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What connects Atul’s recent years in England is not a consistent visual style. It’s a consistent refusal to look away. From dismantling perceptual certainty in Tangled Reality, to channelling grief into public performance, to asking whether the artist and the witness can ever truly be the same person, to standing before a tree and chasing the feeling it produces: each body of work is a different answer to the same restless question.
What does it mean to be present to the world, to the self, to the moment something becomes unbearable or unbearably beautiful?
Atul Bhunkar is still finding out. And the work is all the better for it.
In February 2025, Atul presented his first UK solo exhibition, Tangled Reality of My What, at Stroud Valley Art Space.
The exhibition explored the instability of perception and questioned the assumption that sensory experience equals truth.
During the exhibition, Atul learned that a devotee friend connected to ISKCON had been killed during communal violence in Bangladesh.
The following day, he created one of his most emotionally charged performances.
Covering a road crossing with newspapers, he repeatedly walked across them carrying a paintbrush soaked in red paint like a sword. After thirteen rounds, the newspapers were stained red.
The symbolism was stark:
The work addressed power, ideology, violence, and the fragility of human reality. At the same time, it functioned as a personal act of mourning.
Later in 2025, Atul presented This Me to That Me, another solo exhibition at Stroud Valley Art Space.
The exhibition examined transformation within the self.
Its central question was deeply personal:
Can the artist who creates and the artist who observes coexist within the same person?
The exhibition traced the evolution of Atul’s practice while exploring the tensions between making, witnessing, identity, and change.
In January 2026, Atul was selected as one of nine artists for a year-long residency at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum in Cheltenham.
His current focus revolves around two interconnected themes:
Trees and Ecstasy.
Building upon the inverted-tree symbolism developed during his master’s studies, Atul is investigating why certain natural phenomena produce powerful emotional and spiritual experiences.
“When I see the trees, something happens. I want to bring that feeling into the painting.”
His process is increasingly intuitive. Many works begin with a single dot, allowing the composition to emerge organically rather than through predetermined planning.
Working across painting, drawing, installation, and unconventional materials, he continues searching for a visual language that feels uniquely his own.
He rarely shares works in progress.
