Chatterjee & Lal is definitely one of most atmospheric galleries in Bombay. Arched brick doorways flank the display room and industrial pillars run down the middle of its length. More importantly, the gallery hosts a select number of interesting exhibitions and events, which are wide-ranging in theme and content. If Nityan Unnikrishnan’s “Many Monsters”, the first show this year, is anything to go by, we have a lot to look forward to at Chatterjee & Lal.

Unnikrishnan’s debut solo show, "Many Monsters" comprises a series of fantastical mixed media works that have a touch of Edward Gory’s bizarre macabre, Jean-Jacques Sempé’s delicacy of touch and MC Escher’s intricate pencil constructions. The artist was a student of ceramic design at the National Institute of Design and moved to New Delhi to pursue a range of interests including pottery, crafts and illustration. The last is clearly Unnikrishnan’s strength; the works – which at first glance could be out of a children’s book – display an elegant sense of stroke and pastel colour. The “monsters” of the title feature in myriad shapes and forms through the series, often appearing as almost human figures with gigantic, misshapen heads and limbs.

The central theme seems to be the relationship between these entities and their exteriors – whether rooms, cityscapes or the countryside. "Man in the Blue Room" is a particularly poignant piece; it shows a figure sitting on a chair grossly swollen with an interior landscape of people, things and places. A pointed comment on how rich, and sometimes congested, our inner, private lives can be. Also striking is "Waterfront", where two people’s heads literally have doors in them leading into other worlds.

The works, while dreamy and whimsical, also carry darker, disquieting undertones. Unnikrishnan sketches in flying creatures that only vaguely resemble birds, the world in “Blimp 1” and “Blimp 2” are engorged and fit to burst, the monsters in “Clubhouse 2” lounge in a pool and feast on food close to a shipping yard filled with dead whales, while the child in “Will You Go Out and Play Please?” is cloistered and looking desperately out of the window of their small flat. Cinematically inspired by film noir, there is also something nightmarish and disjointed in some of Unnikrishnan’s sketches, highlighted by disturbing perspectives and lines – “I Need to Get the Mango Tree Trimmed”, for example, shows an old man sitting in a shadowy, intricately sketched room that looks threateningly like it’s about to topple on him.

While the subject matter – an exploration of the exterior experiences carried within the mind – may not be original, what makes this a show worth seeing is Unnikrishnan’s skill at his craft. With their intricate detail and unusual subjects, the sketches are bizarrely, crazily beautiful.