In his first solo show in three years, Jitish Kallat wrestles with grand themes of life and death. Stations of a Pause comprises mixed media paintings, video and photography, and displays the artist’s preoccupation with the urban experience, the cycle of life, and the idea of real and metaphorical sustenance.

The most striking, and simple, of his works at the show is titled “Epilogue”, an expansive installation that stretches over a few walls and comprises 750 mounted photographs of a waxing and waning chapati “moon”. It traces his father’s life through all the moons he saw from the day he was born on April 2nd, 1936 to the day of his death on December 2nd, 1998. The photographs measure his father’s lifespan with approximately 22,000 moons; the chapati that replaces the celestial body resonates with notions of the alternating phases of fulfilment and emptiness that a person feels at various times. It is a moving tribute to his dad, and a striking, poignant reminder of the ephemerality of life.

Kallat’s mixed media paintings, on the other hand, are a bursting celebration of life – especially in the streets of his hometown Mumbai. His common folk, painted in bold, brash strokes, lounge on the canvas in casual poses, yet the informal edge is lowered by the presence of subtle, understated violence. One of the untitled paintings has a row of brass sculpture shaped similar to brains extending over the figures’ heads. Almost all the works have zippers across them – fragmenting the images, rendering them into misshapen patchwork pieces. This serves to highlight the often disassociated lives that people in cities lead, where they share the same spaces yet still remain unconnected to each other.

Also striking is “Aspect Ratio”, a seven-part lenticular photo piece which flickers with the seven colours of the rainbow and scenes from a bustling Mumbai street. It’s an engaging work wherein the image changes while the viewer moves towards or away from it.

For an altogether more comprehensive retrospective look at Kallat's work over the last few years, head to another venue in town - the fantastic BDL Museum is hosting "Tomorrow was Here Yesterday" (until October 2011), a show that comprises a large number of Kallat's video, sculptural and photographic works. Don't miss the miniature figure installation "Anger at the Speed of Fright" that showed last year at London's Haunch of Venison.