Glacial Mothers: The Numinous Realms of Annapurna and Nanda Devi

Art | 📅7-14 June 2026, ⏰11am to 7pm | 📍India International Centre, Lodhi Estate | 🎟️Free Entry

Date and Time: 7-14 June 2026, 11am to 7pm - Exhibition on view

The exhibition will be inaugurated on Saturday, 6 June 2026 at 6pm

 

Entry: Free
Note: Call 011-24619431 (IIC) to re-confirm any last-minute change or cancellation of the event.

Venue: Art Gallery, Annexe Building, India International Centre (IIC), 40 Max Mueller Marg, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi-110003, India
Landmark: Annexe Building is Next to Alliance Francaise
Venue Info: Events | About | Annexe Map | Nearest Metro Stations - 'Khan Market(Vilolet Line)' & 'Jor Bagh(Yellow Line)'
Area: Lodhi Road Area Events

Event Description: Glacial Mothers: The Numinous Realms of Annapurna and Nanda Devi, An exhibition of mountain photography by Vaibhav Kaul

This exhibition of 108 photographic works explores the sacred and cultural imagination surrounding the Himalayan massifs of Annapurna and Nanda Devi. Through his visual art, Dr Vaibhav Kaul reflects on glaciers, geomorphic forms, legends, divinity, and traditional knowledge systems that shape Himalayan communities’ relationship with the landscape.

About the Exhibition

Within innumerable Himalayan communities’ collective imaginations, the presences,

personalities, powers, purposes, and philosophies associated with supernatural entities find

expression in the physicality of landforms. Many a geomorphic feature is sacred in that it is

believed to house or embody a deity or sprite that might be anthropomorphic or

theriomorphic, masculine or feminine, fierce or benevolent, devastating or nurturing. Such

living geocultural heritage is most prominently represented by glacier-sculpted, glacierstudded

mountain massifs that are home to age-old place names, geographical legends, and

traditional environmental knowledge–belief systems. In this exhibition of 108 photographic

prints, Vaibhav Kaul presents his enduring meditations on what he regards as the shared

motherly essence of two such Himalayan massifs—the celebrated feminine divinities

Annapurna (8,091 metres, Annapurna Himal, Nepal) and Nanda Devi (7,817 metres,

Garhwal-Kumaon Himalaya, India).

About the Artist

Vaibhav Kaul is a mountain geographer, a scholar of climate change and disaster risk, a curator of high-altitude expeditions and outdoor learning programmes, a romantic realist visual artist, a traditional vocalist and poet, a cultural archivist, and an observer of contemplative and mystical practices. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society, and holds a PhD in Geography (Hydroclimatology, Mountain/Glacial Geomorphology, and Social/Cultural Geography) from the University of Sheffield. He read Geography at the University of Delhi, and Environmental Change and Management at the University of Oxford. He is fortunate enough to have taken about 90,000 photographs while walking more than 9,000 miles at altitudes of 2,000–20,000 feet in the Himalaya. His mountain-themed films and photographic works have been exhibited in 24 countries.

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