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From the Founder’s Desk
A scientist who makes films. A filmmaker who writes books. An artist who built a global gallery.
This is a space where boundaries don't exist — much like the man behind it. Here, our founder, Niladri Sarker, shares his unfiltered thoughts on art, science, cinema, humanity, and everything in between.
Recent Stories
My Journey Chasing the American Dream Abroad
Was it easy being a non-native American chasing the American Dream? Not exactly. I left my dream city, Kolkata, and its 40°C summers to pursue an alien dream in a country they say rewards the diligent — the land of the Big Apple. It felt like showing up to teach wearing mismatched shoes. You can still walk, of course, but you're convinced everyone notices. Fortunately, I loved teaching, I loved science, and I had grown rather fond of my mismatched shoes. Because when the -40°
Niladri
6 days ago2 min read
They say test the waters before diving in. But that’s how I started TERAVARNA.
I jumped straight into the deep end — no MFA, no formal training, just conviction and curiosity. In fact, for a long time, I assumed the art world was out of my reach, because of geography, connections, and pedigree. My background was in science — a world that rewarded certainty, logic, and reproducible results. Art, on the other hand, seemed to thrive on ambiguity, intuition, and the courage to be misunderstood. But watching brilliant artists get invisible simply because th
Niladri
7 days ago1 min read
These Art Terms Will Upgrade Your Art Vocabulary
If you're creating art in 2026, you should understand these terms. Generative AI: Think of it as an avant-garde pattern-matching machine. It learns from millions of images and predicts what should come next. You write a description in it and it generates pixels (not art) based on the patterns it's learned. It's just recombining everything it's ever known. Chiaroscuro: This one's been around for centuries. Chiaroscuro is the use of dramatic light and shadow to create depth,
Niladri
Sep 212 min read
My Journey Chasing the American Dream Abroad
Was it easy being a non-native American chasing the American Dream? Not exactly. I left my dream city, Kolkata, and its 40°C summers to pursue an alien dream in a country they say rewards the diligent — the land of the Big Apple. It felt like showing up to teach wearing mismatched shoes. You can still walk, of course, but you're convinced everyone notices. Fortunately, I loved teaching, I loved science, and I had grown rather fond of my mismatched shoes. Because when the -40°
Niladri
6 days ago2 min read
They say test the waters before diving in. But that’s how I started TERAVARNA.
I jumped straight into the deep end — no MFA, no formal training, just conviction and curiosity. In fact, for a long time, I assumed the art world was out of my reach, because of geography, connections, and pedigree. My background was in science — a world that rewarded certainty, logic, and reproducible results. Art, on the other hand, seemed to thrive on ambiguity, intuition, and the courage to be misunderstood. But watching brilliant artists get invisible simply because th
Niladri
7 days ago1 min read
These Art Terms Will Upgrade Your Art Vocabulary
If you're creating art in 2026, you should understand these terms. Generative AI: Think of it as an avant-garde pattern-matching machine. It learns from millions of images and predicts what should come next. You write a description in it and it generates pixels (not art) based on the patterns it's learned. It's just recombining everything it's ever known. Chiaroscuro: This one's been around for centuries. Chiaroscuro is the use of dramatic light and shadow to create depth,
Niladri
Sep 212 min read
The Art of Letting Go
Just when you’ve thought that you’ve mastered every aspect of being an artist, something new shows up in the process and surprises you again with being a beginner at it. It’s the Sisyphean task of always having to add new tools and tricks to your arsenal that every artist faces. Today, we’re talking about the art of letting go. The art of letting go manifests in many ways throughout an artistic career. Many artists spend days, weeks, or even years toiling after a piece, putti
Niladri
Sep 162 min read
Why Market Literacy Is Essential for Artists
Many artists can spend years mastering their craft, but very little time understanding the ecosystem around it. Yet artistic talent and market literacy are not the same skill: both can influence the trajectory of a career. Some artists view the market as something separate from their practice, believing that great work will inevitably be discovered. This is far from the truth. Opportunities are often created through visibility and relationships. Building yourself through exhi
Niladri
Sep 151 min read
Why Society Loves Art But Fears Artists
A collage of Caravaggio's Narcissus, Saint Jerome Writing, and Medusa. Because people LOVE artists when they’re DEAD! Art is welcomed when it decorates a home, hangs above a fireplace, becomes a status symbol, or sparks conversation at a dinner party. It is acceptable when it entertains. If we are feeling generous, it may even be accepted as a mirror — so long as the reflection is flattering. But the moment art demands something real? The moment it questions? Everything chan
Niladri
Sep 152 min read
They Loved the Art. So Why Didn’t They Buy?
Art Fair Moments Every Artist Knows This Feeling: Loving art and supporting artists are not the same thing. One of the most common questions after an art fair is: Did it sell? It’s easy to get caught up in the transactional flux that is art fairs. But artists often remember something else entirely: the people who stood in front of a work for ten minutes, shared a personal story, and then walked away without buying. At FOCUS, we were privy to a vast spectrum of interactions wi
Niladri
Sep 112 min read
A World Traveler’s Humbling Lesson About Nature
I've visited 129+ countries, and I've learned something humbling: nature doesn't need us. We need it. I've marveled at the vast wilderness of Masai Mara, gasped at the multiple shades of blue in the Maldives, and stood in awe of Iceland's glacier blocks — stunning creations that also mourned their own devastating destruction. I've tried to click a selfie with a penguin in Argentina, watched hummingbirds rest their tiny wings in Panama, and seen curious toucans, wide-eyed ruff
Niladri
Sep 101 min read
Thoughts on Using Humor in Art
The Experts (Les Experts) by Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps. Art has always been a mirror to society and humor has been its mischievous twin — the one nobody expects, the one that lands harder. From Marcel Duchamp’s irreverent readymades to Banksy’s satirical works, artists have used wit not merely to entertain, but also to question authority and expose uncomfortable truths. They know something we sometimes forget: laughter disarms. It invites us to see the world, and ourselves —
Niladri
Sep 92 min read
Impact of AI on Social Media
AI has inundated our lives in such a way that you’ll see a post by an AI bot on X followed by mindless yes-men comments lining the replies that also all turn out to be AI bots. Is it time to move on permanently from social media, then? Melting pot that it is, AI has now joined the cacophony of bickering voices online and has taken center stage. Our own posts and comments get filtered down to promote AI content – writing, art, think pieces, and snarky comments – all written
Niladri
Jun 301 min read
Takeaways from FOCUS Art Fair 2026
After several days at FOCUS NYC 2026, one thing became clear – we were going to need a bigger food spread for our appetites. Thankfully, the bar in the back was well stocked with snacks and refreshments. Now that the whirlwind of FOCUS NYC is over, we can take a moment to reflect. Every physical exhibition and fair we attend, we come away with new things that we’ve learned. One thing that we saw this time around was the return of the human connection. People still deeply val
Niladri
Jun 252 min read
These Three Careers Are Secretly The Same Job.
WRITING CHILDREN'S BOOKS, SPECULATIVE FICTION, AND RUNNING AN ART GALLERY ARE THE SAME JOB. HERE'S WHY. At first glance, these three worlds seem far apart. Consider a children’s book that can travel to meet some of Earth’s strangest and most vulnerable creatures — the Northern Bald Ibis of Morocco, the giant wetapunga of New Zealand, the solenodon of Cuba. The questions a child asks could explore conservation, evolution, extinction, and the fragile wonder of life. Speculative
Niladri
Jun 182 min read
Should Art Comfort Or Confront?
Does art exist to decorate culture? Or disturb it? Banksy’s recent sculpture is of a flag-blinded figure walking off a ledge. In the current political landscape, this has incredible depth and symbolism, touching on subjects like nationalism, ideological blindness, and political obedience. As always with Banksy’s work, the piece utilizes simple but striking imagery to make its point and create immediate discomfort. Agitational art forces viewers to confront uncomfortable reali
Niladri
Jun 171 min read
My Honest Take On Working With Gen Z.
To be honest, I have the utmost respect for Gen Z, even though I do not always fully understand every aspect of their thinking or worldview. However, in many ways, I have confidence that they will be far better custodians of our planet than my generation ever managed to be. They seem to outcompete earlier generations in many important areas: they are more inclusive, more open-minded, more technologically fluent, more environmentally conscious, and deeply aware of social chang
Niladri
Jun 161 min read
Can Art Represent Our Feelings?
Face-to-face with a Rothko painting, most people can’t help but have an emotional reaction. I was in a similar boat many years ago when confronted by one of these massive, larger-than-life color fields. It’s an overwhelming emotion, one that starts at your fingers and works its way up to behind your eyes. It’s hard to put a finger on it, at least for me. It felt like an emotion in a similar vein as those extreme shades, revelation, or desperation, or teetering on the brink of
Niladri
Jun 152 min read
To My Mother, Beyond Time and Memory.
The first woman I ever knew in my life was my mother. She also happened to be the woman with whom I had my first love affair, and the first woman with whom I spent an entire night. At twenty-two, I published my first collection of Bengali poems. While the book has since vanished into the dredges of time, I remember the word “Mother” anchoring its title — a quiet portent of a lifelong devotion. And I still envision the moment my PhD acceptance arrived; the memory is not of the
Niladri
Jun 152 min read
Nobody Told Me Fes Would Teach Me This.
Sleep-deprived, carsick, and tired to my bones—yet somehow, completely alive. That’s how I arrived in Fes after a long, exhausting drive from Marrakech via Casablanca, during my solo trip to Morocco in 2018. Fes felt less like a city and more like a place that had slipped out of medieval times. Its medina was a spider’s web of alleys where getting lost required no special talent. Every turn seemed to open into another mystery: stark walls, silhouetted figures, rooftops overlo
Niladri
Jun 121 min read
The Unexpected Relationship Between War And Art.
Picture this: You’re scrolling through your curated feed on your social media of choice. Posts pop up as you thumb through them: Advertisement about losing weight quickly. Videos of disproportionate human suffering. Post from that one friend who just got married and can’t stop talking about it. A woman — talking about how her child is starving. Advertisement about sleeping less but being more effective. Children in body bags. Advertisement. Human suffering. So on and so forth
Niladri
Jun 102 min read
Lessons from NASA I couldn’t ignore.
Back in the early 2000s, I collaborated with NASA/JPL in analyzing the chemical components of Saturn’s moon, Titan. It was an exciting and uncertain time. I was more naïve than ever, bolder, and even perhaps more romantic. But what I learned then — rigor, documentation, accountability, integrity, and above all — truthfulness, lived in me when I built TERAVARNA. Assumptions are a dime a dozen in science, and more so in space research. Here, facts are few and far between, and s
Niladri
Jun 102 min read
The one habit that changed everything in my art.
No one talks about this enough. The one habit that changed everything in my art was studying art history intentionally. This was something that started in childhood: being taught the difference between de Kooning and Kline, the period of Picasso’s life through paintings, and seeing how Dadaism shaped the Surrealist movement. I had a very enriching experience with art during my childhood, and my interest in art history only deepened with the years. Later, delving into Baroqu
Niladri
Jun 22 min read
Incomplete knowledge is extremely dangerous
Half knowledge can do full damage. Thanks to the internet and AI, everyone seems well-informed on everything. Who needs a doctor, right, when you can Google your symptoms and let the algorithm decide your medication? Wrong. While it is far easier in the digital age to find information, it is harder to be genuinely knowledgeable. Search engines can help you identify symptoms, but tailoring medication to your specific needs requires a human medical professional — at least fo
Niladri
Jun 22 min read
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