We are excited to announce the opening of Roots and Boots by Nirmal Singh Dhunsi and Dev Dhunsi at MELK on November 19th.
We hope to see you at Elisenbergveien 7 from 18.00–20.00 for the opening.
ਹਰ ਬੋਲੀ ਸਿੱਖੋ ਸਿੱਖਣੀ ਵੀ ਚਾਹੀਦੀ,
ਪਰ ਪੱਕੀ ਵੇਖ ਕੇ ਕੱਚੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਢਾਹੀਦੀ।
There is an old Punjabi adage that roughly translates: learn every language, as is your responsibility, but do not tear down your earthen home after seeing one made of bricks. The metaphor of ਕੱਚਾ ਘਰ, a home built of unfired clay, mud and reeds, is apt for the vernacular architecture of Punjab, which persisted until the mid-20th century. Its disappearance is explained as part of the modernising efforts of a newly postcolonial India.
Roots and Boots brings together a father and a son who have each learned other languages and come to inhabit other architectures: Nirmal Singh Dhunsi, who left Punjab for Trondheim in 1984, and his son Dev Dhunsi born in Trondheim in 1996. The exhibition is about inheritance, and about the entanglement of language and space, both inhabited and made precarious by the journey.
In Nirmal’s Home series (2026), gouache paintings depict a home, which contains migrating televisions, toilets, carpets, dogs, mules and turbaned bodies, tracing his recent move from Trondheim to Frosta. It is unclear whether we are witness to scenes of an arrival or a departure.
Dev’s work for this exhibition began with photographing his father in the studio and among the ruins of Tautra Kloster, images that informed several of Nirmal’s paintings. Where Nirmal writes, Dev translates: in the Fragment series (2026), negatives scanned through colour filters are divided across frames that echo the contours of Nirmal’s homes.
Between both stands Balbir Kaur, Nirmal’s mother and Dev’s grandmother. Her handwoven rugs, like earthen homes, formed the vernacular architecture of Punjab. They travelled with Nirmal to Trondheim, cradled him on the rocks at Tautra, and returned in Dev’s jacquard weave and continued experimentation with textiles.
Together, father and son are not singular artists but are held in relation by the thread Balbir Kaur first set in pattern. In keeping with the adage, Roots and Boots proposes that we can learn every language without tearing down our own, and that culture endures not by being preserved but by being carried along.
– Text by Noor Bhangu
Nirmal Singh Dhunsi (b. 1960, India) studied at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art from 1987 to 1991, followed by a year of further studies in India (1991–1992). He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at Tegnerforbundet (the Norwegian Drawing Center), Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art, Kunstnerforbundet, Galleri LNM (the Norwegian Association of Painters), Galleri Dropsfabrikken in Trondheim, and Trondheim Art Museum. Dhunsi has also completed numerous public art commissions. His works have been acquired by several major public collections, including the National Museum of Norway, Trondheim Art Museum, Arts Council Norway, Bærum Municipality’s Art Collection, and the City of Trondheim. In 2022, he was awarded the Håkon Bleken Foundation Prize.
Dev Dhunsi (b. 1996) is a Norwegian–Indian artist living and working between Oslo and Punjab. He holds an MFA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm (2024) and a BFA from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Recent solo exhibitions include Unmistakably You at Nitja Centre for Contemporary Art, Lillestrøm (2026), presented in conjunction with the release of his publication Mixed (SPBH Editions / Mack Books); as well as Encircling Stories at the Centre for Photography, Stockholm (2024), following its initial presentation at MELK, Oslo. His work has also been shown at Paris Photo (2026) and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb during Organ Vida 13th Festival and FUTURES Photography. Dhunsi is a recipient of the Nordic Photobook Award 2024 and was selected as Ones to watch by British Journal of Photography in 2026.
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