engagement with Hampi’s remarkable landscape.
In 2025, as part of the inaugural collaboration between Hampi Art Labs and The Institutum, a Singapore-based non-profit institution, Bhalla and Zhao spent two months in and around Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as artists-in-residence at Hampi Art Labs in Vidyanagar Township. Spanning both the summer and monsoon seasons, the residency allowed them to experience the region through two dramatically different environmental conditions.
Travelling together by road and on foot, the artists explored the Tungabhadra Basin, from Vidyanagar Township to Hampi, visiting sites including the Tungabhadra Dam and Kamalapur Lake. Working amidst red granite boulders, lush hills, sacred monuments, waterways, and thriving wildlife – including monkeys, bears, and birds – they developed distinct yet complementary responses to the region’s ecology, history, and mythology.
The collaboration debuted in Singapore with an inaugural presentation that introduced the residency and its evolving artistic dialogue to international audiences. Returning to Hampi, this second iteration presents a significantly expanded body of work, bringing the project back to the landscape that inspired it while celebrating the region’s rich visual culture, layered histories, and unique ecology.
Exhibition curator Yasufumi Nakamori said, “Atul and Robert both work slowly, and both look at what a landscape is doing rather than what it looks like. I expected two parallel projects. What emerged instead was a conversation about time in the Tungabhadra Basin, one measured in geology, the other in a single afternoon.”
The exhibition brings together archival pigment prints, archival prints mounted on Dibond, and three immersive video installations. Highlights include the photographic series What the Narihalla Hides (Subsumed Landscape-III), Five Hills for Hanuman, Evidence I and II, Lapwing’s Nest on Rocks, and A Frog on the Top of the Hill, alongside the video installations The Weight of Red, Rock Bros, and Waterbowl.
Yasufumi Nakamori (born 1964, Osaka; lives and works in New York City) curates exhibitions of and writes about global modern and contemporary art and visual culture, focusing on how artists mediate the space of politics and of built and institutional environments. He was Senior Curator of International Art at Tate, London (2018–2023), and most recently served as Director of the Asia Society Museum in New York City.
His exhibitions and publications include Katsura: Picturing Modernism in Japanese Architecture, Photographs by Ishimoto Yasuhiro (2010, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston); For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography 1968–1979 (2015, MFA Houston); Amar Kanwar: Such a Morning (2018, Minneapolis Institute of Art); Zanele Muholi (2021, Tate Modern); The 80s: Photographing Britain (2024, Tate Britain); and Martin Wong: Chinatown USA (2026, Wrightwood 659, Chicago).
He received the 2011 Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Award for Smaller Museums, Libraries, Collections, and Exhibitions from the College Art Association, and the 2026 Best Museum Catalogue award from the Historians of British Art. Nakamori holds a BA in political science from Waseda University, a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and a PhD in art history from Cornell University.
Commenting on his fascination with Hampi’s distinctive geological landscape, artist Atul Bhalla said, “Material, mythologies, locational histories, time and geology conjure landscapes that fascinate and push the limits of imagination and yet remind us of our role in a planetary existence.”
Reflecting on his time at Hampi and its interconnected ecosystems, artist Robert Zhao Renhui said, “In Hampi, stone, water, ritual, work, and animal life are not separate worlds. They give shape to one another through use, return, and repetition.”
Sangita Jindal, Chairperson, JSW Foundation, said, “Hampi has always inspired me with its extraordinary ability to bring together nature, history, mythology, and everyday life in one timeless landscape. It is deeply rewarding to support an exhibition that reflects this spirit so thoughtfully, and to see artists engage with Hampi not simply as a place to document, but as a living ecosystem of stories, memories, and quiet discoveries.”
Presented as an immersive dialogue between still and moving images, Red Rocks, Rivers and Monkeys invites audiences to experience Hampi through interconnected perspectives on ecology, history, wildlife, and the passage of time.
FACT SHEET
Venue: Hampi Art Labs, opposite JSW, Vidyanagar Township, Gate, Vaddu, Karnataka 583123, India
Public dates: 5 August to 4 November 2026
Opening: Wednesday, 5 August 2026, 5.00 pm to 7.30 pm
Gallery hours: Monday to Saturday, 11.00 am to 5.00 pm; closed: Sundays
Entry: Free, open for public
Exhibition design: Reha Sodhi and Rajat Sodhi
Graphic design: Tanya Shah
Atul Bhalla (born 1964, New Delhi; lives and works in New Delhi) is a conceptual artist whose practice addresses environmental urgencies and the human relationship with natural and built environments. Working across photography, installation, sculpture, video, painting, and performance, he draws attention to overlooked aspects of urban life, particularly waterways and ecological systems in New Delhi and in the places he encounters through exhibitions and residencies.
He has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions internationally and has participated in major exhibitions and fellowships, including the Rockefeller Bellagio Residency (2025), The Mittal Climate Initiative visiting artist at Harvard University (2023), Mellon Artist Research Africa Fellow at the University of Witwatersrand (2018), Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (2009), and FotoFest Houston (2016, 2018, 2026). In 2022–24 he collaborated with KHOJ Studios, New Delhi, on 28th Parallel North—An Expeditionary Weather Station, a research project on climate change along 28 degrees North latitude within India, from the Nepal border to Pakistan.
Bhalla holds a BFA from Delhi University and an MFA from Northern Illinois University. He is Professor of Art in the Department of Art, Media and Performance at Shiv Nadar University, Delhi NCR.
Robert Zhao Renhui (born 1983, Singapore; lives and works in Singapore) works across photography, installation, and video, addressing environment and ecology, man’s relationship with nature, and related questions of morality and ethics, with close attention to how our interventions shape assumptions about the natural world. In 2008, he established the Institute of Critical Zoologists, which sets out to develop a critical approach to the zoological gaze, or how humans view animals.
He has held solo exhibitions in Singapore, China, Japan, Australia, Italy, the UK, and the USA, and has taken part in biennales, photography festivals, and thematic exhibitions worldwide. He represented Singapore in the national pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024. Recent exhibitions include the Aichi Triennale (2025); the 14th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2023); the First Beijing Biennale (2022); the Forest Institute, Singapore (2022); Busan Biennale (2022); Singapore Biennale (2019); Lines We Draw, Yalu River Art Museum, Dandong, China (2019); the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Australia (2018); Taipei Biennial (2018); JIWA: Jakarta Biennale (2017); and the 20th Biennale of Sydney (2016).
